How to stop rats

bower · June 5, 2017

I think tomatoes are especially attractive to rats. Never had a problem with rats here, but last year grew a lot of outdoor tomatoes and ended up pulling down a lot of green fruit into the compost that had no chance of ripening. Not long after two ravens came along and sat up in a tree above that compost pile, hooting and hollering and calling down to the dirt. I went to look and here is a hole for a burrow, right into that compost pile. Friend's advice was to flatten down or spread the compost pile which I did several times until the hole stopped showing up. ... but then another hole appeared in a second compost pile - this was older so I did spread it right down so there was no place to make a hotel.
I saw no telltale tracks in the snow (dragging tail track a dead giveaway for rat) and thought the problem was solved. Then in late winter, surprise surprise, here is a burrow hole on the edge of my winter compost. The two ravens turned up again to hoot and howl about it. So... I found some old trail mix that was left here by visitors, and I took it out and poured the works over top of the pile to encourage those ravens to come down and feed. And I kept putting out scraps for them, so when the pile started to thaw a bit they dug down deeper and afaik, they dug down into the nest and ate the little ones.

Problem solved... for now.
I am happy to befriend this young pair of ravens. Now when they see me coming they say friendly things. One of them was gathering straw in the yard for their nest. They are beautiful birds.... and they do hate rats and squirrels.

June 5, 2017	#23
bower Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Newfoundland, Canada Posts: 6,794	I think tomatoes are especially attractive to rats. Never had a problem with rats here, but last year grew a lot of outdoor tomatoes and ended up pulling down a lot of green fruit into the compost that had no chance of ripening. Not long after two ravens came along and sat up in a tree above that compost pile, hooting and hollering and calling down to the dirt. I went to look and here is a hole for a burrow, right into that compost pile. Friend's advice was to flatten down or spread the compost pile which I did several times until the hole stopped showing up. ... but then another hole appeared in a second compost pile - this was older so I did spread it right down so there was no place to make a hotel. I saw no telltale tracks in the snow (dragging tail track a dead giveaway for rat) and thought the problem was solved. Then in late winter, surprise surprise, here is a burrow hole on the edge of my winter compost. The two ravens turned up again to hoot and howl about it. So... I found some old trail mix that was left here by visitors, and I took it out and poured the works over top of the pile to encourage those ravens to come down and feed. And I kept putting out scraps for them, so when the pile started to thaw a bit they dug down deeper and afaik, they dug down into the nest and ate the little ones. Problem solved... for now. I am happy to befriend this young pair of ravens. Now when they see me coming they say friendly things. One of them was gathering straw in the yard for their nest. They are beautiful birds.... and they do hate rats and squirrels.