My great big China White that I've been watching closely over the past week was mortally wounded last night. I even took the precaution of wrapping it in aluminum foil to hide it from the birds. But it did not deter "The Rat". I went out early this morning to check on it figuring it needed one or two days more to be at it's peek. I was met with the fig on the ground and the foil wrapping off to the side. I'm heart broken, this was such a lovely and huge fig. I'll have many more before the season's end but this would have been the first off this tree this season. As I said, the war is on.

 

Ugh!! I share your pain. That was a big nice looking fig. I better ready my traps as well

Yeah, I just saw a squirrel with a baby peach in it's mouth,
Game on!

Luckily the tree rats in these parts haven't taken to the figs. A year or two ago some of the birds finally caught on though. Fight the good fight, Gene!

Beware of crows, also. They will take the fig and the covering; everything and leave no trace behind.

I say pop a couple, pick their brains and leave them there for others to see.
Make an example out of them!

Last year it was my apricot tree that was the victim. A family of ground squirrels (we dont have the ones with big fluffy tails) hit the tree just as fruits were beginning to ripen. Within 24 hours they tore most the fruit off the tree - without even eating it - just piles of shredded unripe apricot on the ground. Very sad. I started trapping and within a month had caught just over 20 ground squirrels and bunnies in a very small area.

The apricots are again just showing a bit of color... and I expect the population of maurauders have re-built again. I probably should start trapping again, but I really do hate doing it. If there weren't houses so close, I'd do it another way.

We also have several species of rats here in sunny, warm California. They'll eat just about anything too. But the worst are the grnd squirrels and the bunnies.

I feel your pain.

This is a sad thing, especially when you foiled it to stop predators!  We currently go back and forth between two houses, and I was very upset to find bird peckings in the biggest ripest VdB fig I have, so I took it off the tree, cut around the peckings and JD and I shared it.  Tasted fabulous, and I'm sorry about your fig!
Suzi

No crows here and I wish it were squirrels as they do their dirty work in the daylight hours not like the sneaky rats who come out after dark.  I can take care of the squirrels with out a problem. This war on the rats will be a stealth war I'm afraid.
"gene"

last yr, i didn't see any tree rats. this year, i see couple of them scouting my backyard. i'll have to monitor and see what kind of damage they will do.. if any. typically our neighbor's cat scares most of them away.. but i saw one coming rather close to my trees few days ago..

pete

Having dealt w the NJ SPCA professionally (in a good way), I will say that they are enthusiastic and you do not want to tick them off. I think the havaheart traps are even illegal unless licensed etc. If you do anything questionable, do not post it!

My problem is Chipmunks!  Every one of my 20gal container pots had the same size hole dug in them.  One day last week, spent an entire hour outside sitting still to see if I could find out who or what was causing it.  It was a large moma chipmunk!  I jumped to my feet and chased that darn thing and she ran around one of my pots, poked her head around the side and look at me!  We stood there looking at each other for about a minute.  I didn't have my pellet gun in hand but slowly backed up, ran in the garage and got the gun, loaded it and creeped back around the house.  And guess what?  That darn moma chipmunk was still there, just darning me to take a shot!  Needless to say, she did not live another day! 

The next day, I set my hav-a-hart trap.  Within an hour, I caught 3 more chipmunks!  They went to chipmunkville too!  The stray cats that live under my deck must be eating these chipmunks because they disappear the next day from my yard.  Gene, get a havahart trap and make his day!

Yes Dennis,

You needs a "Deuces"



He was born in the bushes in front of my house and his mother was a stray. He liked it here and has become a very adept hunter. It has captured snakes, birds, rats, moles, squirrells, lizards and a small possum. Fearless! Glad he likes it here. He is constantly in the blueberry patch watching over and I see him frequently around the figs. I think he was checking to see if any bait (figs) was there for birds. I saw him asleep on a huge oak limb over twenty feet in the air.

He gets free rent forever!

Charles is he for sale?
"gene"

I have friends who feed their dead/trapped gophers (no poisons of course) to the local hawks. They just put the body on the top of a fence post and walk way. Then watch the show. Of course by now the hawks know that the long walk to that post means fresh gopher meat.

I have another friend who traps gophers, and his local bird of prey is an owl that eats his catch. He has a special post next to the windows so he and the grandkids can watch from inside the house. His gopher count was over 500. His extended family had a pool when he would reach that number.

Great cat you got there, Darkman. My cat caught a baby mouse today. In general however, they aren't much help. City-slickers. Guess that should be 'kitty-slickers'. :)

I was just out in the back, and the raccoons caught another koi and just left it by the side of the pond. The B@$%&*#s dont' even eat what they catch...

That is one valuable cat!!! You are indeedd lucky that it made it's home with you!

I have had cats most of my life which is a while and I have never had one that hunts like this one. He is indeed a champion varmit killer. If he gets hurt or ill he will go to the vet. We give just a little food and fresh water so that he knows we appreciate him. I don't think he needs the food though. He is very healthy.

Interesting story, and lucky for the cat that you intervened in those 2 events. I also have a cat, he hunts mice pretty well but that is about it. There was a ferel cat in the neighborhood that one of my neighbors was taking care of by feeding and bringing him indoors in bad weather. He was a real hunter and could be seen eating birds and squirrels. The poor cat was crossing the street, a very busy street and must've been distracted. I think he saw my neighbor or something else as he wasn't paying his usual attention while crossing and got hit by a car. Just happened a couple weeks ago. Good hunting cats are hard to find. The same neighbor has 3 other cats and they couldn't catch a fly.  

my neighbor's cat is one of the fattest cat i have ever seen. but when she moves.. she moves amazingly fast.. well.. only when there is a lunch to be served in form of rodents.

pete