They are in my yard. Worse. They’re in my garden. Early this week, they snatched every single baby tomato off my vines.
Let the Rat Wars begin!
Apparently, rats are making their rounds all over Charlottesville. I subscribe to Next Door, a community web site, and several people have posted pictures asking, “What kind of squirrel is this?”
Not squirrels. Rats. Common gray rats with small ears and long tails.
It is largely my fault we have them. I like to throw seeds out for my ground feeding birds and that draws rats. In particular, rats will feed on those small red seeds called milo, which is used a filler to keep seed cheap. You should never buy cheap bird seed because the birds don’t eat milo, but mice and rats do.
When I stopped strewing seeds on the ground, the rodents invaded my garden. I put out a solar powered chipmunk high-pitched whistle and that has kept Chip and Dale out, but not the rats.
However.
I had ordered small animal traps from Amazon and when baited with a bit of peanut butter – that works. My rat population is rapidly shrinking.
They say if you have just a few rats, traps are effective, but if there are lots of the rodents, call a professional exterminator. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but I am no longer putting seeds on the ground, and I am putting peanut butter in the traps.
As James Cagney would say, “Take that, you Dirty Rat!