The War With The Rats

Or maybe it's field mice or possibly one of several of the genus Neotoma, commonly known as Pack Rats or Trading Rats.  Some varmint has been building nests inside the engine compartments of both of our cars.

The cars sit next to the wall that runs along the side of our driveway.  On the other side of the wall are the neighbors' Strawberry Tree (Arbutus unedo), olive tree, and Pyracantha bushes, all of which drop fruit during the year on both sides of the driveway wall.  We usually clean the fruits out of the driveway, but with the distraction of the chemo treatments, we just didn't get around to it this year.  Then we noticed that the cars were running roughly, to the point where they felt unsafe to drive.  Our auto mechanics, for whom we are a constant source of entertainment, found an enormous rodent nest of leaves and sticks and partially eaten strawberry fruit inside the air intake valve in one of the cars and that the rodents had also chewed up the insulation on the wiring on both cars.

With all the rain we've had this winter, we think that some of the pyracantha berries and strawberry fruit had fermented and the critters had holed up in the nice warm engine compartments of our cars to consume their fermented berry hooch and sample the taste of electrical wiring insulation.  I have to admit that it's the ideal location for them since it's protected from the elements and safe from the hawks, owls, foxes, coyotes and other predators that live in our canyon.

We know there are Pack Rats here because for years there was a huge midden on the other side of our driveway wall.  The midden grew over the years as the Pack Rats added on to it, incorporating sticks and twigs and even a paintbrush we had left on the driveway wall.  The neighbors tore the midden out when they renovated that part of their garden a couple of years ago.

Cindy also found one of the Pack Rats in our compost bin a few years ago; it had evidently crawled or fallen in and become trapped in the bin when it couldn't climb out.  We called him "Mickey" because of his huge ears.  She opened the collection door at the bottom of the bin, left the area and when she came back, Mickey had taken to his heels and vanished.

However, our amusement at Mickey and his fellows turned to annoyance when we discovered the cost of replacing the various damaged engine components.

So now the cars are repaired, the driveway is cleaned up and we've tried various rodent repellants inside the wheel wells of the cars.  The rodents do not seem to have been deterred at all by the smell of Irish Spring soap recommended by our mechanics, but they do seem to have moved on since we deprived them of most of their food and fermented berries.

We're just hoping they haven't discovered the bird seed stored in the garage and moved in there.

Round Up The Usual Suspects

We suspect the varmint that left the teeth marks on the Butternut Squash the other day was probably either a California Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus beecheyi) or some sort of canyon rat.  If it had been a raccoon or a possum, the whole squash would probably have been gone.  If it had been birds, there would have been signs of pecking, but these were pretty healthy chomps by teeth.

There are several types of rats that hang out in the canyon behind us; we know for sure that there are members of the Neotoma species, also known as Wood Rats, Pack Rats or Trade Rats, but we've just been calling them Pack Rats.  We know they're here because we've found two middens in the area.  One midden is on the other side of the driveway wall; the second was destroyed when Greg cleared the brush out from behind the fence.  

Pack rats construct their middens out of whatever material is available, including sticks, twigs, leaves, rocks or whatever.  I left a paintbrush on the driveway wall several years ago and found later that it had been incorporated into the wall of the Pack Rat midden a few feet away.  

About a year ago Cindy left the lid of the compost bin ajar.  When she went to add something to the compost heap, she discovered a Pack Rat staring back up at her; it had evidently climbed or fallen in trying to get at the vegetation in the bin and couldn't get out.  We started calling it "Mickey" on account of its huge round ears.  Anyway, we opened the bottom door of the bin and left the area, and Mickey evidently took to his heels because he was nowhere to be seen when we came back.  

According to the San Diego Natural History Museum, Pack Rats don't need to drink water, but "require quantities of succulent vegetation ... for moisture".  Yup, "succulent vegetation" describes our beautiful Butternut Squash, so Mickey and his cousins are suspects along with the Ground Squirrels.  

Once the anti-varmint panels are finished, they'll all have to go somewhere else for their "succulent vegetation."  Maybe they could try eating some of the humongous jade plants out in the canyon.