Rats control

[Nico971]

Hi ! 
I’ve had several sad mornings lately due to rats. 
Today one cut to the base my first Chamaedorea microspadix inflorescence 

 

Lately in the shade house they killed : 10 beccariopheonix madagascariens, my only howea belmoreana, 4 pseudo vinifera, 5 Chamaedorea linearis… all started from the seeds. that was like the most expensive heart palm salad ever.

I made a cage for the young seedlings. 
 

How do you manage thoses problems? 
 

[Johnny Palmseed]

I feel your pain! See my recent post titled Varmints where something stole all my Pseudophoenix seeds and destroyed my various seedlings. I bought a trap but didn’t catch anything.

 

[Harry’s Palms]

I have seedling popping up in my yard all the time . They grow freely into nice palms without any trouble at all . I’ve been pushing seeds into my garden for years . Last year a friend gave me some Wodyetia seeds and I put 4 in pots and the rest I spread in my garden . The potted ones never germinated but the ones in the ground sprouted after 3 months . I was really excited until one morning when I found that something had chewed through the stem . The palm was just laying on its side a the stem was chewed to the ground. Something about these is tasted to whatever ate the stems . Harry

[Nico971]

18 minutes ago, Johnny Palmseed said:

I feel your pain! See my recent post titled Varmints where something stole all my Pseudophoenix seeds and destroyed my various seedlings. I bought a trap but didn’t catch anything.

 

Oh nice topic. We get rats and small raccoon here. Luckily they didn’t touch my Mapu seedlings. 
 

6 minutes ago, Harry’s Palms said:

I have seedling popping up in my yard all the time . They grow freely into nice palms without any trouble at all . I’ve been pushing seeds into my garden for years . Last year a friend gave me some Wodyetia seeds and I put 4 in pots and the rest I spread in my garden . The potted ones never germinated but the ones in the ground sprouted after 3 months . I was really excited until one morning when I found that something had chewed through the stem . The palm was just laying on its side a the stem was chewed to the ground. Something about these is tasted to whatever ate the stems . Harry

I’ve had exactly the same with a small veitchia spiralis, which was not so small, but bitten to the center. It survived ! 

[Johnny Palmseed]

3 hours ago, Nico971 said:

Luckily they didn’t touch my Mapu seedlings. 

Oh that would be very bad indeed! I would think that you should protect those with some hardware cloth or similar. Hardware cloth is weirdly named since it is not cloth at all. It’s actually a wire netting with 1/4 or 1/2” square mesh typically.

[Nico971]

yep ! I did this 

[GeneAZ]

Last winter I had rats chew up all the wiring in my car.  Repair was $9,200.00.

I have since learned that they hate peppermint oil.  I buy the TomCat Rodent Repellent spray and it has been completely sucessful!!  The rats just take a sniff, and leave.

My sister in San Diego and my brother in Portland, Oregon have both had the same success.  My sister had a rat problem with plants and her bird feeder being raided by rats, but the spray has perfectly repelled them without affecting the birds in any way.

Smells nice, too.

[happypalms]

3 minutes ago, GeneAZ said:

Last winter I had rats chew up all the wiring in my car.  Repair was $9,200.00.

I have since learned that they hate peppermint oil.  I buy the TomCat Rodent Repellent spray and it has been completely sucessful!!  The rats just take a sniff, and leave.

My sister in San Diego and my brother in Portland, Oregon have both had the same success.  My sister had a rat problem with plants and her bird feeder being raided by rats, but the spray has perfectly repelled them without affecting the birds in any way.

Smells nice, too.

Another tip for rats in engine bays is leave the bonnet up it stops them.

[DoomsDave]

I’ve had to deal with rats a lot over the years. They’re smart and learn to avoid traps; I’ve found that the best thing is to use different traps. 
 

Poisons work, but there’s a danger of critters like owls eating them and getting poisoned too.

[happypalms]

There’s a rat in mi kitchen (or greenhouse) UB40 knew what to do a great song as well. They are as cunning as a 💩 house rat they say! Here’s one little blighter big stinky male that won’t be eating anymore seedlings. Rat traps continually set with baits changed continuously,  they love peanut butter. I leave my traps set all the time and don’t wait for them to eat anything as a sign I have to start controlling them. Exclusion wire netting is the best alternative to traps @Nico971 The only other thing I can think of is call in the pied piper but make sure you pay him first or there will be trouble in the village. 

[happypalms]

12 hours ago, Nico971 said:

Hi ! 
I’ve had several sad mornings lately due to rats. 
Today one cut to the base my first Chamaedorea microspadix inflorescence 

 

Lately in the shade house they killed : 10 beccariopheonix madagascariens, my only howea belmoreana, 4 pseudo vinifera, 5 Chamaedorea linearis… all started from the seeds. that was like the most expensive heart palm salad ever.

I made a cage for the young seedlings. 
 

How do you manage thoses problems? 
 

Can send you a couple of bell seeds if your import laws allow. 

[Cannonball]

Tomcat works a treat, I've had them eat through the container to get to it.

[Josue Diaz]

I know I'm in the minority here but the only surefire way to eradicate a large population is to bait them. When we first moved into our home 12 years ago, there was a severe rat problem. We baited the attic, as well as placed baited traps (the instant death ones) and cut down all branches and old phone wires they used to move around at night. Disrupting their pathways helped keep them from using our backyard to travel back and forth to wherever they were going, and the baits and traps got them when they entered the attic. We have not seen any rats or rat droppings in years. Even the neighbor's unkept canariensis seems to be free of rats these days. 

[Darold Petty]

I use live catch box traps also, because there is no risk to injure non-target animals, including my dog. 

(In the past I have trapped a thrush, an adolescent opossum, and a squirrel, all released unharmed.)    However, for the rats I submerge the entire trap underwater. 

So far, no rat has been able to hold its breath for 30 minutes !   

[Looking Glass]

Rats were a huge problem around the house when I first moved in.  I used every method to get at them.  I’ve got 5 different kinds of traps as they get wary, and are very smart and cautious.  They are afraid of new and strange looking objects.  Peanut better, or various nuts or pieces of granola bars work great as bait.   Peanut butter degrades outside faster than nuts, if the traps sit out without activity.  

I’ll put clam traps up high where they run at night.   They run on power lines, branches, fences, and along gutters, roof, and edges of walls.   I have better luck with these than old timey flat rat traps.  

The plastic clam traps also won’t break a finger, or a pet or raccoon’s or bird’s foot like the old flat traps, but they do sting quite a bit, trust me.  

Tube traps I use on the ground, as they only get what will squeeze into them.  Rats like to go into tubes and holes and protected covered spaces.   

 

I’ll use live traps too, and as these seem to spook them the least, for some reason.  

Every business and many homes around here uses bait boxes too.  Protects against accidental ingestions.   Putting poison in a building or attic can be bad news, if a rat curls up and dies with a wall space.   That will make for a putrid month indoors.  

 

I tie the traps to something or they get carried away by racoons and possums in the night.   Every night they come by to check the traps.  They don’t touch the bait.  They just look for bodies and rip any out, leaving only the head in the trap.   Simplifies clean up.   

 

If I put out some other food and a camera to survey, I have to shut off the camera from pinging all night long, as dozens of mild mannered possums will stop by to eat.  Raccoons are the worst though.  They’ll destroy anything looking for food.  

 

 

I’ve caught two birds by accident and a baby possum once, over the years.  And Amevias like to crawl into the live traps as they poke around, looking for bugs.  Rats…. I’ve caught a ton.   I try to just keep the population down a little.  It seems to limit damage.