[kforbs126]

Originally Posted by LDx4

Kristin,

I feel your pain, believe me I do! One of the potential problems with growing veggies in San Diego is that we have an epidemic of tree rats around here. You can check out my original thread here: http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=26372

I have to grow everything under cover in my yard because of the rats. It was very frustrating for many years!! Right now I have some cherry plants in the main yard that are unprotected. Every night we set out 2 or 3 traps with beef sticks as bait (rats love those things) and sometimes we catch one, but most times we don't. In the morning we usually find the traps undisturbed and some cherry toms (still green) pulled off the plants. Once the tomatoes start to ripen though, the rats will go crazy and eat everything in sight. I put these plants outside the screened houses as an experiment, and I can see now that it didn't work .

For your situation, you do have some options: traps (regular old fashion or newer electronic ones), poison, screens, etc. I never use poison because we have four dogs, plus other animals (cats, hawks) eat rats and I don't want to harm the other local wildlife.

As you can tell, rats are my number one enemy and I've spent years trying to get rid of them! Grrrr .

Good luck in your battle!!

Lyn

Thanks Lyn. I'm going to see if I can get some screens or netting. I don't want to use poison either.