[Prizmz]

A handful of rat sightings have occurred in the Village of Largo. Are things among wild animals normal, or is there a proliferation underway? Any input?

[SusanOfWoodbury]

Sometimes rats and mice can show up if u have a bird feeder

[mulligan]

Once a village has mature palms that produce dates, and mature citrus trees, you will see more rats. These are not, however, the norwegian rats you are used to seeing in the cities "up north". They are citrus rats, and I compare them to chipmunks, but a little bigger.

[red tail]

google 'rattus rattus' for the info

[redwitch]

Some of our wildlife is cute and welcome. Some of it isn't. Personally, I love snakes if for no other reason than they eat mice and rats. Anything that keeps those critters away from my home is a good thing in my mind. So, yes, they are common.

[senior citizen]

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[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by senior citizen

Are they common in all of the villages or mostly just the new villages which have had the earth and habitat disturbed?

I understand the citrus rats vs. Norwegian rats from another poster's comments..........as we saw them in Venice Florida.....they were actually in the palm trees......and were also called roof rats.

We'd see the roof rats or citrus rats scurrying around the air conditioning units when we'd look down from our third floor balcony. I used to think that I was glad I didn't have a ground floor unit as they might run right into the condo if the door was open.

The newly refurbished beach was beautiful, our remodeled condo, ditto......the Esplanade and Main Street "downtown" was beautiful.....but !!

Realtors had told us that in some of the condos on the Esplanade and on the beach (where we were) rats had come up into the units via the toilets (that's why they put saran wrap on the toilets so that the water doesn't evaporate when owners are gone back north).......anyway, they chewed the draperies, furniture and carpeting, etc. Other stories of them chewing the wiring under first floor condo units on the beach........

They gnaw and they chew. This is why I asked that question a few years back when we first thought of THE VILLAGES.........thinking maybe the rats were just on the "barrier islands" from North Carolina down to Florida and around to Texas.........like I had been told.

We didn't see anything at all in Calumet Grove or in Creekside Landing....

So, I'm wondering "Are they more prevalent near nature preserves or water?"

Also, are there armadillos in TV??? Our daughter was going for an early morning walk from her condo at Disney World and spotted a huge armadillo walking on the path.........

I have lived here for almost six years and saw one once, under a palm tree in some ground cover near a parking area of a golf course. Someone posted that they are drawn to the flowers or fronds on palm trees. And obviously citrus fruit.

I have seen ONE snake. SEVERAL alligators but they were like the Czar, far, far, from me.

[redwitch]

I've seen a few rats -- usually dead cause they were smooshed by golf carts. They do seem to like heavy, low vegetation almost as much as the palms. They're around but not really a big deal, at least that I can tell. Haven't heard of any major infestations other than a few years ago at one of the pools. That was a problem!

As to armadillos, yup, they're around, too. So ugly they're almost cute.

[buggyone]

Being from Washington DC, I have seen lots of rats (2 and 4 footed).

I there are more of the four footed rats here than before, they are obviously feeding on garbage or bird feeders or something like that.

I think Villagers should petition the Morse family to import and turn loose breeding pairs of Burmese Pythons into The Villages to take care of this growing problem.

[senior citizen]

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[senior citizen]

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[Bogie Shooter]

Originally Posted by senior citizen

Very cute. Actually, I've put it all into perspective , especially when I think back to our own huge groundhog invasion......and they are bigger than any roof rat, citrus rat, palm rat or Norwegian rat out there.......

Groundhogs are in the rodent family and just "move in to the neighborhood" building apartment house burrows underground......
The would come up to sun themselves on our patio, etc..........huge guys.
They were also ornery....especially the females when they got caught in the have a heart traps........

We would catch them with tomatoes, lettuce and even chocolate chip cookies when we ran out of carrots and such........

But one thing, groundhogs do not seem to want to come into the house.....

Ditto for our squirrels and chipmunks, also in the rodent family.......but chipmunks are diggers......and who knows where they might tunnel into.

When we returned from THE VILLAGES after our month+ visit, it was the month of December.......and apparently some mice had gotten in while we were gone........probably when our power went off during that northeastern October snowstorm........and our neighbors both came over to check on our oil furnace, etc...........somehow two distinct types of mice got in.........I found one shriveled up greyish brownish dead field mouse and after hubby set a trap, we got one newly deceased white bellied really big mouse.......which our newspaper said were on the increase due to the warmer weather???? It was part light grey and underbelly was WHITE.
Creepy to me. We've always kept all entries closed and sealed up....but we were gone.

I found traces under my kitchen sink and in my kitchen cabinets.........
Maybe it's a woman thing, but I just find them creepy.......and they are only mice.

The last time we had mice was in our other house in Vermont when the builders were adding on a large back of the house addition and had set up a tarp across for most of the summer, before they put the glass doors in...........well, apparently they got in and set up house......plus a "mole" too........the mice I found sitting on my tray of garlic bread on the kitchen countertop, fresh from the oven.

In this house, this past winter, hubby heard scratching in the wall by his recliner........we listened for a few mornings.......all the traps were set in the strategic places and we couldn't figure out where they were getting in.
Finally, I told him to just put the D-con I had purchased into the wall socket, which he did.........next day no noise......however, within a day there was a foul odor which eventually dissipated. So, I have a mouse skeleton in there someplace..........

He has crawled around the perimeter of the house and found no entry points.........but, we are not the only ones. Luckily, they are few and far between.......... I've also wondered if they can come in via the fireplace?
It has an exterior brick chimney. I've also wondered if they can get in via the plumbing....like in back of the kitchen sink or in the laundry room????

He has traps set in the garage as that would be the flattest easiest point of entry. None this winter at all.........

"Rat" just has a nasty reputation........just the word alone. Field mice are creepy, but tolerable.

Oh, we use chocolate bars and peanut butter to catch our Vermont field mice.

Interesting thread.

Isn't this about rats in The Villages????

[justjim]

We have been in TV since March 2006---never seen a rat or mouse----lived in a Villa in Caroline, house in Hadley and now house in Sanibel.

[tucson]

Maybe it's because of the Water/Sewerage Treatment Station in Largo....

[gatherer47]

We had a rat that got into our garage in De La Vista West-called Massey who set out gluetraps and peanut butter laced snap traps-couldn't catch him[her] one night I spotted him and saw him running under the washing machine-tipped it over and found him deep inside machine-with massey's help we got him but not before he ate hoses in washing machine,wires in golf cart[turn signals stopped working one day] and wire to sprinkler system-I've sinced learned-keep your garage door closed