OK...
Get over it – everywhere there is civilization, there are rats.
They live in our trash, on our refuse and they proliferate everywhere
humans congregate.
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Evidence of rodents feeding on corn |
They
are pests of the garden and now they have come to feast on my corn –
my very valuable Glass Gem Popcorn and they are going to take the
whole crop unless I can find a way to stop them.
But
before we get to that... It's my fault. There are two stands of
corn in the garden. The other stand will come to fruition with very
little predation while the valuable Glass Gem stands very little
chance of producing anything at all for me. It's in the wrong place.
The
Glass Gem was placed in an area of convenience for me – near the
composting site of the garden. This is the wrong place to put
anything that rodents may want to eat because compost piles are
natural habitat for rodents plus they can venture out from the compost area
under some good weed cover and get into my corn unobserved. This
foils my number one anti-rodent defense: my local hawk.
Some
areas of the garden are never predated upon by rodents because the
rodents must cross ample open ground to feast on whatever is planted
and in that crossing, they are easy prey for the hawk. I did not
think of that when I selected this spot for the Glass Gem corn. The
rats or mice have only a few feet to cross and those few feet have
plants that can cover them – besides a hawk is not going to place
himself in a human made culvert between compost bins and tall corn
for any little morsel; there isn't enough take off/landing space to
protect him.
Now
I've got to play catch up – in desperation, I posted my dilemma on
Facebook and I got all kinds of answers. I want to look at each one
here and try to solve my problem in front of God and everyone.
Traps
Probably
the most recommended in the answers. Traps do a fair job of
targeting the pest species, which is vitally important to me. While I
have no problem killing insects, for example, I will not spray
because of the collateral damage caused by sprays – not only do I
kill the species I aim at, but most organic sprays are indiscriminate
in what they kill. Spray for aphids and you wipe out the lady bug
eggs that were laid nearby to feast on those same aphids – and
instead of solving my problem, I've only postponed it because ants
will bring more aphids back to recolonize the area and there will be
no lady bugs to oppose them.
I
have seen squirrels get bit by rat traps. The squirrel is not
killed, but the trap is attached to his leg and he will wear it until
he dies. Which one prays is soon, because the suffering must be
immense. I do NOT like squirrels one little bit, but I struggle with
inflicting that kind of suffering on any living thing. And if a
squirrel can be caught by one, why wouldn't a dog? Or a cat?
Traps
are out.
Cat
Speaking
of cats, they were the second most popular suggestion – they also
elicited the most responses and controversy. On one side, the
indignant cat rescuers and on the other, people who wrote me long
emails about the 'misguided' opposition to rodent-catching cats.
I
am from a farm. I grew up on a farm with many cats, all of whom got
very little food from humans – they were on their own to police the
barn and granaries. One of them lived to be thirteen (I was told,
certainly she was older than I was!), but that was the exception –
most had much shorter lifespans. Still, they were a part of the
working life of a farm.
However,
on Unified School District property it is out of the question –
it's against school policy. I don't get to vote.
Dog
Less
effective than cats, dogs were also mentioned. My experience makes
me think they are worthless; the one's I know think of rats running
around as a kind of free TV.
Poisons
Absolutely
a non-starter with me. Too many chances for non-target species to be
hurt.
That
pretty much shoots the whole lot of 'em down, doesn't it?
Except,
for me taking responsibility for a poor location and doing something
about it. Sixteen human hours late, the compost pile has been
relocated to a space not far from where it was before, but there is
15 feet of clear ground they will have to cross before they reach the
corn. Already, this morning, remnants of rodent were found adjacent
to the corn field.
This
will not result in 100% effectiveness. I don't need that. I am
willing to take some losses – I am NOT willing to lose everything
however. I am also going to cage some of the biggest and best ears
in hardware cloth to prevent those specific ears from being eaten.
david