Rats!

bower · August 31, 2019

My lesson this year: something rats like as much as tomatoes is... grains!
Trying out barley this year and produced some beautiful heads in spite of the cold weather and extra short season. They were just starting to blush a gorgeous red, and I was thinking I should harvest soon, but too busy with work and away all day for a week... Then I went out and discovered every single head from both patches had been taken.

It was such a clean job I knew it couldn't be moose, and I reckoned it must've been humans.

I was standing at the window complaining about that to a friend, and looking straight at that bed when before my eyes I see a large RAT climbing up the pea trellis and down the other side into the barley.

Now who, besides a (really mean) human (too cheap to go buy a $2 bag of barley) would be so meticulous as to take every last grain I grew.

Yes, the answer is... RAT.

And now the fun activity for the weekend will be.... routing rats from the compost pile. Yes, in my enthusiasm to create more compost and multiple piles, I had forgotten all about the dreaded rodent habitat issue.

The more human housing gets built in this area, the bigger the problem. Before the building boom, I didn't see a rat here for 20 years. They developed the whole side of the hill above the river, and in the process drove the rats from their natural homes. It is far enough from water here that rats would never see it as a place to nest, except for being driven to it by default.

Or is it really just my own fault, for growing more vegetables?

August 31, 2019	#1
bower Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Newfoundland, Canada Posts: 6,794	Rats! My lesson this year: something rats like as much as tomatoes is... grains! Trying out barley this year and produced some beautiful heads in spite of the cold weather and extra short season. They were just starting to blush a gorgeous red, and I was thinking I should harvest soon, but too busy with work and away all day for a week... Then I went out and discovered every single head from both patches had been taken. It was such a clean job I knew it couldn't be moose, and I reckoned it must've been humans. I was standing at the window complaining about that to a friend, and looking straight at that bed when before my eyes I see a large RAT climbing up the pea trellis and down the other side into the barley. Now who, besides a (really mean) human (too cheap to go buy a $2 bag of barley) would be so meticulous as to take every last grain I grew. Yes, the answer is... RAT. And now the fun activity for the weekend will be.... routing rats from the compost pile. Yes, in my enthusiasm to create more compost and multiple piles, I had forgotten all about the dreaded rodent habitat issue. The more human housing gets built in this area, the bigger the problem. Before the building boom, I didn't see a rat here for 20 years. They developed the whole side of the hill above the river, and in the process drove the rats from their natural homes. It is far enough from water here that rats would never see it as a place to nest, except for being driven to it by default. Or is it really just my own fault, for growing more vegetables?