RATS!!!

[Pyro]

Well it seems the cold weather influenced a rat or two to take refuge in my crawlspace. And then they decided to snack on my plants...

I have major damage along with a number of total losses to my Orchidioides and Iperua Utrics. My Neps were not hit as hard. Thankfully I had moved all my tuberous up to the sunroom recently as I can just see a rat digging through every pot and eating the tubers.

Needless to say I am not happy at all. I am close to just tossing in the towel actually...

 

[Not a Number]

That sucks. It's probably too cold under there for a couple of snakes.

 

[Pyro]

YEs too cold for snake.

Not too cold for rat poison though. Lots and lots of rat poison!

 

[Finch]

I have heard those with a delayed clotting reaction or something is the best. They do not get wise to it.

 

[droseraguy]

Thanks for the reminder, I had a sundew nibbled off and meant to get some rat bait on the way home yesterday. Tree rats, basement rats, crawlspace rats. I'll give 'em something to chew on. Sorry to hear about your aggrivation. It's FRUSTRATING to see years of work result in a bunch of mouse turds........

 

[RL7836]

I have heard those with a delayed clotting reaction or something is the best. They do not get wise to it.

Interesting reading on the various poisons. My primary concern is with the possibility of secondary impacts (ie: a dog or a hawk eating the weakened rat). One other benefit I've heard (but not confirmed) about the anticoagulants is they make the rat thirsty so it leaves the building to replenish fluids rather than staying somewhere where it would cause a huge odor & be inaccessible....

Good luck with your efforts.

 

[Kayota]

My primary concern is the suffering of the rat! Can't you use baited snap traps?

 

[rattler]

that rat prolly just ate some very rare plants.......let the lil buggers suffer.........

i have no clue what it is but rodents do seem to be attracted to Utrics.......lost some to mice at the old house.......

BTW anticoagulants DO NOT help with the smell of dead rodents...........

 

[nightsky]

Do you have nice large truncata you could plant some rat bait into ... you know to lure them in to a nice slow digestive death

 

[Pyro]

My primary concern is the suffering of the rat! Can't you use baited snap traps?

that rat prolly just ate some very rare plants.......let the lil buggers suffer.........

I am sorry Kayota but I am with Rattler on this one. I have total loss on all 4 of my clones of U. quelchii and my location data clones of U. asplundii "Duida", U. praetermissa "Costa Rica" and U. endresii "Costa Rica, Atelopus site" and they ate the leaves off all of my U. alpina and my U. alpina x endresii leaving only the tubers which may or may not be strong enough to recover. They also ate the majority of my U. humboldtii "philcula clone".

Basically 70% of my Orchidioides/Iperua collection is destroyed. And a few on here can probably confirm that I had the largest private collection of these section plants in the US.

I can not begin to describe how large a blow this is to me.

 

[Finch]

Wow, that is an incredible loss. So sorry to hear about that. It is amazing how destructive tiny rodents can be… I am thankful that thus far I have never had to deal with any sort of rodent, squirrel or rat, with any of my plants (mostly non-cp at this point in time. Someday… when I can devote the space and resources) . I simply cannot imagine loosing the majority of a collection that way! I hope you get them all.

 

[RL7836]

I simply cannot imagine loosing the majority of a collection that way! I hope you get them all.

You can put a dent in the population but there are always more, ready to move in - can't really "get them all". Gotta remain vigilant ...

One year, we had them in our attic. Although I've given up on being able to seal the house well enough to keep 100% of the mice out, I really figured I should be able to find where a rat could get in since it's pretty large. I searched & searched & could not. Months later, in the spring while cleaning out our gutters - I discovered a hole where they chewed through 2 layers of roof shingles and a layer of plywood to get into our attic. Really amazing critters...

 

[Kayota]

Rats are amazing. My pet rats chewed two holes in a blanket I've had since I was born the other day because I left it on the floor by their cage without realizing it. They're also incredibly noisy at night, but fascinating to watch and interact with during the day. The way they explore their environment is pretty cool. So is their ability to find food no matter where I put it, and their ability to find a way onto almost any high-up surface.

Ahh, anyway. Whatever you choose to do, I'm sorry about your loss. Best of luck to you and your plants, my friend.

 

[PlantAKiss]

Rats are very bold. They show up at my house from time to time. And despite my care and following all the rules, my dog Jonah ate rat poison once. Big scare! So I won't buy it any more because....RATS WILL CARRY IT ELSEWHERE AND HIDE IT!!!

I'm sorry to hear about the plants. I go through that with the squirrels...

BTW...great Utric article in the CPN Travis.

 

[Est]

So sorry to hear about your losses. I hope that more than you expect will be able to recover from the defoliation. Best of luck with the rebound, I can only imagine how frustrated you must be.