Hi Robin, One of my sites has been using the following set up with success and it protects birds and not nasty chemical use. They took this rat jaw trap, T-Rex: http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/trapper-trex-rat-trap-p-95.html And it fit into a bait trap Protecta Sidekick Rat Bait Station (which keeps out birds): http://pestcontrol.domyownpestcontrol.com/search?view=grid&w=Protecta+Sidekick+Rat+Bait+Station+
It is not cheap per say but they will last forever. I am also attaching our rat guidelines thought some folks might find it helpful In Community Thank you for your time, Sandy Pernitz-Community Garden Coordinator sandy.pern...@seattle.gov 206-684-0284 www.seattle.gov/Neighborhoods/ppatch/ “I can think of no better form of personal involvement in the cure of the environment than that of gardening.” Wendell Berry Public Disclosure/Disclaimer Statement Consistent with the Public Records Act, Chapter 42.56 RCW, all records within the possession of the City may be subject to a public disclosure request and may be distributed or copied. Records include and are not limited to sign-in sheets, contracts, e-mails, notes, correspondence, etc. Use of lists of individuals or directory information (including address, phone or E-mail) may not be used for commercial purposes. -----Original Message----- From: Robin Mitchell [mailto:eccommunitygar...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2014 9:43 PM To: Community Garden List Subject: [Community_garden] Rats in the garden Sorry, I just sent this same email as a reply to the Cornel Organic Gardening Course email, so I am resending with a proper subject. Don't mean to spam everyone! ************* All I work with a very small, completely open community garden in the San Francisco Bay Area, and we are having trouble with rats. Unfortunately, the rat that we saw running around last week now has a litter of 3 babies (!) I am trying to figure out what the best strategy is for dealing with this situation. I am not sure I have it in me to kill the babies, even though I don't want to be breeding rats at the garden. I don't think they are weaned yet. If they were, I would be inclined to relocate them to an undeveloped area (quite large) in the hills, where maybe nature would take it's course, as there are more predators up there. But then there is still mom, even if we did relocate the children. We were going to set out a snap trap for her, before we knew she was a mom. Now of course, we don't want to, since she's feeding kids, as subjecting the babies to starvation would be a very cruel way to kill them. But, as I said, we don't want to be breeding rats! We have gotten rid of some of the habitat (VERY overgrown tomato plants) they were enjoying, but because of the drought, we are mulching with straw, and that is where the litter is, nicely tucked away under the soft cover of straw !!! I think this shows that I am not a real farmer, since I'm having trouble dealing properly with pests (!) Any ideas? Also, I would be interested to know if anyone knows of a brand of enclosed rat trap (snap trap that kills instantly and humanely, not one that uses poison) that is safe to put in a garden that has lots of kids and pets running around in it. Thanks for all your thoughts! -- Robin Mitchell El Cerrito Community Garden Network Email: eccommunitygar...@gmail.com Web: https://www.sites.google.com/site/elcerritocommunitygarden/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20140917/6c856fd7/attachment.html> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 403 Rats.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 1093122 bytes Desc: 403 Rats.pdf URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20140918/106060e2/attachment.pdf> _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
