I live in an area where, with fruit trees and plentiful rat habitat
(the ubiquitous ivy and star jasmine "landscaping," which I call
ratvine and ratweed interchangeably), the cute (unless they get into
the attic) little roof rats are everywhere. In the community garden,
which is in the middle of a residential area, and thus full of rat
habitat, I've occasionally seen rats running into the unmaintained
plots. Once I saw tunnels in my compost bin on a cold winter morning,
so I put hardware cloth under all the bins to eliminate burrowing.
But for the most part, rats are just not a problem here. I do find
piles of snail shells in odd corners (so the rats are helping out by
keeping the snail population down), but other than that, rats do not
seem to be eating anything in my garden. The squirrels are partial to
tomatoes, and the birds like to peck at berries and some tomatoes.
But that's rare and not a big deal. By far the biggest stealers of
produce and flowers, litterers, and general nuisances (smoking,
noise, etc.) are the humans.
Unless you have a huge rat problem or they've been tested as vectors
of specific diseases in your neighborhood, I'd "control" rats by
focusing on keeping the garden plots free of debris and well
maintained, and keeping the compost bins in active use. They probably
will take up residence in any unused corner or especially in a
structure or bin that's abandoned. My sense is that rats of one kind
or another are everywhere, whether you see them or not, and that if
you try to eradicate them, you'll be creating bigger problems with
unforeseen side effects.
In my experience, gardens and compost do not attract rats or increase
their population. Rather, people who spend more time outdoors,
especially in areas that are being cleaned up or that may be poorly
maintained, are more apt to observe the odd rat and overreact.
Never ever use the glue traps -- they are unspeakably cruel. Never
use poison, either -- you don't want people finding dead poisoned
rats in their garden plots.
Tanya
northern Calif.
At 3:39 PM -0700 7/21/10, <[email protected]> wrote:
A year ago at this time our garden was just a big empty field, so it's
not a surprise that we have rats. Especially given all the yummy food
growing in it now. But obviously, we'd like to NOT have them. Has
anyone else had to deal with this critter?
We don't want to use poison because we're an organic garden, have
children in the garden, and the fact that if a hawk or owl eats the rat
after it's eaten the poison, the bird would also be poisoned.
Glue traps seem rather torturous, but I suppose they could be an option.
I do worry about catching a bird or other animal accidentally though.
Snap traps are also a possibility, as long as they are beneath a wire
cage to avoid springing on children's fingers, birds, toads, etc.
Have any of these been effective for anyone? Any other suggestions?
Thanks in advance!
Lori Ferris
Garden Manager
Unity Park Community Garden
Round Rock, TX
www.UnityParkCG.org
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