Palms
 

We always include one or two Palms in our landscape. Never had a rat issue. It just doesn't seem Florida without a Palm tree. We stayed away from the queens--plant Sylvesters and or small fan palms.

I did not give up on palms completely. I kept the short ones. One has an interesting triple trunk. I see to it that those are fertilized and trimmed from the bottom. I do not know what kind of palms the ones that got to stay are, but I do know they are manageable, at least for now.

When we first bought our house, I went to the meetings offered by the extension office. They really do try to watch out for us gardeners new to Florida. That is where I learned that the queen palms here are about a hundred miles north of their comfort zone, although many do quite well. Our houses here are so close together that maybe we have micro-climates or some such thing. I don't know. But queen palms do seem to work in lots of places throughout TV.

Our queens had grown really tall. Keeping up with removing their big seed pods, and trimming the bottom fronds when they yellowed, got to be more maintenance than I had realized. I can be a little persnickety about plants in my yard. I want them to look their best, but those giant seed pods and big, yellow drooping fronds were trying to get ahead of me. (Also, queen palm maintenance can be a bigger problem for those of us who are here and there.)

And then I heard about palm rats.......EEK! I was done!

I will secretly admit though that I really like seeing the big palms..........in other people's yards. But in our yard, I will stick to the shorter, less demanding palms.

Please don't give up on having the palms of your dreams. You might even like taking good care of the big ones. And you might not worry about having those palm tenants show up.....or not show. I just write sometimes about how I got over having queen palms in our yard. But that does not mean I can't admire them.........from a distance.

Boomer

Exactly.

I love the big palms. Is there a service that specializes in palm maintenance? I know some landscapers like to stick to the lawn and not much else.

If Queen Palms are a problem with upkeep or attracting rodents, then no queen palms for me. There are many palm varieties, I hope one will suit my taste and not become “a problem.”

In the news article, Massey stated they interviewed everyone on the street. There were two homeowners that had the problem.
Hardly warrants TV news coverage........................

yes.

Slow news day.

Stop planting palms....problem solved and contrary to what some one said, Most of Florida is fine without palms. The majority of palms planted here are non-native species.

All entrance points were sealed.

Was performed by Massey. The heavy boxes contained what the tech said was like a granola type bar that only rats could, access through small opening.
Problem solved so I am a happy camper.

I wish a certain landscaper (writes his own kudos on here) hadn't planted my neighbor's queen so close to our house that the fronds scrape our roof. Since neighbor is a snowbird and doesn't contract with a palm maintenance company, the job of grabbing the offending fronds and sawing them off falls to us. Not what I signed up for. If we ever become incapacitated, I will have to have to talk to them. But not worth possibly engendering bad feelings yet.

Here is an excellent fact sheet on Roof (Palm) Rats, SSWEC120/UW120: Control of Roof Rats in Fruit Trees. It was excerpted from: "Pests in and around the Southern Home", which is available from the UF/IFAS Extension Bookstore. IFASBooks - Pests In and Around the Southern Home.

Martysmom, if that it true then I believe the golf course should do something .......

Be careful of putting out bait. If a rat eats it and still has an entry point into your home, that is likely the place he will go to die.

The above was pasted from a previous poster. Rats will try to find water because of how the poison affects them internallly.

re: cheese
 

That is only in cartoons. I don't know about Florida rats but in NY peanut butter and bacon worked great. Rat traps are indiscriminate. They will close on kids, pets etc. For the have a heart traps. From experience a squirrel looks far bigger and gets pretty nasty whne you need to open the door to let it go.

re: rat poison
 

Interesting to me. Rat poison is warfaren same blood thinner
used by doctors for people with heart conditions. The reason it kills rats is they do not have ability to throw up.
So the poison causes them to bleed to death.