Carnations, also known as Dianthus caryophyllus, are toxic to cats and dogs due to their triterpenoid saponins. These saponins are part of the plant’s defense system and can cause gastrointestinal upset, vomiting, diarrhea, and decreased appetite. Carnation poisoning in cats is a mild toxicity caused by consuming carnations.
Some top natural rat repellants include essential oils like peppermint, eucalyptus, citronella, and lavender. To repel rats, soak cotton balls in these oils and soak cotton balls in them. Carnations are only mildly toxic to felines, causing clinical signs of gastrointestinal upset such as vomiting and diarrhea. However, carnation poisoning in cats is a mild toxicity caused by dianthus, which is generally considered non-toxic to cats.
Rats have been known to eat carnations, particularly red and yellow ones, due to their higher sugar content. Dandelions, clovers, and roses are also safe for mice. Carnations are toxic to not just dogs and cats but horses as well.
To prevent carnation poisoning, it is important to avoid using poison on animals that go outside, as citrus is safe for rats, both male and female. Carnations are non-toxic to cats, while lilies are toxic to them. Carnations typically cause mild gastrointestinal upset, vomiting, abdominal pain, and decreased appetite.
📹 How to Prevent and Control RATS in Your Garden 🐀 😱
00:00 Intro 1:17 Detecting Rats 02:48 Rat Habitats 04:20 Rat Prevention 05:11 Protecting Compost Bins 06:08 Sealing Your …
What plant is poisonous to rats?
Urginea maritima, also known as red squill or white squill, is related to the squill in the Harry Potter universe, Scilla. Although both plants are poisonous, Scilla is more dimunutive and flowers in the spring. Red squill has a long history of medicinal use, but a doctor should be consulted before treating oneself or others. A 1995 report reported a woman who ate red squill bulbs to treat arthritic pain, exhibiting symptoms of ingesting cardiac glycosides, which led to her death 30 hours after eating the bulbs.
Toxic compounds are found throughout the plant, with the highest toxicity during summer dormancy and flowering and fruiting. The compound used to poison rats is called scilliroside. Bulbs are harvested, chopped, and dried, and ground down to a powder and added to rat bait. To increase effectiveness, a concentrate can be made by isolating the toxic compound using solvents.
Red squill was introduced to southern California in the 1940s as a potential agricultural crop due to its Mediterranean climate and drought tolerance. Bulbs can be grown for manufacturing rat poison, and flowers are harvested for the cut flower industry. Breeding efforts have been made to produce highly toxic varieties of red squill for rat poison production.
Why are carnations controversial?
The carnation, a ruffly flower often found in grocery stores, is a controversial flower with many opposing its use in arrangements. However, there are reasons for giving carnations a second chance. They can last an average of 14 to 21 days with proper care. The human usage of carnations dates back to ancient times, with Greeks and Romans using them in sacred ceremonies and fashion. They were attributed to their gods, making them the “flower of the gods” and “Jupiter’s flower”. Their unique beauty and reverence made carnations a favorite in ancient times, a departure from the modern “cheap flower” perception. Care for cut carnations is essential for their longevity.
What plant do rats hate?
Sage, a fragrant herb commonly used in pasta dishes, is a potent pest repellent. Rats are particularly attracted to the pungent smells of green and white sage varieties. To repel mice and rats, sprinkle the herbs on soil, outdoor plants, or cracks around the house. You can grow fresh sage in your backyard, pots, or buy from a supermarket. Other strong-smelling herbs include oregano, basil, thyme, black pepper, and cayenne. Mint, particularly peppermint and spearmint, is also effective in repelling rodents. Grow these aromatic herbs in your backyard or pots to maintain a constant supply of delicious meals.
Are carnation flowers poisonous?
Carnations are not considered to be toxic to humans; however, they may cause gastric distress in cats and dogs. It is advisable to ensure that these flowers are not accessible to animals with a penchant for exploration. For further guidance on which flowers are suitable for pets, please refer to our comprehensive guide. It is advisable to remove any leaves situated below the waterline in the vase in order to prevent the water from becoming murky and the growth of bacteria. The plant food provided with the flowers should be used to maintain optimal vitality.
How poisonous are carnations?
Dianthus, also known as carnations or pinks, are edible flowers with a spicy clove-like flavor. However, their leaves and stems can cause irritation and mild skin irritations, so it’s important to wear garden gloves and long-sleeved work shirts when working around these plants. If you come into contact with the plant leaves, wash your skin with soap and water or use an over-the-counter hydrocortisone cream for relief. If you don’t see immediate relief or are unsure of the plant’s cause, contact your physician or poison control center.
Dianthus leaves may also cause skin irritations in children, so wash their skin with soap and water and give them a bath with oatmeal to soothe and calm their skin. Although it’s not common for children to become ill from dianthus, if you’re unsure, call your physician or poison control center for advice on what to do next.
What is most poisonous thing for rats?
Metal phosphides are single-dose fast-acting rodenticides used to kill rodents. They are typically used in areas where rodents are resistant to certain anticoagulants, such as controlling house and field mice. Zinc phosphide baits are cheaper than most second-generation anticoagulants, and can be used to reduce rodent populations in large infestations. Inversely, individual rodents that survived anticoagulant bait poisoning can be eradicated by pre-baiting them with nontoxic bait for a week or two and then applying poisoned bait until all consumption ceases within 2-4 days.
Zinc phosphide is typically added to rodent baits in a concentration of 0. 75 to 2. 0. The baits have a strong, pungent garlic-like odor due to the phosphine liberated by hydrolysis. This odor attracts rodents but has a repulsive effect on other mammals, including birds, such as wild turkeys, which are not sensitive to the smell. Tablets or pellets containing aluminium, calcium, or magnesium phosphide for fumigation/gassing may also contain other chemicals that evolve ammonia, reducing the potential for spontaneous combustion or explosion of the phosphine gas. These methods of alternating rodenticides can lead to actual or almost 100 eradications of the rodent population in the area.
What plants can I put in my rats cage?
To cultivate a greenery for rats, a suitable pot should be filled with a mixture of mint, basil, and parsley, combined with an appropriate soil. The herbs should be planted in the pot, with care taken to ensure that only the leaves are accessible. The pot should be suspended outside the cage in order to permit rats to access the greenery without having to dig up the soil.
What is highly poisonous to rats?
Toxic foods for rats include chocolate, caffeine, alcohol, avocado, onion, garlic, and citrus fruits. These chemicals can harm the rat’s digestive system, leading to potential complications or even fatal outcomes. Toxic foods include avocado skin and pit, chocolate, citrus fruits, mango, green potatoes, filtered water, green bananas, uncooked/dried beans, blue cheese, caffeine, dried corn, licorice, raw sweet potato, poppy seeds, raw cabbage, raw brussel sprouts, raw peanuts, and rhubarb.
Unhealthy foods, such as sugary or fatty foods, can lead to weight gain, diabetes, heart problems, and other health issues. It is essential to avoid processed foods, sugary treats, fried food, and excessive nuts as they are high in fat content. While these foods may not cause lasting harm to pet rats, they should still be avoided due to their negative impact on their health.
Do rats eat carnations?
It has been observed that rats, particularly those of the species Rattus norvegicus, exhibit a preference for sugary foods, such as red and yellow carnations, due to their high sugar content. Despite years of attempted eradication, the use of exterminators and powder proved ineffective. Melya Kaplan, the founder of Venice Animal Allies, devised a solution in the form of guard cats to address the issue. Kaplan, who procures floral products in Venice, observed an employee exhibiting respiratory distress during a shopping excursion two years ago.
What plant kills rats?
Chrysanthemums are beautiful flowers with high pyrethrin content, which is a natural insecticide that affects rats’ nervous system. They are easy to grow and require full sun and well-drained soil. They bloom from late summer to fall and can be planted in borders, containers, or beds. To keep them healthy, water them regularly, fertilize them once a month, and prune them after flowering. Onion, a cooking staple, is a powerful rat repellent due to its pungent smell and taste. It contains sulphur compounds that irritate rats’ eyes and nose, and allicin, which can cause anemia and oxygen deprivation if ingested.
📹 SIMPLE & EASY-Kill All Your Pesky Rodents without poison or snap traps: As easy as making a PB&J
Tired of varmints invading your house, chewing up everything, ruining your furniture, food supplies, vehicle wiring, vents, …
My Grandfather used to grow lots of mints around the house and barn. He said that rodents hate the smell of it. In the Fall, he used to sickle the mint and sprinkle it in his root cellar and unfinish basement. My girlfriend, at the time, had a mice problem in her RV and when I told her my Grandfather’s trick, she sprinkle peppermint oil on the carpet. She said problem solve. Just an old timer’s trick. Peace
Pest control is our family business, I’ve been doing it over 15 years myself and I’ll be the first to tell you that steel wool on its own does NOT work my friend. I’ve seen it hundreds of times where they just pull it out or push it through. If you want to seal those holes with steel wool you have to hold it in place with something ( encapsulate it with spray foam so they have to chew it and they won’t or just use PL with some hardware cloth cut nicely with a nice piece of trim ) look at peak termination points on your roof line for access points and under your sinks where you have plumbing entering the building. If a rat catches another rat getting smoked by that auto trap it will never go near it again, you will reduce numbers by about 70 percent with that system. Thanks for this article brother ☺️
I live right next to a slough and a bird/wet land preserve. Rats, squirrels, foxes, raccoons – you name it I’m dealing with it. It is nice that occasionally a hawk does catch the rats in our backyard but we’ve been fairly successful using 2 tablespoons peppermint oil, 1 tablespoon peppermint Dr. Bronner’s Soap, and water in a squirt bottles as well as cooking up homemade pepper spray. We alternate spraying each 2-3 times a week to keep all the little critters from digging, eating, and spoiling our garden and fruit trees. We do the bags around the fruit and when we build the garden beds, they will have screens/chicken coup wire etc. Just please PLEASE do not use glue traps or poison especially if you live near wild areas. Glue cause it’s cruel and poison because the rat will not die immediately and then it has the potential to be eaten by other animals which will in turn die from the poison, thus polluting the environment – the antithesis of what we love to do as gardeners.
Glue traps are a horror show. It made the news here a couple of years back about someone who put them in the garden and caught at least a dozen hummingbirds instead of any of the rodents they were trying to get. The image of those birds stuck to the glue is seared in my brain. Glue traps need to be banned outright. Nothing should die that way.
I have a friend who periodically puts a metal trashcan lid (upside down) filled with fresh coke (the soft drink). He “sets” it in the late evening before he goes home, and checks it in the morning. He keeps going until a few nights pass with no dead rats in the area. Rats love the smell, so they’re attracted to it; they love the sweet taste, so they drink a lot of it. But it is fatal to them. So voila, no more rats. They don’t live very long, so you’ll probably find them laying around. On the positive side, since it is not an actual poison, it doesn’t harm the cats in the area (who mostly ignore it, anyway). I’ve the results at his place, but I’ve never actually used it because I’ve never had rats, and it doesn’t seem to work on mice.
Hi Kevin, love your gardening articles and your enthusiasm! You can also make heavy use of NEEM as an organic pesticide. The smell of Neem drives away most pests, including rats and other rodents. So you can use neem cake on the ground – spread it like a compost around your crops, and neem oil on the foliage. For this, mix 10ml neem oil with 1L water, and use it to spray all your crops. Neem will also strengthen your crops so they are less vulnerable to pests.
To solve rats, and squirrels for that matter, from chewing through the mesh bags.. I make my own bags with metal screening (like you would use in a screen door) and a few paper binder clips. The rats will not chew through! You can easily customize them by size of fruit..I used them to protect tomatoes, mangos and even banana racks…
Cats. My two were born and raised outdoors (but are “fixed” and are fed as well as I feed myself!) They make short work of such things – it’s scary actually. I agree: peppermint (you can use peppermint extract from the baking aisle mixed with water and sprayed around – also prevents wasps who are just starting to build a home – but won’t evict existing bigger wasp nests) – peppermint also repels rodents and I spray it under the hood of my vehicle for that…. I agree: Jack Russell Terrier (or rat terrier) – fierce on varmints keeping rodents OUT …. stuff steel wool into any openings of your home a rodent may squeeze into – they can’t / won’t chew through steel wool but you can stuff it into tiny crevices. Just don’t lock them into the house – you’re using it to keep them from coming in.
Regarding glue traps – they are awful. My wife works at a wildlife rehab, and they frequently receive “by catch” or unintended targets stuck on glue traps. Please don’t use them. Regarding rat poison – birds of prey and other predators are often found after eating a poisoned rat. They don’t usually survive.
Adopting feral/homeless cats, who learned how to hunt, is the best way to tackle this problem. Even well fed cats will prey on smaller animals, and rats are deterred by their presence. The wise advice which was already written in the comments, of adding herbs of the mint family throughout your garden, is also highly recommended (I use that and some scattered garlic cloves in order to prevent wild boars from digging in my small garden, it usually works 🌿🐗🐀).
I used to have a couple of rats living in my compost pile, but they were content to eat the kitchen scraps I threw in there and leave my garden alone. They actually did me a favor by tilling the compost for me, and they never once tried to enter the house. Mice were another story, but my cats took care of the problem before I even knew the mice were there. The major pests in my garden have been deer, groundhogs, and slugs. The deer I’ve deterred with scent repellents, sharp stakes behind the fencing, and planting lots of mint, bunching onions, and datura (jimsonweed). The groundhogs I’ve dealt with using smoke bombs down their burrows. The slugs– that’s an ongoing battle. A lot of slugs moved in since I started using the Back to Eden method, and I’ve been resorting to hand-to-hand combat with a soap sprayer, Epsom salts, or just crushing them.
The snakes in our neighbourhood are some of the most deadly in the world (Australia) so I am super concerned about rodents as we have young kids. I keep all our food-waste compost in enclosed tumbler bins or in buried worm farms that have a heavy terracotta plant pot sitting on top. Also keep on top of thickety weeded areas. We found a snap trap with peanut butter works the best. Use two spoons to get the peanut butter out of the jar as they don’t like the smell of humans on the trap. Also keep a separate jar of peanut butter with the label ”rat butter” written on it. That allows me to eat peanut butter out of my own PB jar without contaminating the rat trap butter with my smell. I like your tip about pre-feeding the areas before trapping. Your open woodpiles, cardboard piles and and compost piles would be a big no-no for me, as they are perfect habitat for the Australian Eastern Brown Snake (super deadly and aggressive). Our neighbour had one in the yard only two weeks ago. Shudders. Those of you who have non-venemous snakes are lucky.
While I agree in humanely dispatching them, it’ll interesting to see if the trap continues to work over time. I find with every kind of trap I’ve ever used, rats come to understand they’re dangerous and after you’ve caught several others will no longer go near the traps. These days my cats and dogs tend to do the job just fine.
Last year we had our garden demolished by a family of squirrels and rabbits. The rabbits were easy to get rid of since we found where they were coming in at and blocked it with some rocks. I’ve seen rats before too and we’ve had an exterminator come out for the rat traps. But these I think are ground squirrels and they come over the fence and they dig holes up through the ground. It’s so frustrating. This year we are building an enclosed garden bed and also laying wire mesh underneath the raised beds. We’ll put a screen door on the front to get in and out. I did some research and it said squirrels cannot get in chicken wire that’s 1 inch or smaller. So we’re using that and we’re using the smaller hardware half an inch cloth under the raised beds. I did not want to go too small for the enclosure because I want bees and butterflies to still get in… It’s so frustrating. I think honestly the problem would not be so bad if everyone had a garden but in our neighborhood I think we were the only one that has a garden and fruit trees so it’s like the animals are going to a restaurant when they see our place… So frustrating… We lost so much food last year because of these pests. I’m not opposed to terminating them since they carry so much disease.
I buy the large $11 plastic pots with the built in drip tray at Home Depot, and cut the bottom 4-5 inches off the pot with a hacksaw. Then I put the top “ring” portion around my in-ground plants as a shield against rodents, and use the bottom section for planting seedlings or micro-greens, or as a sand/water reservoir in the bottom of my large grow-bags with a pvc pipe extending to the top of the soil for filling with water. The rats can’t climb up the plastic ring around my plants since it’s too slick, and slants outward toward the top (fortunately I don’t have the Aussie-size varmints). My one and only garden plot is lined with hardware cloth to keep out the gophers, but it’s not very deep, so I find I’m filling the plastic rings partially with soil to give the plants more room to grow, and since there’s no bottom, it acts like a deeper bed. I haven’t had any rats dig under the ring which is buried only about an inch deep in the soil.
The rats in my garden chewed through mesh bags to get to tomatoes. They don’t even bother eating the whole thing and eat little sections of all ripening tomatoes, little a-holes lol. I have to use the clamshells strawberries, blueberries, etc. come in at the grocery store. It’s the only thing that’s worked so far.
My cat got his first catch yesterday and left it for me in front of our porch. A tiny lil mouse. Living in a small town near to the center I kinda expect pests to be around, where ever there is people there are pests. We got some flying rats (seagulls) as well around, fortunately I don’t think they’ll eat my crops.
Several years ago I had a mouse infestation after a concrete stair replacement outside disturbed their nest. It was just like your place, they were in EVERYTHING in my cupboards. It was so bad that I would open a cupboard and they were literally sitting there staring at me. (the cats were happy though, they had a blast) I had to throw out all my dry goods and wash the cupboards with bleach. After that I put ALL my dry goods and baking supplies into mason jars.
Install a Barn Owl nest box. Mount it eight and a half feet above the ground. Mount it on the side of a Barn. Have the entrance face away from prevailing wind. A entrance guard helps to keep squirrels from gnawing the entrance larger. A ledge is nice for young owls to exercise their wings. A horizontal oval entrance is better than a square or circle. 5″ x 4.5″ to 4.5″ x 3.75″. The larger the entrance the more predators like other birds, raccoons and opossum can harass and raid the nest. During nesting season in late Winter and Spring Barn Owls feed heavily on mice, voles, rats and rabbits.
We have native protected rats in our neighborhood, so we can’t try and poison or trap them. I’ve never got them inside the house but underneath they’ve chewed out cables and heating pipes so many times. Many of the things you mention are great prevention methods. I’ve sealed my under-house space using methods like yours. As well as rats, we have possums so my plants suffer terribly (again. protected – so no trapping/poisoning.) I just plant way more of the plants they seem to like so that we all get to eat them. Great info! 👍
Never had to deal with rats. I battle mice, groundhogs, raccoons and opossums. Last year I purchased an electric fence from PremierOne that I can just step over. They learned the woods at the back is theirs, the garden is mine and to just move on. That trap is very interesting option will have to look into that for mice, since a one snap trap is not always the best.
I’ve always used a 50/50 mixture of white vinegar and apple cider vinegar sprayed on areas where they are entering and chewing. I used it on telephone/internet lines and security alarm lines in attics for people in the area. It also helps to locate droppings, which look like black rice and spray around there. If you have an attic, did you check up there to see any possible entry points for your rodent friends?
We had mice digging up my edamame seeds I planted in our high tunnel (an experiment I was doing between tunnel and outdoor planting). There were tiny holes where each seed was – a few missing each day until all the seeds were gone. Luckily, starting them indoors worked better & no damage to the young plants. We have found the droppings like you said, around the exterior of the tunnel where their run is. We have found some really humane traps that look like giant chip clips, but it’s a pain to keep checking them. Your device looks like something that would help for sure!!!
We have issues keeping the mice and rats out. Even worse, we have possums, skunks and racoons living in our neighbor’s giant cypress trees and detritus down below. They come into the backyard for a snack, sometimes our husky catches them or runs them off (cleaning up a skunk carcass and a skunk-sprayed dog at 3am is not fun). The neighbors won’t pick up their mess on their side so we’ve barricaded the fences as much as possible, replaced the eaten/torn vents on the bottom of the house, close the greenhouse doors every night, and make no more trash piles. That all seems to hold them off. If you do want to feed the birds without fattening up the local rat and mouse population I recommend Nyjer seed. Rodents, squirrels, rats, and possums don’t like it and the doves and finches eat it up. Great article and way to stay calm with a rampaging rodent in your house. I probably would have cursed like a sailor.
something was eating my zucchini! I got home from a weekend trip and it looked like little teeth marks, I was FREAKED out! Thought it was mice bc I recently saw a mouse at the HD garden center which is like a block away from my house. I was seriously ready to pull everything and quit gardening all together! Turns out we had a BAD bug infestation (4 separate pests!) and they all burrowed in to one of the zucchini and ate it from the inside out. I’m still perusal for signs of rodents, but luckily I haven’t seen any so far.
I battle rats every year in the garden mostly due to the surrounding houses not keeping their backyards debris free. I use the snap rat traps and bait them with peanut butter. Mesh netting will not keep rats away as they eat right thru it. Cats won’t keep rats away as there is plenty of feral cats around and my own cat is not allowed outside at night(coyotes). My frenchie does keep me alert where the rats might be so we move the traps as needed. Right now the rats are in the tomato plants because they love ripe ones. Just caught one last week!
Had a pumpkin with a few bite matks in it, and have been cutting down trees so have lots of dead branches piled up, no mice or rats i don’t think but there was a runaway quail living in there must have been surviving off the compost pile, gave me quite a surprise. Have been uploading some YouTube articles of whats going on here in Australia if anyone is interested, not quite epic as rough and out of focus. I am considering doing the apocalypse grow food challenge just to see if i can feed myself off the garden
ThankU for posting this ! Made me feel better immediately. I really enjoy your website; great content! I’ve had chickens for bout 5 years now, and only last year I started seeing holes in the coop, but did not put the necessary eradication effort into it that I should have. I put out the Victor electric trap which caught Zero and some snap traps, pellets, bait etc – I’ve been putting with & without bait snap traps which they are triggering but remain empty. We have several neighborhood cats and a fox that patrol regularly, but the holes are getting bigger & wider! I finally moved the girls out of the coop into the barn with a metal garbage can feeder that I cap each night cuz the holes inside the coop creep me out & the articles say not to fill ground holes until the bait has been down couple of weeks. Just yesterday saw a hole under the foundation of barn directly across from hose spigot smh. I just started baiting sll holes with baking soda & flour, but have seen no visible results yet. I also just noticed a hole in the ceiling of my unused guest room. So yeaaa thankU so much for this article made me feel better and I am working on mitigating the piles I have lying around outside it’s been freezing here, but been feeling time pressured with spring round the corner. I am seriously considering this product. Do you have any sort of discount code? ThankUu! 😀
We had a problem under our house. I opened the crawlspace and it was all wet underneath, I called my husband and we looked and they had chewed a hole in the drain pipe under the kitchen sink. It not only drained the kitchen sink, but the dishwasher and garbage disposal. It smelled terrible. They chewed two holes in the drain pipe. It was about $8000.00 damage. We have now set up traps around our yard so as to combat the problem. They have eaten my tomatoes. YUCK
Cats, our two upstairs keep the inside free of rats even though they try to come up through the walls they don’t run around inside. The downstairs inside out side kitty has caught 14 rats in her prime! This does mean we have to lay down some thing on the freshly dug beds to prevent local cats from using them as a fresh litter box, but that’s not very hard. I just lay down tomato cages on their sides, and whatever other trellising material I have so there’s not really room for them to dig up the soil until it settles down a bit, and is covered with whatever I’m growing.
We had a rat in our house that took over a month to catch. He was smart and sneaky. My husband finally had to seal the laundry room off and lay traps on every square inch of floor, and the stupid thing still chewed through the drywall trying to get out. It was bold to, he would run across our legs at night while we were sleeping. Ick. Oh and the best part, it came from a old chicken farm and orchard, so it would only eat fresh fruit.
Love your articles Kevin! I live in FL. Bought a house that has part of a stream behind it. Noticed some bird seed I left out in a bin was gone when I came back from a brief vacation. I thought maybe squirrels got in my patio . BTW i have a super energetic 11 month old pup who darts right to my patio corner every single time I let her out. I thought she was chasing lizards until one night, I see 2 medium rats, Tokyo drifting across the awning of my patio. I’m like Ooooh My GOD!!! Look at these nasty bastards!!😮 😵😤😬😠 I felt so bad for yelling at my dog because I thought she was going to knock my table of plants over. She was truly doing her job as a……RAT TERRIER !! 🫶🏾🥰 Her name is Biscuit and yes she got extra snacks for alerting me about the pests that have been in my yard for these last 4 months. I put the bin of bird seed in the house & the feeder is hanging up on a high narrow pole far from the house. I have work to do: removing leaves & mulch near air conditioner. I wont leave so much water out for the birds. Thank you so very much for this article and tips!!! Keep you posted. I dont want Biscuit to catch them and get exposed to rat cooties but happy she finally let me know what we heard crawling around at night and stinking up my yard & house. Have a Blessed & pest- free 2024!
You are wonderful, a Godsend, this year I have made a hardware cage with firring strips 3′ tall and 4’x8′ but I have to take it out now, 1/2″ grid. growing sunflowers and bell peppers. Last year they attacked in one dawn 2 rows in my front yard full grown 6-7’tall sunflowers, everyone who walked by stopped in amazement daily. Heartbroken, my 90day crop They even obliterated the ba ck chokes, and few scattered seeds everywhere…had nothing left. That’s Florida. My leaking a/c and pipes like yours are definitely sources and where they are coming in. Thank you.
In fact, rats are so smart that until I examined my pineapples close up, I didnt know they had been eaten. I walked by them even. They chew one hole in the fruit, get inside, eat the flesh all around the core but not the core and not the crown and not the outside!!! It is a fake pineapple camouflage shell left only!!! They are sneaky. And, they will eat them green when they are hard and tasteless still!!! @epic gardening
My neighbor has free range chickens, they throw chicken feed on the ground and have several water sources for the chickens. Unfortunately, you can see the rats jumping around their yard, drinking and eating in broad daylight. There is nothing I can do about that. The rats have wandered into my yard and devastated my gardens this year. I will try your tips but I can’t control the neighbor.
Rats and mice are often a huge problem were we live (South Orange County near a regional park). My orange tree when it has fruit is like a buffet for them, but also my raised veg bed, garden shed and I’ll even find them in our spa. The dogs over the years have caught many but only so often. My primary trap are those tunnel type with a spring clamp and they do work (I use peanut butter and sunflower seeds), but after a while the rats just ignore them. I’ve tried Bonide repellent but that doesn’t seem to work. Although the trap you showed is expensive it may be the answer. I think overall it’s about consistency in luring the rats in so the trap is effective time and time again and worth the cost.
If you decide to use bait, a 1×1 mixture of cornbread and baking soda will work as well. Rats and mice cannot digest the baking soda, and it won’t hurt other animals even if they eat the dead rat or mouse. If you place it outside, put it in a Glad container or empty plastic container with a small hole on the side to protect it from the rain.
Kevin me and my husband have just recently started perusal your website and we have been very impressed with it there are several others we watch but we have been very impressed with you as we live in South Carolina and the area that I live in and where I live there is little room for gardening and so we just made do and started building a little raised beds or just tearing apart stuff we didn’t need anymore making beds at it cuz we’re so expensive but the way that you’re showing the no digging method we are wanting to try that and I feel like we’ll can be and will be successful with it. I do have a question about a couple things one of my questions is I have a yucca plant that I have by my mailbox and it looks like there’s I don’t know if it’s rust or if it’s got a fungal disease or what but even the bottom leaves have just died down and it looks terrible and I didn’t know what I needed to do to spruce it up it’s about 5 ft tall and I just I don’t know if I need to try to pull off the old leaves on take some of it all redo it I was just wanting to see if I could get some advice from you. And secondly I was wondering if you knew where my husband could try to order a dragon fruit he is dying to try to grow one here in South Carolina and I’m not sure if anyone in South Carolina has grown them before but we sure would like to give it a go.
I haven’t seen any but I have tent caterpillars eating on my bare root pear and apple trees that I just put in. I am spraying with some Neem oil but I’m not sure what else to do. I have a rock retaining wall so we could have rodents living in there. I will keep an eye out. Thanks for in the information. I love song birds and have two bird baths that could be a problem and a bird feeder. I will be sure to clean up what falls to the ground.
This is my first year (successfully) gardening and when I saw bugs and eggs on my tomatoes my first instinct was to burn it with fire because bugs are gross. Except Lady bugs. They are cute. Luckily lady bugs helped! Now if I even see a rat in my garden I still want to burn it with fire! I’m getting rid of my carboard cemetery and will grow even more mints! I hate rats and will pass out at the sight of one. Dead or alive they are nasty!
I had issues with a raccoon. One day she brought her adorable little baby, who got stuck on the neighbors power line. She eventually ripped down the line and severely injured the baby. Then proceeded to drag the baby back and the baby raccoon didn’t want to go. It looked like a kid getting pulled under the bed by a monster. Now I haven’t seen the trash pandas for awhile and they have kept rats away. Just thought I’d share this story for entertainment purposes 😊
I use Cage traps, Snap traps, and a trail cam to monitor, if I go out around dusk to early night I can hear them. I find the cage traps work better then the kill traps. Most the time my yard is rat free. I stay on top of the situation and don’t get lazy about baiting the traps. I use a lot more traps when I know there is a problem, If trail cam show’s no activity I can set fewer traps. No reason to be setting 6 or 7 traps if there is no signs of rats, but I always have at least 2 set.
Thank you for your articles. I just found your website when trying to deal with a rat. I am doing things on a frugal budget and found Dollar Tree wire mesh waste baskets. I am using them over my plants to keep the rat from eating young plants and veggies while I am in the process of getting ridding of the vermin. Additionally, the Dollar Tree lingerie laundry bags can be used to cover fruits or if you knit or crochet – make your own. Thanks again for all the information. 😃
I appreciate your article, but I don’t think the average person wants to spend $169.99 on one rat trap, which is what these cost by doing a simple Google search. That’s a ridiculous amount of money. And, most people will tell you that you that in order to be successful, you need to set multiple traps, perhaps 4 or 5 or more. I highly recommend the Tomcat plastic snap traps. They cost a little over $5 each, and are much easier to set than the old-fashioned wire and wood snap traps, which are downright dangerous to set at the rat-size (vs. mousetrap size). Also, I appreciate people making comments about catching mice, but mice and rats have very different habits. Rats are harder to trap, because as you mention, they are wary of anything new. Mice are curious by nature, and are easier to catch.
Thank you for talking about this. I feel like it’s such a no-no to talk about and makes people cringe. But I’ve fought them for 6-7 years now. And tried everything…. Literally. Not only in the garden, but they’ve gotten in our attic and ruined all the holiday stuff. I’m intrigued though. How has this trap done over time?
The electric ‘tunnel’ type traps also work extremely well, but I’ve found that only mice seem to be interested in going in them. For the rats, I’ve been using the plastic snap traps with the wide pressure plate & they’re working fantastically. The old fashioned wooden ones have too small of a pressure lever & the little bastards end up sidestepping the lever entirely, eating the bait anyway.
I know of someone hooking up the hose from their shop vac to the exhaust of their truck, blocked every hole they could find except one. stuck the hose in the only exit and put them all safely to sleep. They haven’t seen a rat or a new hole since. They have also moved their bird feeders far from the house .
We live in an older mobile home and we were under siege last year. Electronic traps helped, then I started making mint bags full of commercial rodent repellent. What really sent them running was of all things was a skunk! We have to deal with the occasional smell, before that possums took up residence under the house.
Any idea how to prevent rabbits from living in my tall birdie,s container bed ? Came home today to find a mama bunny sitting on a nest of babies between my cucumbers and marigolds ! I will defer to momma this year but how do I stop it next year ? Should I take comfort in knowing my soil, mulch and plants were so inviting ?
My neighbours & I share a beautiful, organic garden. They are mostly all mature people from the hippy era, so the mention of “washing vegetables before eating them” is met with a glazed look. There is definitely a rat problem in the garden and I’ve gently tried to mention that “rats pee as they walk” to no avail. Granted, everyone seems to be fine, but I know that talk of thoroughly washing the vegetables is thought of as almost conventional or the kind of puritanical mind set of their parents in the 1950s. I see people eat things as they’re standing in the garden & I can’t help but think of all the slugs that have crawled on it the night previous and the rats nibbling on it. It is refreshing to see someone touch on this Bec cause it drives me crazy.
I’ve had both pet rats and rat pests in the garden. Rats are dynamic enough to read your body language, they can be conditioned to do tricks. Pet rats generally consider you one big rat. They can be taught to ride on your shoulder, and mine would put their tails around my neck for balence and whuffle in my ear. Pet rats will not spread disease. They’ve been raised away from things that could make them sick. That said I cleaned their cage enough that I’d know their droppings in my sleep. But to give you an idea of how habituated rats can be. When i moved into my apartment ten years ago and I looked at the empty side yard I caught a rat ducking into a hole in the basement window. It wasn’t secured. At all. The landlord used foam to seal the window shut. Years later when squatters left garbage and spoiled food all over and made a huge mess that spilled out into the side yard, rats started burrowing underneath the planters and beds (I’m a container gardener, that side yard gets too messy for me to be 100% convinced its safe to grow in ground and if I have to move I want to be able to move my plants too. When I followed the burrows, it lead right to the SAME exact spot. The same window. And I found a dead rat done in by its handiwork at the end. It had triggered a landslide of dead dry sandy sediment onto it, buried itself and suffocated to death. In the middle of the pile of gravel, dust and sand was a mummified rat. Also i once found a mouse the neighbors had trapped with a glueboard and I can confirm that it is incredibly distressing even though this is your nemesis being tortured here.
I’ve got cockroaches, rats and feral cats in my yard. I have a barricade of ortho hone defence keeping them out of my house thus far. Other than the insecticide around my home. Its 100% organic. The birds have a bounty of insects to raise their children on. It’s okay for now knock on wood. No snails is a tell tale sign of rats in your yard. I’ve found 1 snail in my yard in 5 years since I bought the home
Been having this problem recently in my garden, there is a small ravene near my home where for sure they live and multiple. Anyhow rats love compost, so using compost from the house will incurage more of them, so I cannot use that anymore as much as I would love to use it to encourage worms to multiple, anyhow I read recently on line a farmer wrote in that if you mix ground yellow cornmeal and baking soda together add a little water and maybe just a small amount of bait. They come for the bait and eat the cornmeal ànd baking soda and that will cause them to bloat and a rat cannot burp or fart so it will cause them to die, now i can buy useless rat traps and maybe I might catch one once in a while, rats and mice are smart so using cornmeal mixed together with baking and water and they will just die. I found a foot long rat a few days ago, found him in my bag of leaves. So it seemsvto work. I also would suggest not to put any of this formula in the house, reason rat or mice will die in your walls and it will stink and draw flies. So don’t use this in side your house. Outside im the garden or ravene near by ok.
I agree with your statement that feeding birds and other wild animals also attracts rats. Whenever possible, my husband and I like to deal with pests in the most humane way possible. My husband bought a trap which catches the rat humanely. He then used to drive some distance away and release it. I know – it sounds crazy, but I hate cruelty of all kinds. Rats are very smart. If you put down bait and they see another rat eat it and then die, they will not touch the bait. You could raise your garden beds and surround them with mouse wire which has tiny holes in it, unlike chicken wire. I agree with another person who posted below my comment that mint is a known rat deterrent and peppermint, too. I would try growing some of that. Then you can use the mint to make tea or add it to fruit salads. Thank you for your article.
Between the cats, the jays, the hawk, and the black snakes, if there are rats or mice in my garden or in my house in any large number I’ll be impressed. We did catch one somewhat thick-headed brown or gray rat though, who kept coming back into the house. The third time we drove it up the mountain and dumped it 40 miles or so from the house.
become the pest In reality, I have rats and squirrels inside my store’s greenhouse (Lowe’s) they seem to prefer ferns and tradescandia. I’ve done everything besides using actual rat poison because it’s bad for the environment, but I’m also getting my ass kicked by mother nature, this article couldn’t have been more clutch
My strawberry demolishing, saffron bulb eating, pumpkin seedling, and fruit wrecker pest are Australian native possums and brush turkeys. Exclusion and harmless deterrences are the only options. But they were here first. Fair enough. I just wish they would eat a few whole pieces of fruit instead of sampling 15 different ones.
thank you for the confirmation that rats are a normal part of gardening, but that doesn’t mean we have to live with it. I’m fine with rodents (rats, mice, rabbits, squirrels) until they interfere with my home. We had a large rat infestation last summer. I was able to exterminate 5 rats, before they caught onto the traps. We ended up contracting out because they got into our attic – they would climb the extension cord that I was using for patio lights to get on the roof, they even chewed through the string of patio lights. What attracted them? bird seed. It was the one and only time I tried to put up a bird feeder in my yard. They liked the seed and then like my veggies and then liked my attic. I do have two composts – an open one for yard scrapes and an barrel for food scrapes – as I was more worried about attracting the predators to my food waste than I was the rodents. One a side note for sticky traps – they don’t discriminate. if you touch it, you are stuck to it – that includes anything and everything that is breathing…not just rats. Happy Gardening!
Wildlife biologist here. NOT a big fan of this. The US west coast has some of the largest native rodent diversity in the world and many are threatened. this trap seems better than most (MUCH better than a cat. DO NOT get a cat) based solely on the set up of it, but it still is killing indiscriminately. a live trap would be a better option as it would allow you to let go or relocate any rare or endangered rodents. As is, you can keep using the traps, but i’d say you should at least get educated on how to ID your native species so that if you do start finding a lot of them dead you’ll at least know and you can consider changing tactics then. Since you know exactly what pest you’re dealing with, it’s not TERRIBLE, but i’m just not a fan. Hopefully, the bait is at least formulated to not draw moles and beneficial mammals that eat your insect pests. You could also try leaving the bodies out for a short while to draw more of the rats’ predators like foxes, but in LA you might just draw more rats 🥴🙃
My rat problem is so big now… Farmer Delores over here regretting my decision to grow food near the city. I am so Traumatized…. gearing up to deal with an out of control problem. Ugh, not paying $200 for a trap unless I am 100% sure it will work and paying an exterminator isn’t in my budget. When I was working more, they were a waste of money,, just putting out bait that I can do. So… I’m shook
In the house use glass jars to keep ANYTHING a real/ mouse will eat. They like any grain in any form. You can mix up a bait like flour,sugar,and boric acid or baking soda they should eat this and die. You a can mix it up with peanut oil and make balls as the bait. You can put peanut butter in to really attract them. They also like soap in bar form. So keep your bars of soap in large jars too. They can chew throw plastic pretty fast. So plastic will not keep anything safe. To catch a mouse or rat easy you can make a large cage with a 5 inch opening put a glue trap that will fit across the bottom of the width of the floor. Put bird seed or peanut butter on the opposite side where the opening is. They will smell the bait and go in get caught in the glue it is not hard to catch a few varmints a night. 🐀🐁🐭
Logically, I know there’s gotta be rats around in my town. We’ve got all kinds of wildlife, even though it’s pretty populated with humans. But I also let my cat outside on a tether, so I haven’t had to worry about many, if any pests recently. He doesn’t catch anything, being on a tether and all, but his presence and the fact that he’s almost caught squirrels and birds a few times has kept everything outside the tether’s radius.
I had a BIG rat problem at home. My direct neighbour is a field. Across my street is a ranch (not the type of ranch in USA. It’s a very small ranch with a few horses to ride, one or two small pasture but… same problem. Straw + food = rats). My garden was literally ravaged. They destroyed my electric installation, bite of holes in my WALLS ! I’m not kidding ! They went and digged holes through a CONCRETE wall ! And nothing worked…. until I got my cat…… It wasn’t pretty. I had to clean up the …….. remains (?) … a few time but thanks god I haven’t seen a rat in months and the damage is slowly being repaired (my flowers… my poor poor flowers TTxTT). For info, my cat is a crossbreed benghal-serengeti who are a famous hunting breed. That’s drastic. Though, do ask your municipality before getting one. They are a primitive breed and might be forbidden in some place.
I have three cats and I NEVER get mice or birds, even though I’m pretty sure mice live around here, and the birds always look from afar at the grapes during the summer, but if they ever get close enough, their feathers will be spread on the whole garden in like 15 minutes cause my furry baby girl likes to play with them before snapping their necks… So, there’s that solution too
I had rats wipe out 17 tomato plant crops 2 years ago and they also got into my roof… tried every trap. Tried water bucket traps, tried all the humane (and eventually less humane ones) and NOTHING worked. I have a dog so my options were limited – glue and poisons were not an option. I got 2 bengal cats – they patrol my garden and kill the rats + they are amazing garden buddies and absolutely delightful pets. You just have to get to them before they actually eat the rats. And they will even get up onto the roof where our norweigan roof rats nest to knock them out. Fixed females as the person mentioned below … although I got them because they are so loyal and smart. We garden together every day 🙂
We had a disgruntled neighbor that was being forced to move (outrageous rent increase) after almost 20 years in the home. He purposely bred rats in his garage for three months before he released them into our small neighborhood, the night before he moved out. They. Are. Everywhere. My garden gets eaten as soon as a plant sprouts. I can sit and watch them at night, running around the neighborhood, on the walls, by the hundreds. We have neighborhood owls, hawks, and snakes, so I won’t put out poison. I also don’t know if my neighbors are putting out poison, so I can’t even let my cat out at night as a deterrent. It’s so depressing. I seriously think I might have to move, because I’m being held hostage by revenge rats.
A good terrier can sure take care of mice and rats! Our old Westie, Pearl, was an awesome means of pest control. She and our old cat, Onyx, were both amazing at killing rodents. And they were indoors, too. Now, our JRT, Amethys (Amy), keeps the pests at bay but we got to get them away from her quickly because our beagle will eat the dead or dying ones that she caught. It’s not fun running after a beagle with a half-eaten critter in her mouth and having to then take it out of her mouth. Although I’d recommend extensive research on the animal, first for anyone hoping to get a cat or a dog for a garden. Sometimes bringing one in may pose more risks than you bargain for. If I’d known how much of a handful our JRT was going to grow up to be, I’d have had her trained way sooner. They’re one of the most spastic and stubborn breeds I’ve had the pleasure of handling. I would not trust her in a garden alone and/or off leash with the way she currently is. Cats are also another option but that has pros and cons, too. Although, a house cat or two can take care of the indoor rat problem at the very least.
I recently saw a article where someone had a rat infestation in their barn and he used a mixture (50/50) of dry Jiffy honey corn muffin mix and baking soda. It’s harmless for any other animals but will kill rats and mice. The gases builds up in their gut and can’t be expelled. And if other animals eat the rat carcass there’s no danger to them. The guy used a cheap Tupperware-like container with a hole on its side with about 3 tbs each mix and baking soda inside. Hope this helps.
my backyard is hell right now. I have a nice berm made of ferns. the rabbits love it, however the rats do too. I”ve been trying to control them at my house border with tomcat bait but its gruesome because they just go off and die and you’ll smell them. Ive been reluctant to use traps like this because if you have rats in numbers, eventually (so im told) they will stop going to the trap because they see their rat friends dying at the trap. It seems to work good in small numbers, but how well does it work when you have a colony on your perimeter? Unfortunately, i think I may have to remove the rabbits habitat to reduce the rat habitat and come up with a cleaner border that separates our property. Occassionally I see a black snake or two, and its when i have the least amount of rat activity. I just wish i could convince them to stay because eventually they move on.. or are picked off by the hawks/owls.
I’ve had rats sheer off the top of several pepper plants, SO frustrating! Thankfully, most of the peppers recovered and I up potted them into pots to keep up where the rats don’t seem to be able to climb. I also put out chunks of a product called Agrid. It is vitamin D3 and they seem to love it! They will carry the chunks off to their nest where several will eat it. It causes them to bleed out and die. Gruesome, but it seems to work. If you put it out for at least a week, you notice chunks disappearing and then a slowing down of chunks being taken.
Kevin, unfortunately, the rats often eat through the netting bags, but they are better than nothing. My preferred trap is the live capturer rat cage and a bucket of water, to euthanase them. Bait is a “Good O” circular dog biscuit jammed on the wire hook and peanut butter. During the rat season, I often will catch four rats a night throughout my garden. Twenty-six dollars Au, for the trap and they, last for many many years if you look after them.
We have pictures of squirrels hanging from my tomatoes. They chose tomatoes over chunky peanut butter in the humane trap and did not seem interested in the water bowls we left around the property — 30’ – 50’+ away. I’ve tried putting out the hot cayenne pepper also with no success. Will try the coyote urine. That would sure beat enclosing the whole garden in chicken wire.
We had a little farm also. My husband put all of our chook food in a big garbage bin like our councils use for rubbish. Then we had various heights of steps up to the bin like used pots, an old chest freezer. The rats would run up these and if you left the lid on the bin off, they would jump into the grain but couldn’t get out again. My husband then euthanised the rats. Really worked and you would often have multiple rats.
This may be an unpopular solution or so.e might view it as trading one problem for another but I made friends with a couple of feral cats. Yes, they dig up open areas of loose dirt in my garden and I simply rake the area and reshape it but the trade off is that the only rats I’ve seen since those 2 cats have hung around are dead or in the cat’s mouth about to be dead. The squirrels have vanished arround my garden too. I have the added perk of being lucky enough to have these 2 cats trust me enough that they let me pet them and keep me company in the backyard. That is not case all the time and it took a long time to develope that trust, but it luckily happened. The brats do dig up areas from time to time, but I’ll take that over a rat problem any day. BTW… I had the added bonus of luck that these cats were Trapped, Nuetered and Returned (TNR) by someone or organization so they are fixed. I could tell by one tip of an ear being clipped to Identify them as such.
Some little grabbler rodent burrowed up into my raised bed and knocked a tomato and pepper plant over. I thought it was a mole but now I’m considering it could be a rat. I saw what I was hoping was a mouse the other day but maybe not. Does this trap work on rabbits or are they not into this kinda bait thing? We have at last count 6 wild rabbits in the yard and have come to live in harmony with them. Would hate to see the baby bunnies getting chopped.
I’m on the other coast, and have plenty of foxes and owls around. Haven’t seen rats (or rabbits) here, but mice are a problem –how different are rats from mice? There are also plenty of squirrels, voles, and chipmunks here but they don’t seem to cause any damage. Your rat didn’t look much larger than a vole or chipmunk.
Interesting rat trap, but boy are they expensive! I’m going to stick with my Aegis Rat Bait Stations that fit Victor Power Kill rat traps inside. I’ve been baiting the snap traps with peanut butter and Nutella, and so far I’ve been catching about 1 rat per day. However, mice don’t weigh enough to set off the Victor Power Kill rat traps, so I just set out a few Protecta Mouse bait stations that have the old fashioned Victor mouse traps inside (unfortunately, the Tomcat Press ‘N Set mouse traps are too tall to fit in the Protecta mouse bait stations).
My cats work hard on the gophers, rats & lizards, …etc in my garden, but I’ve also noticed that nobody wants my thorn-less boysenberrys but me. 😀 Not the birds, raccoons, skunks, foxes, deer, not even the bears … Kinda hard to grow much else here in these mountains. I do have peach trees that give wonderful fruit sometimes. They started off nectarines, but came back as peaches when our late snows after false spring killed the original tree. I wish I knew what variety of peaches are use to graft Independence nectarines. I’d buy & plant them on purpose.
My neighbor has a ground cover that is very dense & comes right up to my garage on the property line & seems to be where they’re coming from. The garage has open beams so can’t close that off. I tried snap traps & caught quite a few when I first moved in but then they seemed to become savvy & haven’t caught any in months. Actually my GSD has caught more than I have (yuk). I’m going to try peppermint oil, maybe on a cloth soaked with it(?) & placed at the beam along the open roof line. Thank goodness I haven’t seen any evidence of them inside my home.
Thanks a heck of a lot for this article!! I actually saw a rat which is why I watched this. This evening I went to inspect my garden and pulled aside my chard that is going to seed….CRAP!!! a whole family of very healthy rats. Scared me to death. Now my problem is how to get rid of them. I can’t afford that nifty little contraption you use unfortunately. Rat stew anyone??? UGH!
I have chickens adjacent to my garden, they are my compost bin and the rats are a nightmare. I let 5he dogs have at them to keep them disrupted and buckets of water are their demise. For people who can’t afford a fancy trap, a 2 gallon or 5 gallon bucket of water with a lid that flips does them in. Ravens and turkey vultures clean up my mess. Thank goodness for the food chain.
I used a cage with the bait that kills the rats. They are attracted to the bait, then get locked in. When they are dead I toss them out without having to worry about an owl or hawk eating the dead rat full of poisonous bait. I did catch one that was eating our oranges. Unfortunately also caught a bird. I don’t think the bird went in to get the bait. I think it was just not aware of where it was going. I let the bird go free.
Thank you Kevin. I myself do not like rats and actually fear of it. However I do feed birds outside. I think the good thing, also is the bad thing is, there are some cats (street( sticking around and I feed them (also wild birds) daily. I think cats are what keep no more rats around my living area. However, it is sad that on the other head, in fact rats are also animals, yea, the concern is about disease and possibly attack human, and there could be more and more if not handled. Somehow, it is dilimma isn’t it?
Since you posted this removal of rats 3 years ago, how now have been with rodents in your garden. I already have rats and counter using snap traps and they work ok, but they break down easily as the mechanism that comes down on the rodent, snaps very hard and breaks pieces off which sometimes makes the mechanism not work anymore. I’ll check out for this automatictrap mechanism.
You have to try the New Zealand Noosky brand. Strangles them very humanely as in right next to the baited tube. Different sizes for different critters. No crawling off to die and rot and then dealing with the next food chain effect, maggots. No longer available in South Africa. So husband adopted feral cats and they hunt and bring down. Sadly lizards too. So much like gardening. What is a weed. What is a critter. Survival up the food chain.
THANK YOU SO SO MUCH for this article!!!! Mice are crazy sneaky and SUCH PESTS! I am dealing with this now in my home and have about 100 starter seed pods for my new garden and I am terrified they are going to munch on my plants. I am also getting a barn cat to stay outside during the day and chase them away!
I am planning to put an in-ground garden in this year. But where it would go, I’ve already got 3 mice within two days (with snap traps). Do you think rubber snakes would work? If I moved them around a few times a day (I would go out to water at least 3 times a day, and I could move them then). Haven’t seen any rats in there yet, but I know they live in the area. And do you think the snake thing would work on birds too?
Ugh!! The mice ate unopened marigold buds, snapdragons, my dwarf rose and some green onion tops last night. The veggies haven’t even grown yet! I live in the middle of no where and it’s a harsh environment (nothing to eat or drink) so Chez Marianne’s is open for late dinner. I’m going to try the oil in the bowl trick now. I said I’d do it but now I have no choice. I caught them on a game camera even eating a succulent I left outside.
I have not had rats until COVID. Seems the food sources downtown ran out during closures and forced them into suburbia. Just last year I caught over 50 with simple snap traps. The worst part was when a trap got a rat, and his buddies ate him ewww lol. Narrow chicken wire protected my tomatoes 🙂 but it sure made extra work for me. Good luck everyone.
I had some mice in my home from Oct of 2020 through Jan 2021. totally freaked me out!! I caught some but I called an exterminator. I was shocked to find out that they were not entering in the traditional way, through an open door but through a tiny hole in the foundation on the opposite side of my house. I hope they are gone for good!!
I deal with Moles, Voles, and Shrews…(although Reeses & Pieces, my cats, also bring Lizards & frogs in ) Everyone has their thing that they just can’t handle and mine is rodents, I literally get the hivey jiveys and need my feet the hell off the floor!!! Although I love my cats obvious amount of gratitude to us……I wish they’d quit bringing their “gifts” & “toys” INSIDE!!! My 6 year old daughter, Layla, helps ‘save/rescue’ all the reptiles, and the cats DEFINITELY seem to keep the rodent population down, at least I think!!! However if I do, I mean if our GARDEN does need some extra protection….Will these work for most rodents? Also I’ve been meaning to ask, where do you get the black signs for your garden and are they used with a UV marker?? Thanx Kevin, I truly love, enjoy, and appreciate your websites…not to mention the wealth of experience, honesty, & knowledge you share with us all <3