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Re: Gardening and a question

Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2018 12:59 pm
by carnap
brimstoneSalad wrote: Mon Apr 09, 2018 3:00 am

If you're technologically inclined, you can keep rats and squirrels away with a sentry gun:
https://boingboing.net/2012/03/26/howto-build-a-robotic-squirrel.html
This wouldn't work for rats, they are nocturnal and far more cautious than squirrels. Rats also avoid being in open spaces which makes detection difficult but once you block one pathway they'll just find another.

Dealing with rats typically means killing rats. The best alternative to that is to just make your garden rat proof but that is only realistic for a small garden.

Re: Gardening and a question

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2018 3:02 am
by brimstoneSalad
carnap wrote: Mon Apr 09, 2018 12:59 pm This wouldn't work for rats, they are nocturnal and far more cautious than squirrels. Rats also avoid being in open spaces which makes detection difficult but once you block one pathway they'll just find another.
Sounds like that would make things easier, as long as you had a path or something around your garden where it was open and they couldn't creep through obscuring plants.
The trouble with squirrels seems to be their jumping around.

Re: Gardening and a question

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 3:13 am
by carnap
brimstoneSalad wrote: Wed Apr 11, 2018 3:02 am Sounds like that would make things easier, as long as you had a path or something around your garden where it was open and they couldn't creep through obscuring plants.
The issue is that they eat the things in your garden, if you make on path undesirable they will just find another.

Re: Gardening and a question

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 8:57 pm
by PsYcHo
I read about a rat/mouse trap that you can make with a dowel and a bucket. There is a video online, but the person made their version lethal You have the option to leave it so rats will fall in the bucket unharmed, and you can relocate them if you'd like.

Re: Gardening and a question

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 9:17 pm
by brimstoneSalad
As I understand it, rats are not good jumpers like squirrels are. Seems like you'd only need to protect a small strip around the garden.