garden goes bust with rat infestation

[Sore Thumb Suburbanite]

Allright this is the most frustrating problem! I put in a huge garden with 3 times my normal planting of tomatoes so Ihave some for canning...I planted extra peppers and 2 melons...anyway I HAD a lot growing. Until the epidemic. As soon as my spinach started growing I had noticed chewed leaves.. eventually all the spinach was gone. The same for my peppers and my potato plants. They eat all my growing and ripening tomatoes and dig up everything else like my zuccini and my other squashes. What started out as a great year with lots of planning has become a straggly group of survivors without anything to show for my efforts. I have gotten some unchewed string beans, a handful of beets and carrots out of my garden with a few zuccini here and there that didnt get eaten all the way.

I'm so mad, what do I do! I have set tons of traps, fought /killed about 12...I've cut everything away from our walls but they can still climb the rough surfaces...they live in my neighbors yard...he has 3 storage sheds with vines growing over them and tall grass, weeds and a million trails through it all from the rats. I have put the duck food in their coop, put the turkey food in a feence mounted feeder and only feed them in the morning, removing any excess... they just wont leave my garden alone! Should I just rip it all out and not replant? How do I get rid of all these rats? Can I ever have a garden again without this happening? Its so frustrating.

Please help me figure out how to get rid of them!

 

[Habibs Hens]

RATS and Red Mite are the bane of poultry keepers

I don't think you will ever eradicate them but can take measures to reduce them

an odd solution but rats will leave where there is no food and water supply, mainly water

so basically you will need to starve them

rip out all plants make sure no food or water is accessible and they will eventually move on

but then the neighbourhood needs to do the same

if they can get food and water at the neighbours they will stay and eventually venture to your yard when you start planting etc etc

 

[erinszoo]

You could let your turkeys loose. Ours kill any kind of rodent they can get near. Have you tried fencing off the garden with chicken wire and burying the wire in the ground too to keep them from digging under? Maybe the town needs to put out baits and traps. I'd call animal control.

 

[Life is Good!]

I'd call animal control.

Ditto. Rats are beyond a nuisance - they are disease carriers.
Make sure all waterers and feeders are away from where the rats can access them...clean up your own yard as much as possible to deter them and call against your neighbor.

First, I'd try talking with your neighbor, especially if you've got a teenager who needs something to do such as helping out a neighbor with mowing a yard - maybe they broke a leg and cannot mow, or have some circumstance that prevents maintaining it.....

But, yes, the situation is beyond your ability to control. Ask for help.

 

[nellynelly]

get a few barn cats.

 

[Madmat]

I'm with NellyNelly, get a mouser! Non-neutered male cat or a ferrel female would do. Train them to call your homestead home every night by feeding them (but not too much -or they won't hunt). I'm looking to get a mouser myself this winter due to reoccurring field mouse issue every winter.