Rats
 

Has anyone been successful in ridding their yard of Palm rats without getting rid of their landscaping? We have a terrible rat problem in Duval. Found 1 in garage,1 dead in the yard.and was awoken by 1 being chopped up in the air conditioner the other night. No signs of any in the house ,walls or attic YET. We have a Prof. Company but are obviously not seeing results. I haven't read anything hopeful on the web. Any suggestions welcome.

One reason I won't have palm trees or extensive vegetation.

The very best defense for a rat population is to get Burmese Pythons in all the wetlands and prairies in The Villages. They have actually been seen in the wild in Hillsbourgh County which is about 70 miles away. Scary thought?

Ugh, we had an aligator in my yard but I hope no rats. make sure you don't have any fruit on the palm trees. they love to eat it.

Besides the palms, don't put out bird feeders. They will draw rats.

It's a good reason to build on a birdcage AKA screen room over most of the back or side yard.

Haven't seen any rats in our neighborhood with plenty of palms lining the streets.

Have been in Duval for 5 years and have never seen one.

Now I'm nervous
We just planted a new palm tree in our front yard

We have been here since 2007. Our realtor told us about Rats in the trees . I had never heard of it so ignored her. This is the 1st time we have had them at our house but if you walk at all or look at other posts you will see plenty about rats in The Villages& all over FL. They have traps at the mail station.
Would really like to hear a success story:shrug:

Rats sound so bad, but the only ones I've seen are the small ones about 6/8 inches long a little bit larger that a gerbil. I have seen dead ones om the trail and live ones near the pool, no palms there. we have 7 palms and never a rat. They must be finding food, water and a safe place to live, start there. Go th Sparr and see if they have a suggestion, or at least a trap.

Rats
 

The best thing I found to control the fruit rats in the trees were my cats. I lived in Key Largo and had them in the coconut palms. They are endangered there. Never had a problem with any in the house or attic. They live in the palm trees but again it never got cold there. My cats kept ours under control in our yard

Last year we were driving south on Morse after having left Lake Sumter. There had been a massive rain downpour and as we were driving on the golf cart path we saw rats coming out of the vegetation and running across the path in front of us. I almost lost it, but my husband said they were probably flooded out. So just because we don't see them, they're there.

At least they are not giant NYC sewer rats LOL

Well, I guess this is when having a few feral cats (which I also feed) around comes in handy. We have never seen a rat or mouse in our neighborhood and there are plenty of palm trees.

I think more alligators would be beneficial.
::jester::