Uninvited Garden Guests

in #gardening5 years ago

I noticed a hole leading into my hugelkulture row of watermelon and zucchini this is what it caught.
gardenpest1.JPG

gardenpest2.JPG

gardenpest3.JPG
The damn thing went up and sniffed the trap but didn't go in the hole. I guess I will be trying different baits until I can catch him. I have caught 3 or 4 little field mice so far this season but this is first time I have noticed a rat making my hugelkulture style rows into it home.

Sort:  

That looks like a pretty good size rat! They seem to be smarter than chipmunks, you can catch those in a live trap pretty easily.
I'm guessing that you have one of those square frame kill traps over the hole. I've used those in the past when I was living in the country, they're quite effective if you can get the critter to set it off.

Yeah it's one of those square traps, I was hoping to get it returning to its den, but it appears too smart to walk through the trigger posts. I will probably end up investing in some live traps this week. My neighbors resort to poison immediately so I want to catch it before they notice. I don't like the idea of hawks/dogs etc eating poisoned animals.