This year I grew tomatoes, and found rats are stealing them. I am certain it’s rats because I have seen them. Have tried netting the tomato plants, but rats found ways in. Called an exterminator to bait in the roof and under house. Feel ambivalent about it, because if a predator bird takes an affected rat it may get ill. But I’m located deep in suburbia and have never seen an owl or eagle so I think it’s unlikely. Didn’t work though, still have rats. Have given up on the tomatoes, plants are destroyed. What are your strategies for ridding yourself of ratty pestilences?
Many years ago I used a trap that captured rats alive without any poison, just a bit of peanut butter, and then I had to dispose of them. Turns out a flatmate’s dog came in handy. I would release the rat into a big park near some bush. The dog would give chase, break the rats neck, get bored and come back whereupon birds would swoop down for a free feed.
Why not just use a kill trap then? Your process involved extra steps, and a lot more terror and pain for the rat.
Because I wanted to make sure what I caught were rats and not anything else. This was not in a city devoid of native fauna.
Ah, yeah I can relate to that. I was scared of killing squirrels with traps when I was trying to solve my rat problem. I ended up just shooting the rats with a pellet gun, and then eventually calling a truce. They were allowed to live in my backyard, as long as they didn’t try to enter the house.