tomato leaves eaten....

Go out at night with a flashlight. They are more active then and easier to spot, especially towards the top of the plants!

Yeah, they will eat peppers if they are hungry and cannot get tomatoes! Same family of plants.

K.

Reply to
Katra
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Probably a western fence lizard???

Hmmmmm... I did used to use Pyrethrin in the henyard for flies but now that I have my duck flock back, I no longer have a fly control problem. ;-) Never tried them much on the food plants. I worry about killing my spiders tho'. :-(

Sounds like a story there?

Can anyone tell me how to control rats without poisoning? Traps dont' work. Rats are too smart.

K.

Reply to
Katra

Nope, tho that looks like the little "snake with legs" type we have tons of. This one was distinctly BLUE and I've never seen one like it before. It had the bulky head of an iguana, and a thick body to match, but had little lumpy spines kindof all over rather than just one down the back like an iguana does. Very quick and agile, went up the cinder block wall in a flash.

Whereas here flies pretty much starve unless you provide something that likes to make a mess in water, like ducks.

Here the main spiders are black widow (both the passive and the leggy aggressive types) and brown recluse. Our big worry is whether we can get them all killed off before they take over, or eat us alive. My tenant got bit by one in her bed yesterday. One reason I keep atropine on hand is for spider bites. And if you're gone for 3 days, when you come back the house will be chock full of black widow webs, to the point that it looks like a movie spook house (no kidding). Hanging dichlorvos no-pest strips helps esp. with the black widows. Doesn't seem to bother the wolf spiders, either, tho we don't see many of those anyway.

I've noticed a few golden garden spiders among the roses lately, but they're not typically a desert spider. Probably only surviving here because my place is sortof a little oasis :)

Well, I once did chop up a misbehaving typewriter ... tho after fighting with it for several years (couldn't get parts, had to repair it myself, which was always an adventure).

Where I lived before, we got invaded by roof rats, which are so prolific that traps and poison are a waste of effort. But every morning I'd find 5 or 6 drowned in the dogs' water buckets, and several more killed by one of my dogs (I breed Labradors). If there's no other open water, you can lure 'em into big buckets or small garbage cans with a foot or so of water in the bottom, deep enough that they fall in when they try to drink, and enough water down there that they can't get out so they eventually drown. (And no, I have absolutely no sympathy for suffering rodents. :)

Or get a Jack Russell terrier and don't feed it, so it has to hunt. They're good rat dogs and have no qualms about eating rats. :)

~REZ~

Reply to
Rez

I have a 99 cent pinwheel that's the "Slinky" brand, and it's been sitting out here in the desert sun and high winds for about a year now and still looks like new. It does help with the birds, tho doesn't do anything to discourage kangaroo rats.

~REZ~

Reply to
Rez

Do a google on "rugosa hybrid roses". They're shrub roses, and you can't kill'em if you try. Look up F.J.Grootendorst, Marie Bugnet (no, not Therese Bugnet), and Hansa.

Reply to
Larry Blanchard

I use coffee cans half buried around my tomatoes. Seems to stop both hornworms and cutworms, and I suspect slugs as well. Also handy for watering - just fill the can :-).

Reply to
Larry Blanchard

Hi Katra,

I get rats with rat glue on a piece of plywood very success upto an extent that other wonder how this can be.

The area of glue apply are depend on the size of rat. Minimum length should be two and a half of the rat length(not included tail). Minimum width should be two and a half of the rat width. This is due to the observe from me that when rat first step on the glue, it will be able to make a jump. After the jump, if the front claw of rat are out of the glue area, the rat will got chance to escape by crawlling with front claw. Three side of plywood should have minimum one inch of margin clear of glue for our thumb to hold when placing the plywood. The side with glue should touch wall.

The plywood should put at rat path(where rat like to run through along a wall). Or the rat jump from a place to reach another place, if the rat jump to your table to eat your food, put the plywood on the table at that spot.

Plywood should be lay flat, if it's slanted, the weight of rat will slowly pull rat off the glue area.

The glue should chose the less smell type, or else you may need few days to wait for the small disappear before get your first rat.

The glue should not be watery.

After removed the rat from glue, hold plywood slanted under water tap to wash off rat *output*. And put it slanted against a wall to let water drip off.

Refill the part lack of glue that due to remove with rat together.

All this should be quite easy to understand.

The tough part are I don't know how to explain the way to apply glue. If the glue does not apply correctly to the plywood, rat will be able to escape quite easily.

A piece of plywood can get as much of about ten rat per night, this is assume that you remove the rat when you heard it *sqeet* to free up the space.

From my experience, as long as you put it at the right place, you can glue bird, fly, snake, ... Almost anything that does not in the water.

Regards, Wong

-- Latitude: 06.10N Longitude: 102.17E Altitude: 5m

Reply to
nswong

If it's a big critter, sevin will be totally ineffective.

On the other hand, an electric fence will work well.

Ray

Reply to
Ray Drouillard

Hornworms are big and easy to control by simply picking them off. Look for them by noting the damage, and looking in that area. Also, if it's quiet enough, you can shake the plant and listen for the clicking noise.

We used to amuse ourselves by plucking them off and feeding them to the chickens.

If you see one with little white cocoons on its back, leave it alone. It will do little damage, and the cocoons will hatch little parasitic wasps that will work well at keeping the hornworm population down.

Ray

Reply to
Ray Drouillard

One major thing I have against sevin is that it is particularly effective against bees.

Ray

educate

pesticides/herbicides,

ladybird

hornworms,

Reply to
Ray Drouillard

I've considered that...

Will they eat chickens? Most of the rats are in the henyard which is why they are here. Plenty of food. :-(

That is why a water trap would not work unless I dumped water containers every night. We do find them drowned in the emu's water buckets now and then!

Kat

Reply to
Katra

Time I think to just use Glue traps. ;-) I normally hate those things, but I'm also not afraid to just kill the rat when I find it in the glue trap so it won't suffer.

Trick will be in putting the traps where my pigeons won't get into them. The rats do run up the trees out back!

I have some ideas...

Thanks! K.

Reply to
Katra

il Tue, 11 May 2004 02:40:07 -0500, Katra ha scritto:

They sound a pain.

I'm not sure our birds would know what an owl is. As it's drawing to winter here it's more a matter of me getting out and cleaning up the garden.

Reply to
Loki

il Tue, 11 May 2004 03:02:35 -0500, Katra ha scritto:

I had smart mice who could remove the bait without springing the trap. So for a while I baited it but left it unsprung so they'd get careless. Eventually I set the trap, tied the bait on to make it hard remove, put the trap between two objects making a corridor that just fit the trap width (to cut down the space for manouvering). That seemed to work. Maybe that would work for rats.

Reply to
Loki

Hi Katra,

I don't like to kill animal, so I just wrap rat with newspaper and throw it outside our fence to a bush, it will decompose to nothing left within two months. The glue on rat will stick it with the newspaper and make it unescapetable. I know this will make the rat suffer, but as long as I don't see it with my eye, it's OK for me. Think at it, most of my transplant are lost due to those rats, this make me feel less guilty.

Rats here like to chew my transplant and even pull the transplant out from soil.

Regards, Wong

-- Latitude: 06.10N Longitude: 102.17E Altitude: 5m

Reply to
nswong

They are. :-(

I found a teensy one the other day on one of my tomato plants...

It's worm dip now.

Might be instinctive. :-) Owl decoys work very well for pest birds, and pigeons!

K.

Reply to
Katra

I have to be cautious with snap traps. The rats are mostly in the hen yard and I have pigeons. :-P

That is why I have to be SO careful with poison baits. I use the bar bait and put it into suet cages so the rats cannot carry it off, and make sure it stays under cover with crumb control.

Still scares me. :-( And I think I lose the occasional bird to it when I do start poisoning even tho' I'm ever so careful!

K.

Reply to
Katra

I agree... The rats have made it difficult to transplant corn sprouts! :-P I usually just toss the trap into a bucket of water and walk away for 10 minutes or so. If I don't have to watch, I can handle it.

When I catch rats by hand, I grab them by the tail and hit them hard against the nearest cinder block or tree, and that kills them.

The other morning, I found two nests and managed to kill one adult female and 16 young rats that way. I watch carefully for nesting sites and clean them out about once every couple of weeks.

K.

Reply to
Katra

PVC is available in just about any size you want. It's what is used for water lines in most areas, from 1/4-inch to several feet. Decide what size you want, then contact a plumbing supply store. If you have a United Pipe & Supply in your area, they will have it for certain.

Another source would be a utilities contractor; perhaps you could get a scrap or two. Trust me, they have bunches of scraps in various lengths and diameters (diameter depends on the particular job). You might even contact your local water department to get some ideas where to find some.

Another use for PVC pipe scraps and joints (tees) is cat climbers though the tees and wyes in 8-inch or 10-inch size are rather expensive. The straight pipe isn't too bad for price, but scraps would be better if you can get them free.

Glenna

Reply to
Glenna Rose

Non-pest birds, also. LOL

A friend who loves her birds put a very realistic owl in her garden to keep away pest birds. It was weeks before she realized why her song birds weren't coming to the feeders. Shortly after she removed the owl, her song birds returned to the feeders.

Glenna

Reply to
Glenna Rose

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