we added a European Fan and they are very easy to take care of and slow growing. Sylvesters are beautiful we planted one in front but they do get quite large. we laso have a chinese fan which is georgeous but gets very large but also slow growing. Good luck smart move asking others

Thanks to all........very informative with many helpful recommendations........when we close on property after April 8th will have to decipher responses and decide which type palm and number to plant. Thanks again to all....much appreciated.

Palm trees and rodents
 

Having moved into Fernandina in April from the Midwest, I was shocked when a neighbor told me that rats live in the dead fronds of palm trees. Thinking that the neighbor didn't know what he was talking about, I recently asked a pest control company representative about it, and he told me the same thing. Unfortunately, on two different occasions I have even seen rats run across cart paths in broad daylight, as well as one run across the road near Spanish Springs in the middle of the afternoon. How can the powers-that-be in The Villages mount a massive campaign to market this place as "Florida's Healthiest Hometown" but continue to allow residents to grow palm trees known to harbor rats? The developer even continues to plant such trees in common areas of The Villages! As a retired registered nurse, I find the practice outrageous. Healthiest hometown? Really? Not by any thinking person's standard!

Never saw one, I have over 30 palms

Just moved here in April . Four posts , All negative about conditions in TV
Hmmmmmmmmm

What the heck would being an RN have to do with being concerned about palm trees and their possible inhabitants? If they live in the trees and not your home how does that bother you? As a practicing RN I don't get the connection. I have seen a few palm rats around TV but nothing to get concerned about.

Where ever there are people and garbage/trash, there will be rats.

Many critters live OUTSIDE of our homes. Depending on where you live, its not just rats....its cockroaches, mice, ants, raccoons, snakes, ticks, mosquitos and a whole host of others. Many of those carry disease - not to mention the e-e-e-w factor. But because they live OUTSIDE does not mean they pose a health threat to us humans who live INSIDE. It may be a difficult balance to understand the difference between concerns about "public health" and all the scary possibilities of disease "out there".

Wait... there are rats in the UP (Upper Peninsula- Michegan) and you mention you hike a lot, so you have been on foot in their territory. You also see hawks, fox and an occasional eagle up there that eat rats and keep their numbers down. We have hawks, coyote and eagles, etc. here too, in fact we have an eagle preserve in TV.
Rats will nest in undisturbed debris. If there were NO palm tress here (just like in the UP) there would still be rats somewhere in the natural areas.

In our 'neighborhoods', should a homeowner have an occasional dead frond on their palm that hasn't been pruned off yet, the frond itself does not pose a risk of a rat taking up residence there.

Should there be an ABUNDANCE of dead fronds, not much activity around and and some sort of food supply nearby (like a palm allowed to be abundant with fruit) or citrus trees with abundant fruit on the tree and laying on the ground.... THAT may provide an attractive hiding/nesting/feeding spot, but those conditions rarely exist in a groomed landscape, as you can see for yourself when you travel about the area.

I have lived here two years now (from Chicago) and am very much into greenery. My eyes are still pretty good and I have seen a total of 4 small rats (VERY small 'mice' by Chicago standards) in all that time and one was in the mouth of a flying hawk.

I was in puzzlement at your post, given the beautiful and very natural area you come from. The UP is considered a pretty 'healthy' area too, people go there to get away from the grime, etc. of the city, as we both know.

It's the same here. For me, TV is my little slice of heaven, critters and all.... I do consider myself a 'thinking person' and overall, I think the 'health' standard here is a pretty high one!
:)

garden guru lives in Fenandina-apparently just moved to TV. SHE is the one concerned about the palm trees and "rats". Not me....I live in the UP of Michigan and live with all matter of creatures and I co-exist with them easily. Garden guru is a retired nurse and was concerned about rats causing health or disease problems. I am a practicing nurse practitioner and I am aware of all the critters that can cause disease. However, I was trying to help garden guru understand that a few rats outside her home does not constitute a health problem such as you can see in squalid living conditions in some cities.

When you live up north and think of the tropics or Florida you visualize coconut palms on the beach. Unfortunitaly they don't grow here and we must make do with palms than can withstand a colder winter. Only in S. Florida can you have the real thing.

Ugh oh - time to circle the wagons.

Apologies Suzi- I thought the UP was where Garden guru moved from, and it was she I intended my response for. As I read her post, I too had a 'what the heck' moment, like another poster did and I got carried away.
Your post to her was a good one, in my opinion. Perhaps she will relax a bit now, understanding that having palms poses no great health risk for disease from rodents who may or may not visit them.