Back to Gardening Chapter 6, Dealing With Pests - Part A: Mammals (cont.)

In this section I discuss how to identify and deal with rats and rabbits.

Rats

The mere sight of a rat can cause fear and/or revulsion in many people . We associate them with filth, and plague, and death - and rightly so given their historical association with such things - but rats can also be a real problem in a garden. They can eat anything, they can get through anything, and they are smart. In my experience, a zero tolerance policy is the only way to deal with rats.

Rats and humans have had a love-hate relationship since the dawn of civilization. They love us, and we hate them[source].

Identification

The most obvious sign of rats in a garden is rat droppings, which are dark in color, about 1/2” long (~1.5cm), generally rounded at one end, and slightly pointed at the other. Think of a small olive pit - that’s kind of what they look like. Other than the droppings, the other signs they leave are difficult to distinguish from that of other rodent-like animals. A trail camera that can take pictures at night is a good way to spot them. A cheap alternative to a trail camera is to buy a bag of fine play sand and pour it around the area where the damage is happening - and then take pictures of the tracks left in the sand and compare them to pictures found online.