I am not sure I am fond of wildlife anymore!!!

[Avonnow]

Well what a wonderful week!! First I find all my beans are being pecked to death by birds, actually I think it is one Crazy Cardinal - I always catch him - yes him in the middle of the beans. I never thought one bird could do so much damage. Then I came out the next morning to find every frickin pea pod broke open and eaten, and all the new peas I planted were dug up and gone - yes just gone. I though is this the bird? I had started putting crop covers over everything so the birds could not get to them, but of course these were buried in the ground. I planted again and the next day they were all gone again. Well it was RATS, we have seen them before at springtime in the Big bird of paradise planted out back, I set traps and caught two - I wish I could say I felt bad, but I didn't then last night more came. So I pinned the row cover close to the ground over the newly planted peas and hopefully that will keep them out. If is isn't the bugs it is animals - I am so disappointed. These kind of weeks get me so discouraged, weeks of work gone in no time. I had to vent to people who would understand. Thanks for listening!

[gumbo2176]

Sherry, I feel your pain and frustration. I am now battling birds over my strawberries and will need to get some type cover for them. I really don't mind feeding nature once in a while but birds pick holes in all the fruit and only eat enough of any one to totally ruin it.

In late June/early July when my figs come in, I'm at odds with nature with coons getting in the tree and devouring most of the ones that are even near ripe.


Now, rats are a totally different thing. I'll trap them as much as I can and won't feel any remorse in doing so.

[Francis Barnswallow]

I feel your pain. Something's digging up young plants in my garden that I started from seed. I tried putting fake animals/blood meal near the garden to deter whatever is doing the damage, it's not working. I'm about 2 seconds from placing a little cup of rat poison in the garden.

I've also noticed dug out holes underneath my deck that are around 1.5 ft wide and about 5 inches deep. I nailed a piece of plywood to block the entrance to the holes, hopefully that'll help.

[gumbo2176]

I feel your pain. Something's digging up young plants in my garden that I started from seed. I tried putting fake animals/blood meal near the garden to deter whatever is doing the damage, it's not working. I'm about 2 seconds from placing a little cup of rat poison in the garden.

Think twice about the poison thing unless you are sure it will take care of what it is intended to take care of. I'd hate to poison someones pet while trying to kill a few rats. You also don't want to chance the problem animal crawling inside your house in the attic or in a wall and die. That stench will last for a couple weeks and will not be nice to live with.

If you are sure it's a rat, set out a couple spring traps in places that only a rodent can get to----and they can get just about anywhere.

[Francis Barnswallow]

You also don't want to chance the problem animal crawling inside your house in the attic or in a wall and die. That stench will last for a couple weeks and will not be nice to live with.

That happened last year. We had a rat problem in the attic. We put out rat poison near the chewed out holes in the screen. 4 days later I had to go in and retrieve the dead rats in the attic......during the summer. Not fun, but it took care of the problem.

[gumbo2176]

That happened last year. We had a rat problem in the attic. We put out rat poison near the chewed out holes in the screen. 4 days later I had to go in and retrieve the dead rats in the attic......during the summer. Not fun, but it took care of the problem.

I didn't put out poison but had a rat die between the floors of my 2 story house last year. I could pinpoint the area that the beast died in but not the exact location. I refused to tear out the downstairs ceiling since that whole area is a wide open "Man Cave" and that particular part of the ceiling runs 40+ feet in one direction and over 24 ft. in the other direction. It would have required a new paint job along with the sheetrock repair. The other option was to tear out the upstairs hardwood flooring-----not an option. The third was to live with it till it went away and burn lots of candles and incense along the way. It took almost 2 weeks for that stench to go away.

Lucky for you they died in the attic and were easily found. If they get between walls, they are much harder to find and a bit of work to remove and make repairs.

[Avonnow]

In florida we have mostly fruit rats, they are attracted obviously to fruits and veggies and bird seed, I looked from my office last summer to the bird feeder and I was amazed at all the birds on it, then I put the specks on there were at least 9 small rats on the feeder - of course my daughter is like "there are so cute" because when they are babies they look more like a mouse. Killing them was so hard, we had to sneak out the traps late at night and get up early to retrieve them. We don't use poison because of my small dog. Also the bigger they are - some just ran off with the trap on them to die somewhere. We lost two traps, never to be found. We then had to anchor the traps. We even had something bigger (god only knows) eat one off a trap and take it somewhere - yes I could tell by the trail. What a pain and I can see they are going to return as long as they know there is something to eat.
They dig up seeds (like my peas) and eat peppers. They took a bite out of every hot pepper I had, guess they figured the next one would be better -rendering them garbage. I hate to say it but I took down the bird feeder for now, to keep both birds and rats away. I enjoyed it but it is too much work and your window of opportunity with a garden is so small.

[Kisal]

The Fruit rat is Rattus rattus, and more commonly known as the Roof rat. They're extremely difficult to control, because they only rarely travel along the ground. More often, they travel along wires, fences and trees. They commonly invade attics.

Snakes are one of the best controls for this particular rat. Ratter dogs are good, but they can't get at the rats unless the rats come down to the ground. Cats can handle the baby rats, but aren't powerful enough to overcome an adult.

The adults aren't "little", by any means, measuring 10 to 14 inches long and weighing an average of half a pound. In warmer areas, such as Florida, they breed year-round, so any control measures must be continued all year.

https://icwdm.org/handbook/rodents/RoofRats.asp

https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74106.html

https://www.maricopa.gov/EnvSvc/VectorControl/RR/RRPrevention.aspx

[tedly]

Is there anyone who offers a service of selling native snakes for pest control? There are tons of breeders for kingsnakes, cornsnakes, and others, but I've only found people who breed and sell them as pets. Kingsnakes would be especially useful because the are immune to snake venoms and will eat other snakes (like copperheads and rattlers) as well as rodents.

[Avonnow]

Yes as posted they are big and hairy - caught another last night, it was huge and ugly. The babies though are so small they can eat the food right off the trap and not trip it. They do crawl along fences, we have a concrete wall around our neighborhood - which runs my back yard and we see they go from yard to yard that way - I am surprise the neighbors cat doesn't catch more - she hangs out in my front yard sometimes. They have large litters as well. Last year when the one was killed, something ate it from the trap we think it was a snake that took it after it snapped you could see the marks on the ground - Hope that snake comes back - I know we have harmless black snakes - I have seen them in the yard, just not enough to keep the rats down. Last year the litter we dealt with was in June, so I am in for a long year. The bug man said you can get as many as 30 - 40 in one area if not addressed early on - Oh Yippee. Well we will try again tonight.

[rainbowgardener]

I doubt I would love the wildlife, if that were the wildlife problem I was having! We feed 4 stray cats outdoors (we also get them all spayed and neutered!) so we don't have much problem with mice or rats.

[alaskagold]

Hey Gumbo, you may want to have a exterminator come and try to get the dead thing out of your floor. Cockroaches come to mind..... and they can ruin a house more so than rats.

[gumbo2176]

Hey Gumbo, you may want to have a exterminator come and try to get the dead thing out of your floor. Cockroaches come to mind..... and they can ruin a house more so than rats.

HEHEEHE, I live in Louisiana. We have cockroaches the size of Volvo's down here and it is a part of life. I do manage to keep them out of my home with a fairly diligent routine of spraying but with the moisture, heat and old buildings in this city, getting rid of all the roaches is like herding cats, can't be done.

Getting that carcass out from between floors is not hard for me, it's the repair and repainting that follows that I can do, but don't really want to. Besides being a retired fireman with over 20 yrs. service, I also use to work in the construction field and have done everything from framing to finish trim work.

[alaskagold]

ACK! Gumbo you have got my attention.

I am too much of a clean freak to deal with that stuff. The only things we have are voles (like mice but smaller) and porcupine. No racoons, even though they are supposedly up here. And no real bugs, even the ants aren't that bad. I do not miss the south and the spiders and the bugs, or the big rodents... unless you count beaver.

[garden5]

Gumbo, I think I'd rather tear out the ceiling and fix it than know that there is a rat decomposing above my head :p .

Avon, I know what it's like. No rats for me, just the deer. They love to eat the tops of beets, chard (same family) and peppers. I didn't mind it at first, but it got annoying as the visits became more frequent.

Good luck with your rat trouble.

[lorax]

Ooh, rats, and roaches the size of VW Beetles? Come on down! Last year I had something referred to by my neighbours as "gigantorats" (their term, but very fitting) get into the walls of the house where I was living. I'm surprised they came in at all, given that I've got a fairly rodentophilic cat. Holy crow, when they came through the baseboards into the closet and we trapped one, we found out why kitty wasn't having any of it - it was bigger than she is (and she clocks in at 4 lbs)!

Yeah, needless to say, we moved. Down here, though, there's a type of rat poison available that just dries the rat up, no muss no fuss and no stinking. Works like a charm - the landlords went in after we left and just poisoned the heck out of the gigantorats, and no smell (this in the jungle, yet - hotter and more humid than N'orleans in the summertime).