Rats Story
 

I have seen the rat invasion story all over the Orlando news and now this AM it's on CNN ! I drove past the street where these people live and they have news trucks out front. So, how come the Sun won't talk about it? All they talked about in this morning's issue was about how great they are and how many awards they have won.
This obviously is a big deal if it was picked up nationally. If you don't know about it, it broke on Villages (News) . Pretty nasty having squirrel sized rats eating your home! I feel bad for these people.

Shame on the Sun. I guess rats don't sell houses!

The Sun didn't mention anything about the 6 month old girl that can waterski, I saw that on Good Morning America and on line.
When will the Sun start covering the news.................

:BigApplause:

Honestly, I saw that story on the news the other evening. There are rats in TV's, mostly palm rats. I have never seen one the size of a squirrel, although the Florida squirrels are much smaller than those up north, and the one in the story, stuck on the trap, did not appear to be anywhere near the size of a squirrel. Rat poison placed outside will usually do the trick. People love to plant palm trees here in TV's. They also will chew through screens if they are attracted to something on the lanai they smell. I also noticed the man's lanai had a lot of plants on it. Rats may be attracted to some of them as well, I'm not sure what kind of plants they were, as it just showed it quickly. Also, I see people plant fruit trees which rats love citrus. Not sure if he or any of his neighbors have citrus trees. There is a lot of factors which were not told in this story and unfortunately, that's what reporters do on a slow day or because they have not researched in full what they are reporting.
I truly feel sorry for the gentleman who is having this problem but I am sure there has to be an underlying issue we are not aware of and hoping the next call he makes is to an exterminator who can educate him and not to a news channel. Hoping he gets someone out there that can guide and help him with his problem soon, he doesn't want them to get into his home.

The Sun is a marketing tool--if you want news--go on line

Squirrel-sized rats invade homes in The Villages

Does not seem to be much of a story.

I agree. Palm rats...For new folks, don't feed birds, plant palm trees, or leave an uncleaned greasy barbecue or tropical rodents will come calling. AND don't leave food out for feral kitties either.

I don't think they'll have any luck interviewing the Palm Rats for their side of the story. They may talk for cheese!

I think when you have a problem like this, you hire someone to fix it or you do it yourself. It's like having weeds, you get rid of them or pay someone to do it for you. It's not a Villages problem.

From what I am understanding, the rats are coming from the tear up of El Santiago golf course.

That has been typed and published but I doubt that is the overall reason. They are here. All of the time. They are not the Norway Rat that hangs out in big cities tall buildings that are in movies. They are palm rats or roof rats....Still rodents but they eat Palm tree (nuts?), they eat oranges and lemons that some folks grow in their yards. They eat seeds that people put out for birds, but they LOVE grease. Some people have hidden compost heaps, not good. Some people feed wild kitties, not good.

We also have gigundous Palmetto bugs who hang out in palm trees. We were told by people who had grown up in Florida, not to feed birds, plant fruit trees and think twice about palms.


Citrus Rats, Tree Rats, Palm Rats and Black Rats Are All Common Names for Roof Rats. | Alford Wildlife

Thanks for the explanation. I know we have roaches in the house every once in awhile that need saddles!! This truly is Jurassic Park down here! LOL

And does Village Santiago have a Property Manager?

Hmmm, I wonder about that and also wonder if everyone involved will participate in stopping whatever is attracting these critters. THAT is going to be the problem. People think feeding birds is harmless. It is the snakes that come for the rats that bother me. We will hear that next. I feel for all of the innocent folks who live there who are not doing anything to attract rats.

And I know they are harmless rat snakes but me and snakes don't like each other.

I suppose we will read THAT in the Orlando Sentinel next... They are all jealous of us down there. ;)

I hope concerned readers will take note of the general advice previously given here in this thread -- even though the rat problem getting the attention is in a specific area where earth is being moved.

I thought I had learned everything I could about queen palms when we bought a house that had them. I took very good care of them.....for a while. The maintenance of queen palms gets old........Then I read about palm rats........They got bigger and bigger (the queen palms not rats) and those palm fronds began to graze our roof.........and it looked to me like if rats could be in those palms, though unseen, well, it would not be much of a leap. (shudder) And so..........

We had our queen palms taken out.

I do not want a grill on our lanai. Mr. Boomer want(ed) a grill. We do not have a grill. We can get our cheeseburger fix somewhere else, like the Ramshackle Cafe in Leesburg. (If we were here all the time, I would be OK with a grill.....maybe. But I could imagine returning after being gone for a few weeks and finding Chuck E. Cheese and Templeton running a resort on our lanai.)

We do not provide cafeteria service for creatures outside.

Proactive Boomer