Is it the Chinese Year of the Rat? (is rat population is cyclic?)

Does any off your neighbors have any kind of food to draw them in? They could be using your yard as shelter and feeding at another location. We are having a problem with our neighbor not using the city garbage pick-up. Instead he is filling metal drums with his garbage and hauling it to the dump once a month! It is drawing skunks and racoons in big time!

Not that I know of, but there are new neighbors with dogs and they could be leaving food out. Or the rats could be feasting on my garden, although all I have left are tomatoes & peppers.

Is there new construction or road work nearby? Sometimes land clearing will scare them out of their usual places and force them into new areas. Just a thought. Carla in Leander

Maybe they were living at the house where the new dogs are and they have run them out, so now they're looking for a new home. This is also the time of year rats and mice start looking for a warm place to spend the winter. I don't mind mice much (as long as they're outside), but rats? Uh, uh - I would be seriously after them too.

We used to live in a house with an inground pool and a shed we never used. Huge rats would jump off the roof and scare the crap out of you. They were not the kind that come in the house. I found out they were staying in the unused shed for the winter. No food or trash or anything like that anywhere. They left in the spring and never saw them again.

Me too ! I knew why I had them at the last house. We had bird food, chicken food, a couple sheds with dirt under them for housing and a mulch pile to keep the ones that were already there (former owner was a rat magnet)living large.

We move to a new(to us) house that has nothing to offer rats. No free fed pets,no bird food, I bury my compost and there are no stores/restaurants nearby. Then about 2 weeks ago my dogs cornered a rat on the side of my house. Yucky!!! I have no idea what attracted it. I went out into a nearby field and it was FULL of rats and mice. There really isn't anything out there to attract rats either,unless they are in to the occasional broken TV or a set of old tires.There are no food and the water is quite a ways a way. I don't get it. PJ

This seems to have been an especially bad year for rats, based on my own experience and comments I've heard from other gardeners. Cotton rats have attacked melons and sweet potatoes in my garden. Maybe it's a passing thing???

Never heard of cotton rats but they sound icky. PJ, my situation is like yours except for my garden & pond which aren't really close to the house. I keep the yard mowed and flower bed around the house fairly maintained.

No construction anywhere around, the house with the new dog neighbors had dogs with the last neighbors so I doubt that is it. For that matter, I have a dog, but she isn't a rat chaser.

I was wrong. My dog is a mouser! She ran one out from under the lantana and then caught it. Now I have to find her rabies certificate for my peace of mind.

"Now I have to find her rabies certificate for my peace of mind."

LOL Marti! Sounds just like something I'd do.

Pam

LOL! Ditto! PJ