Rat problem settled

[HarveyC]

Some of you may have seen me post on another forum about my woes caused by a rat for the past 3 weeks that really escalated when I removed a bag of grass seed it had been munching one. The thing started nibbling on some of my fig cuttings and liked them so much that he pulled some cuttings up completely and ate them in the privacy of drawers of some old cabinets in my shop. I lost 2 Galicia Negra, a Black Madeira, and some other rare stuff. I moved all of my plants/cuttings into my greenhouse to prevent further loss. I had been trying snap traps, glue traps, a poison concoction, and a box trap/cage. I discovered the rat liked banana pretty well and got the banana out of the box trap twice without triggering the door catch. After some suggestions for changes by some forum members last night, I finally had success. It was a tough battle that drove me nuts but I was victorious!

[HarveyC]

If you look closely at that CdDG tree you can see 3 spots where the rat chewed away at it. It will recover.

[Blueboy1977]

Persistance pays off, way to go Harvey! I had a big rat last year that would take all my ripe figs the day before I planned on picking them. Organza bags didnt work at all! He would take the whole thing bag and all. I also had 5 lychee fruits start to ripen on my tree. At the first sign of red on the shell he got 2 of them. I ended up stapling some wire screen around the remaining ones and he would visit them every night and try to chew through the metal screen but had no luck. Dirty little @@@@@@@s!!!!

[HarveyC]

Hope my cuttings are okay. The first night I realized the rat was stealing fig cuttings I moved them all as well as all of my young plants into my new greenhouse away from the rat. I was up late with traps, etc. and by the time I got up the next day late in the morning my greenhouse was up to 99F. They are staying in their tonight but I'll move post back into my shop in the morning. It was very frustrating. I have one rare Portuguese variety and had just taken 4 cuttings off of it to root and the rat chewed on all 4 of those and walked off with 1 of them completely. There might be enough buds left on the others to still make it.

[Kelby]

See, that's why I have a cat! Bummer on the losses, though. We get mice and rats at work sometimes, amazing how much damage they can cause.

[FMD]

Congrats, Harvey. I will have to grow the same determination come the fall if I want to sample any of my chestnuts from the freaking squirrels!

[Hershell]

Good deal rat man. Um do you really think that's the only one?

[COGardener]

Harvey,

That is fantastic that you finally got the rat!!!! You do know the only way to get your figs back is eat the rat... right. Congrats on the victory!!

Scott

[F. Bennett]

Nicely done, Harvey. Love the picture!

[NYCfigs]

Congrats Harvey!

[ChillynPhilly]

Bill of Bill's Figs sets mouse traps in all his winter stored figs, but that's for mice ... would it work for rats? What about those rat traps that you see around shopping centers, the low, boxy ones ... ? Again, Harvey, nice selfie.

[Bevman]

IMO those low boxy things you see at shopping centers are rat poison bait boxes, not traps.

[HarveyC]

I am pretty sure this was the only rat in my shop. We have 3 cats and a dot and the cats to catch mice and the dog sometimes helps out. But the shop door is almost always closed so the pets don't go in there. I'm not sure if the rat found some entry spot (haven't seen one big enough, I think) or if it got in at one time when the door was left open. I've had to tell others before to close the door if they aren't going right back in and maybe now they have a better understanding of my concern. It was a pretty costly problem.

The rat took a trip to the landfill this morning.

[armando93223]

Great to Hear that you caught that little monster...... You went Rambo on him...LOL

[MichaelTucson]

Ah, I see. The Assassin.

[susieqz]

before i killed them, rats caused terrible damage to my inground trees. they like fruit, leaves n branches.
poison takes forever to work so i finally got a havahart that got them.
no, i didn't release them humanely.
i shot them humanely.

[MichaelTucson]

Awww... not those cute little rats!

(um, in case anyone's got a defective sarcasm detector... around here we get 'em with fireplace pokers). (the rats, not the people with defective detectors).

[SharonC]

I hear you killed another one.

[COGardener]

I'm glad I don't have much along the way vermin at my house, a mouse from time to time, squirrels and birds. I have never seen nor heard of rats in Colorado Springs, doesn't mean they are not there, you just never here about them. The tree rats "squirrels" do enough damage as it is, and once I move east of town, I will have to contend with voles, goffers, prairie dogs and coyotes. I am going to building homes for bull snakes and collecting all I can find to help with the vermin along with other means of repelling and eliminating them, my dogs will take care of the coyotes.