Rodents

[kforbs126]

So the past few days I've noticed a lot of my tomatoes and a few of my peppers have gone missing or almost fully eaten off the stem. Last night I was about to go to bed when I heard something at my window. I looked out and it quickly ran away, it had a long tail and small body. I'm assuming a rat or a mouse. How can I stop this creature from eating all my vegetables? It has taken almost all my pink brandywine crop and a few of my hungarian peppers. Also noticed my kumato seedlings disappeared. I'm so mad. Everything I grow is on my back porch so this thing is obviously climbing to get to my porch. Please help!

[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

[Vespertino]

You should see the rats in the NYC subway system. HUGE mutant rats the size of cats... Since they love the tomatoes have you tried baiting the traps with one or two?

[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.

[habitat_gardener]

Originally Posted by kforbs126

...It has taken almost all my pink brandywine crop and a few of my hungarian peppers....

They have good taste!

One of my community garden neighbors was losing zucchinis, so baited a have-a-heart trap with zucchini. The culprit was a black squirrel, which he relocated a few miles away. (probably illegal and ecologically inadvisable) I think it was the same squirrel who, earlier in spring, was eating the perennial kale leaves.

Yeah, you'll have to protect your plants.

[LDx4]

Originally Posted by Vespertino

You should see the rats in the NYC subway system. HUGE mutant rats the size of cats... Since they love the tomatoes have you tried baiting the traps with one or two?

Last summer we did bait the traps with some ripe tomatoes, but with only some success. The problem is, the rats are SMART, and figure out pretty quickly which tomatoes are safe and which are not! Once one gets caught in a trap, the others must check out their dead comrade and realize that traps=danger, because it always takes awhile before we catch another one. They also like to just shred the new foliage and use it to make their nests. I've lost so many young flower plants on the patio each spring that way!

Lyn

[Sun City Linda]

Yes, Rats love tomatoes. I have battled them before but I am currently enjoying a wonderful reprieve. "Kitty" my 20 LB Tom loves rats!

[ginger2778]

Hey Kforbs, this is what I use. http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/cata...ve+animal+trap
I bait the trap with peanut butter, which they can't resist. They like it far better than tomatoes. I have caught 8 rats and a baby O'Possum so far. I can't kill them so don't tell anyone but I drive them about 5 miles away and release them in a large forested acreage area.
I use the double door trap, which is under$20.00. Set to just barely touching so it is easy to trigger.
BTW- they seem to hunt in pairs so I can usually catch 2 in 2 days, then nothing for awhile until the next one comes around.

Marsha

[Vespertino]

Originally Posted by LDx4

Last summer we did bait the traps with some ripe tomatoes, but with only some success. The problem is, the rats are SMART, and figure out pretty quickly which tomatoes are safe and which are not! Once one gets caught in a trap, the others must check out their dead comrade and realize that traps=danger, because it always takes awhile before we catch another one. They also like to just shred the new foliage and use it to make their nests. I've lost so many young flower plants on the patio each spring that way!

Lyn

Doh! I'm sorry to hear. It's almost disturbing that rodents can be so smart. I hope they don't evolve too quickly or else human beings will have competition.

[DonnaMarieNJ]

I bought two electric fence kits on Amazon last year. It will be a challenge to put it up considering my garden layout, the neighborhood dogs, my four cats, and the people who also come into my yard.... Plus, it won't get the smaller critters like mice and rats. It's the woodchucks, skunks, squirrels, raccoons, and stray cats who spray their scent on my containers, etc., that it will affect. No system is perfect. You just do what you can and try to pretend the inconvenience of the wires in your garden doesn't exist....... <sigh>

On a better note, I heard that once a critter gets zapped they "learn" and do not come back. So, hopefully that will happen to me and I can take the nasty, in-the-way electric fence down asap!

[LDx4]

Originally Posted by Sun City Linda

Yes, Rats love tomatoes. I have battled them before but I am currently enjoying a wonderful reprieve. "Kitty" my 20 LB Tom loves rats!

Nice! Unfortunately, we are on the border of an open preserve that has lots of coyotes -- all kittys around here are strictly indoor cats, or they become coyote snacks

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Hey Kforbs, this is what I use. http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/cata...ve+animal+trap
I bait the trap with peanut butter, which they can't resist. They like it far better than tomatoes. I have caught 8 rats and a baby O'Possum so far. I can't kill them so don't tell anyone but I drive them about 5 miles away and release them in a large forested acreage area.
I use the double door trap, which is under$20.00. Set to just barely touching so it is easy to trigger.
BTW- they seem to hunt in pairs so I can usually catch 2 in 2 days, then nothing for awhile until the next one comes around.

Marsha

Marsha, you are a rat whisperer! What a great catch record! We tried peanut butter and these Calif rats just turned their noses up at it

Originally Posted by DonnaMarieNJ

I bought two electric fence kits on Amazon last year. It will be a challenge to put it up considering my garden layout, the neighborhood dogs, my four cats, and the people who also come into my yard.... Plus, it won't get the smaller critters like mice and rats. It's the woodchucks, skunks, squirrels, raccoons, and stray cats who spray their scent on my containers, etc., that it will affect. No system is perfect. You just do what you can and try to pretend the inconvenience of the wires in your garden doesn't exist....... <sigh>

On a better note, I heard that once a critter gets zapped they "learn" and do not come back. So, hopefully that will happen to me and I can take the nasty, in-the-way electric fence down asap!

DonnaMarie, please keep us posted on your experience with the electric fence and what it kept out (or didn't keep out). I keep threatening to buy some on Amazon, but my husband is resisting so far

[kforbs126]

Well no sign of the dirty rat this morning. Hopefully that means he found another food source.

[Crandrew]

Originally Posted by LDx4

Nice! Unfortunately, we are on the border of an open preserve that has lots of coyotes -- all kittys around here are strictly indoor cats, or they become coyote snacks

Tomato < Rat < Kiki meow meow < Cayote

Any chance you can get the coyote's interested in rats?

[b54red]

I have used the live traps and caught a few but the problem is they learn not to go in them very quickly and I can't keep my dogs out of them. I had a bad problem with some rats last year in the fall and finally bought a good bait station and kept it baited. I placed it near the bottom of my garden near a neighbors old shed where I suspected they had set up house. For the first week I had to re-bait every few days and found a half dozen dead rats around the garden and then only had to replace the bait every week or two then they stopped eating it at all. I think it got them all because I have not seen any damage since the bait stopped being eaten. I have a lot of small dogs so my only option was a good bait station that they couldn't get into and I weighted it down with a heavy rock so it couldn't be turned over and some of the bait spill out. As soon as I see the first sign of any rodent damage I will refill it and put it back out.

Bill

[LDx4]

Originally Posted by Crandrew

Tomato < Rat < Kiki meow meow < Cayote

Any chance you can get the coyote's interested in rats?

They probably do go after the rats up in the open space behind our house. But the rats that bug me are in our yard - I've seen them as close as a foot away from our sliding door. And I definitely DON'T want to see a coyote within a foot of our door!