Rats

[theberzh]

Are you guys finding rats in your garden recently?

I live in Connecticut.
We discovered a rat hanging around the yard in the early spring.
It was living in the stone wall and even had a young baby running around with it.
We were very shocked to see a rat where we live in the suburb/country area.
Then I thought it went away.
It didn't.
It just moved to the garden.
I just saw evidence of it recently and holes everywhere and some of my plants are chewed up.

Today I just ran into an old friend that I had not seen in about ten years.
He told me the same story where he has rats all over his garden now and he lives in my same town on the other side.
Then he told me he suspects that when they made people shut down all the restaurants during that Covid thing that he suspects that all the rats left the restaurant city garbage areas and moved out to the woods for food where they overpopulated and now they are everywhere.

What do you guys think?

 

[flowerbug]

...
What do you guys think?

rat traps.

glad to say i'm not seeing that here.

we've always had mice and chipmunks and sometimes get overrun with chipmunks to where i have to hunt and trap them, but it hasn't been like that for several years.

 

[oxbow farm]

There are more rats almost everywhere than you realize. If you are seeing lots of holes then there are more than just two rats. Seeing rats in broad daylight (in my personal experience) usually means that there are so many rats in the burrow system that the smaller, younger rats get bullied out and they start coming up during the day. But for that many rats to be around, there would need to be an abundant food supply to produce such a population. In one case I remember it was a huge group of rats living under a slab foundation chicken coop, with a unlimited supply of chicken feed for them to eat. Another colony I saw was living under a garage slab and eating dropped birdseed from a huge group of birdfeeders the homeowner kept constantly full. There was a couple inches of seed debris under the feeding areas, and chock full of rat holes. The main thing with rats is not supplying them with easy food. If there isn't a huge supply of food in a constant area, then the rat population is small and you never notice them, even though they are there.

 

[flowerbug]

...If there isn't a huge supply of food in a constant area, then the rat population is small and you never notice them, even though they are there.

i think that is pretty normal for mice too. they are always around but you may not notice them in the daytime unless there is food they can get at.

 

[carlbidwell]

Rats in the garden are the worst! They’re usually after food or shelter, so try cleaning up fallen fruit, sealing compost, and checking for burrows near sheds or fences. A few well-placed traps can help too. Catching it early like you did makes a big difference, good job staying on top of it!