Rats
 

There is a major problem with roof rats in the Lopez area of the Villages . . . mostly because of fruit left on the ground, garbage, and pet foot (including water left outside). Just today I know three people who have seen live or dead ones in the Mulberry area. The roof rat, citrus rat, fruit rat, black rat, or gray rat are all one and the same (just different names for the Rattus rattus). This rat was brought to America on the first ships to reach the New World and has spread around the world. It is the same species that carried the bubonic plague around the world and is also the host for murine typhus. These rats are now the worst rodent pest in the state of Florida and by far the most abundant.

Have you notified Property Management or called customer service for TV?

:yuck:eeeewwwwww!

here is what i use. if left out in the daytime it will also do a gray squirrel. runs on 4 batteries and is nice and clean. no blood and guts.
http://www.drpower.com/prdSell.aspx?...FQ1b7Aod_jYzGQ

rat trap
 

I take it these are NOT relatives of Mickey Mouse who lives an hour south of here.

A rat is not a mouse.

Here is a previous post with a lot of comments about rats, enjoy.
https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...highlight=rats

Sorry to break the news to you Gracie, but they're give or take 1632nd cousins 417 times removed depending on the particular rat!
http://www.clipartoday.com/_thumbs/014/Captain_tns.png
Garbage Scow Willie!

Seems to be mostly about gators, not rats

I wish we had those wheeled containers for garbage...
 

I'm not a fan of leaving garbage overnight in plastic bags for pick up days. The rats have a natural feeding station on Tuesdays and Fridays! Seriously, I was surprised that the smallish wheeled containers maintained in the garage are not part of the garbage collection process here...or that the collectors haven't asked for them from the developers.

Bag the garbage, place it in the container, bag the garbage, place in container, bag the...well you get it. One munch through the plastic bag and their is dinner or breakfast for a furry crowd. Wheeling my bagged garbage to the curb would be more sanitary and prevent the rodent population their buffet. IMHO

Ammonia
 

......Just as a FYI........IF you pour or spray a little household non-sudsy AMMONIA around the bags ON YOUR CONCRETE the "critters" simply will NOT mess with your garbage. Has worked for me for over 50 years...have NEVER had my garbage "torn-up" by the hungry varmints....( EXCEPT for the ONE-time I ran out of ammonia )

I have lived in two different villages for over 10 years and have never had a trash bag torn open.
BTW drive thru any residential area outside TV that uses those bins, they are laying along the street everyday. How would you like to look at that all the time?

Is this thread about rats or garbage containers? Any hooooo, rats are people to, just look to foggy bottom for the truth of that statement. Opps, guess that was political. Sorry. LOL

:agree:

How do we get those gators to eat the rats? One guy on Bellivista (SE 80th) said he had three rats in his backyard last night!

Forr over three years I had what turned out to be a stray cat dig into my garbage. The critter especially went bokers when the garbage contained chicken bones. I sprayed that bag with so many different compounds and while it slowed the critter down it didn't sop him.

This spring/summer has been the worse for rodents sightings I have witnessed since moving here in 2006. I had my pest control guy set traps. Between those traps and the big birds haven't seen a rodent near my house in better than two months.

For those of you who park your vehicles in your driveway on a regular basis beware. i have had two different people tell me rodents nested in their vehicles

Wonder if it will work
 

I'm not in the villages yet, but I hate to leave the trash at the curb overnight because of those ugly rats. We store our trash in plastic cans with lids and every garbage day before I leave for work I grab the bags and toss them out to the curb.

Its pretty dark when I leave for work..... and one day when I opened the lid to grab the trash I heard a THUMP. :eek: Sure enough - there was a rat on the bag and it fell to the bottom of the can. It ate a hole in the lid to get to the chicken bones. :icon_hungry:

Thank God I grabbed the bag instead of the rat. Now - I just toss the can to the curb.

I wonder of the ammonia thing would work if you sprayed the outside of the can?

Set aside a small area in your freezer. When you have solid food waste that can't go down the disposer like chicken bones, steak bones, corn cobs etc. put them in plastic bags and freeze. Trash day put them in the trash bag. No bad smells, no cats, no rats or pests.

At our Florida home just south of you good folks I have never seen one rat....ever. In fact, I thought you were talking about squirrels, who ARE a problem at times.

We leave our bagged garbage out the night before as the pick up is around 6am.

There is a community just north of us, south of you, who have green steel can-like things in the ground, so you only see the top. You step on a lever and the top hinges open to put your garbage bag into the underground can. It is not unsightly, as you only see the small green top. No cans to see or haul.

I would think these would be quite expensive to buy and install.....but they seem to work in that community.

Just interesting the small differences between our 55+ communities....

Frank