Palm Rats chewing through lanai screen
 

Any recs for someone to repair/replace lanai screen palm rats from my neighbor’s yard is eating through?

Head to Ace for a screen repair kit and a couple of rat traps.

One of our neighbors Palm Rats got into my garage and chewed my air conditioning wires on my Toyota Highlander. Total cost ($2700.00) They had to completely remove the dashboard and other parts to fix it! Ins. paid $2000.00 I paid $700.00 out of pocket.

I see people leaving their garages doors open to cool things down. BEWARE!

I do apologize for commenting bc I can't help you with the screening repair issue however, I'm kinda horrified by the issue.

I can live w the fact that palm rats are in TV but is palm rats chewing through screens a thing in TV too? Hard to imagine they'd just chew through screening wo reason. Tell me there was something they wanted that was stored on your lanai! And are they "your neighbor's rats" bc you don't have palm trees and the neighbor does? I stupidly lured rats into my yard by feeding the birds. Only took those vermin a couple weeks to find the feeders behind a concrete wall. I removed those feeders immediately. Couple days later I saw THE biggest black snake slither through my yard. Holy cow! Rats and snakes. IN my yard! I gather the snake was there bc the rats were there (dinner) but I'm just not accustomed to rats and snakes in my yard. Kinda horrified, won't lie.

The rats aren't your neighbors, they are part of nature and are everywhere down here. If you didn't see the rat eating your screen or the other post eating your Toyota wires, how do you know it wasn't a squirrel, they will do the same things a palm rat does.

I seem to recall the insulation on the wiring used was made from vegetable products attempt at making it environmentally friendlier. Insurance paid 2,000. What would cover rats?

We humans seem to find some animals cute and others disgusting. A squirrel is but a rat with a fuzzy tail.

Yep! Very true! I find squirrels at my UpNorth feeders a joyful site. I creep into and from my screened in porch so as not to scare them away.

I suggest the HAVE NO HEART TRAPS, the old spring traps.

The last time I used a rat trap I caught a dove. They are not selective.

Squirrel, rat all in same family.:) Only difference the squirrels with furry tails are so cute. I too suspect squirrels?

Bird feeders, dog or cat food do attract rats, and stored feed attracts them to the lanai and/or garage or wherever the feed is stored.

Rats or squirrels? If the damage was done at night it was rats. During the day squirrels.

I have a squirrel in my garden here in UK who is always trying to dig up my potatoes.
I put down a humane trap, but he is far too smart to go in, he does however sit on top of it occasisionaly eating whatever he has grubbed out.
He gives a chuckle, and a wink to me, and goes on his merry way, all in his own good time.
I'll catch the little booger one day, and take him far away to annoy someone else.
We are the best of enemies!

Lanai screen repair
 

CVS is a long standing company who has been doing business in TV for a long time, they do new, rescreening of entire cage (which I had done last year) and repairs. They are great.
You may contact them at 352 237 3088. You may tell them you were reffered by Mr. Arango/Village of Harmeswood.

Good luck

Immediate fix, sprinkle moth balls or moth dust around the area they a frequenting. they will be gone in 2 days. The ammonium in moth products will overload their senses and bye bye. Harmless solution and it gets them away and stops them "frequenting".

Also look into having the lower two feet of your lanai screening covered with aluminum flashing.
My lanai is fully screened, also have sliding windows, makes it into another room.
PM me I will send you photos

Also, no food and no water, you will never see one. Biggest question is what are the searching for?
Find all sources of food and water, eliminate them.

Now for the Palm. Your homeowners insurance (I have State Farm) does not cover damage to your house as a result of, perhaps a palm falling on your house (even your neighbors palm falling on your house, they are grass plants). Talk to your neighbor, chop down the palm. Better for your house, their house, all houses.
Side note, the roaches are in the palms too. I chopped my palm, Have not seen a bug in a year. The birds had a field day eating the roaches for the two days after the palm came down.
Trees and Palms are nice..... Over there.

I love large open grassy front yards, none of the over the top flower beds. Sure they are pretty. But stop for a second. Look around, you live in paradise. Ditch the yard maintenance.

Yep - same thing happened to me, we park one car outdoors - I think mine was squirrels (judging from all the fur when one of them was apparently in the fan when I remote started the car), chewing through the wiring harness; check engine light came on and a bunch of other lights - cost a small fortune to get it re-wired (they wrapped it good this time, plastic tape). Those critters can do some damage!

The rats are from my neighbors yard. I don’t have palms in my yard for that very reason. I don’t have a clue what they were looking for on my lanai except for an occasional gecko. I have no other food for them.

In our case the palm rats chewed through the non-metal mesh we call screen down here to get into the grease trap area of the grill.

Spray Peppermint oil on the car wires..Squirrels will not go near it.

Screen repair - Zsolt Simon - (Simon's Screening, LLC.)
 

Zsolt Simon - (Simon's Screening, LLC.)

Black Racer snakes kill poisonous snakes.

Horses love peppermint!:shocked:

You better make sure they aren’t living in there and check the attic are you feeding the birds if so you need to set out rat poison in a rat box they are everywhere in TV

Palm rats costed us as well. They visited our central air unit and ate the wiring. Our neighbor has 4 bird feeders. The house just sold, however the empty feeders remain. I’m looking forward to talking with our new neighbor who has yet to move in. I love birds too, but no bird feeders, please?!

I found where one of the buggers had chewed through the OSB under the vinyl siding and gotten into the house. After I cleaned up the sheathing chips, poop and insulation scraps I stuffed the gap with #3 steel wool. Set out a couple Victors but it wouldn't go for them. After a few days we found it croaked in one of the bedrooms. I didn't perform an autopsy but judging from its lack of interest in cheese and peanut butter, I would guess that it tried to leave the same way it came in and got a gut full of #3 and lost its appetite.

Have Shane the Screen Guy take care of your screen and ask your pest control company to put a trap near the screen. Make sure there’s no food, pet food, bird seed, etc. on the lanai that can attract them. Shane’s # 352-209-3672

They’ve been driven from their normal habitat by the heavy rains. When the seasonal daily rains stop, they’ll return to their normal “home”. Until then you’ll have to call a pest control company. We used Massey. The placed rat traps inside and poison bait outside. The traps caught a rat each night for about a week. A call to Massey and they’d come out, remove the dead rat, and reset the trap.

We used Massey for a complete set of their services so there was no extra charge for the “rat service”.

Rats love to eat the coating on electrical wiring.
 

We have a house in Mexico and it’s common knowledge that rats ( not squirrels) crawl under the car hood to eat electrical wiring in parked vehicles. We leave rat poison under the hood now before we leave for the season after we had damage. These rats are not palm rats either, so all rats enjoy the coating on the wiring.

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[QUOTE=MSGirl;1965718]Any recs for someone to repair/replace lanai screen palm rats from my neighbor’s yard is eating through?[/QUO

This is wild. I live in Florida now but in the NW part of the state. We have palm trees but no roaches and sure as heck no rats in our yard! I had no idea that this was an issue in central FL.

For screen repair or replace call Jeff at J&J Services 352-702-6376.
 

For screen repair or replace call Jeff at J&J Services 352-702-6376.

and good eating about 4 make a great squirrel pie

For screen repair or replace call Jeff at J&J Services 352-702-6376.
 

Just talked to Jeff at J & J services and he has a solution to your rodent problem. Give him a call and he'll discuss it with you.

Rats in The Villages
 

They are definitely a problem. Had them 4 years ago and had to hire pest control company to put out traps. Took over a year to get rid of them. Very aggressive as they would attack the black snakes that were in out area. Had to save the black snake several times when they were attacked.

I had the same thing happen to me last fall. First I repaired the screen, then they chewed through another spot. Went to Ace and got some heavier duty screen material - 1/4 inch mesh, which is much thicker than regular screening material. This kept them out but looked horrid. I contacted Custom Vinyl Systems Inc and they installed solid aluminum panel replacing the kneewall screens. This worked great and looks good! It cost $375 but I feel was worth it.. And, I know it was rats because I also put out traps and caught several - but did not stop the chewing. You can't kill them all, but you can keep them out! Hope this helps, good luck.

T&D did mine for $125

Feed the birds they said.. and the rats and squirrels came and nested in the attic ! That bag of bird food cost thousands of dollars in repairs! Get rid of the bird feeders, birds eat bugs

No food on lanai except for an occasional gecko. Grill located outside and no signs of rats there. We put 2 traps on the lanai. Caught 2 rats. I’m afraid there is more. Deans put a box with rat poison in the yard. How annoying.

Traps work, but as others have said, you sometimes catch a bird or something you don't want to harm. I set a spring type trap out about a 6 weeks ago and caught a beautiful male cardinal (bird). It killed him deader than a doornail. I hated that.

So, I got the idea to use the live trap that I have. It's one of those wire cages with a trap door that you can use to catch squirrels, rabbits, and other small game. I placed some bait in there and have caught 4 rats so far. I have no idea where the rats are coming from, but they're in my yard at night. Yes, I have 3 palm trees.

BTW, I tried the poison bait before the live trap. The poison bait works, but it's very slow working (several days) and then the way you know it's working is when you smell something dead in your yard. Then you have to look under bushes to find it.

Anyway, the live trap works better. If you catch something that you don't want to harm, just set it free. If you catch a rat, then dispose of the varmint. Don't take it somewhere and turn it loose. I put about 10" of water in a large plastic storage tote then set the trap and rat down in the water. Come back about 5 to 10 minutes later and remove the dead rat and dispose of him.

BTW, the bait that I used was the same poison cubes that I bought on Amazon. It's called J. T. Eaton peanut butter flavored bait. It comes in green cubes approx 1" size. It will also work as just poison bait, but it's very slow working and leaves a stinking dead rat(s) to find in your yard.

Also, I saw a cardinal pecking at one of the cubes when I used it just as a poison, so clearly, birds are attracted to the bait too. Also found a dead squirrel in the yard that was apparently due to eating the bait. That was before I started using the live trap.