Not really if it's in the garden. Yea you might scare off a few rats but you're going to end up with a load of dead birds if you're letting a cat outside. At that point you might as well leave poisons everywhere.
Get one of the smaller live catch traps and have animal control pick up anything you trap. If it's in a rural setting with no AC suck it up and shoot the bastards.
Legally speaking, is there anything I can do to ask people not to spray pesticide near my place? I've seen some people put up signs saying it's a "native plant preserve" and registered somewhere, but I didn't take a photo.
If you're in an area that's simply overrun with the little bastards, there may not be much you can do.
But if it's an isolated situation, get a terrier type dog. They're hardwired to kill rats. Someone I know with a huge rat problem in her hay and chicken coop has a few cats and a terrier mix. They tag team the rats. The cats flush them from tight or high places and get them out on the open, and the dog chases, grabs and shakes.
You could attempt to put electric fence wires around your raised beds. The rat solutions I've seen usually contain large sections of energized mesh. You will have to be really religious with trimming the grass around your beds because the grass will ground the fence out otherwise.
Legally speaking, is there anything I can do to ask people not to spray pesticide near my place? I've seen some people put up signs saying it's a "native plant preserve" and registered somewhere, but I didn't take a photo.
Depends on the area for both.
We have those signs, my neighbor has a "padron the weeds we're feeding the bees sign" it's cute.
When they spray shit for lawn on my other neighbors it never effected our lawn or more so our beds. I just mentioned to them when their landscapers come if they can watch our prop like since we have so much planted.
Guess really depends on area and how well you know neighbors.
So we're going through a heat wave and I'm not really sure what to do about my plants when I'm at work.
I'm commuting down to DC twice a week (sucks), and today it hit 97 °F. Before I left I watered them a lot and tried to cover up some of them but didn't really do much.
I got home in time for the 6pm news and it's still fucking 92 at BWI.
About half of them looked droopy like this when I got home.
Though I have seen them come back from this, so I'm not super worried. I watered them thoroughly and I'll check on them in a few hours. Sun's still up for a bit.
This one didn't get droopy at all. And when I put my hand under its leaves like this, it's warm underneath. That one is Virginia Gold tobacco.
I didn't put enough potting soil in the bag, so it's a good six inches below the edge. Maybe extra shade helped in the early hours of the morning.
Tomorrow's supposed to be hot as shit again but we'll have rain (that we desperately need) in the afternoon so I'm not too worried.
One of my other VA Gold plants didn't get droopy either so maybe it's just big enough that it can weather this intense heat for a bit. The internet says full sun is OK for VA gold.
I'm growing VA Gold, Florida Sumatra and Rustica (like a squat injun smokem peace pipe species from Mexico).
If you're in an area that's simply overrun with the little bastards, there may not be much you can do.
But if it's an isolated situation, get a terrier type dog. They're hardwired to kill rats. Someone I know with a huge rat problem in her hay and chicken coop has a few cats and a terrier mix. They tag team the rats. The cats flush them from tight or high places and get them out on the open, and the dog chases, grabs and shakes.
Second vote for a dog that likes to chase and kill vermin. Or get a cat. I’ve had cats all my life and never known one to eat a rat. Mice, sure, but they always kill rats then leave them. Same as our dogs.
We have a few issues with rats despite our pets, and the local authority recommended ensuring the food they were coming into the garden for was no longer available. We got a fancy hard plastic squirrel collar for our bird feeder, and we no longer put food on the ground for the birds. As your rats are after food you’re growing, you might just have to put cages round your growing beds. Just don’t use that floppy plastic mesh shit, because birds get trapped in it and die.
We use both snap traps and poison, and we’re down to the occasional small rat now. Vary the bait you put in the snap traps, have a variety of traps available to use, and change their position regularly (but keep them out of the way of birds and other animals). Our occasional rats have worked out the snap traps, even when we change the position, so we’re putting out new poison traps for a while before going back to a different kind of snap trap.
Rats are a normal part of the wildlife and you’ll probably never be able to get rid of them totally.
Depends mostly on the state. Sadly, many states you have to prove damages after they happen, but some states have civil actions for spraying near protected habitats.. Most states do however have negligence statutes specifically for spraying in higher winds, if that's an issue. Some criminal, some civil.
Grapes are coming in nicely! This pic is a bit older now, but this is the first fruiting year for the plants, their 3rd year in the ground, from cuttings to fruiting.
Some sort of shade cloth? If they're just going to cook in the sun anyway then it doesn't matter if shading them would get a suboptimal amount of light.
Some sort of shade cloth? If they're just going to cook in the sun anyway then it doesn't matter if shading them would get a suboptimal amount of light.
Some recent photos from my garden. Critters I believe are harmless as they've been there awhile and I've yet to see much damage to my plants. Green beans coming in fat, sweet peas are flowering, and the tomatoes seem to be getting ready to come in.
Dragons Breath and jalapenos coming in as well, but they've been a bit slow to grow. Feel a good chunk of my plants have been slow but hanging in there.
@Marvin not sure if too late to plant tobacco, one year I grew a HUGE plant I was so happy. Tried to dry it went south sadly. Please man keep posting about it!
We (SE PA) had 90s all week then tons of rain, everything is going nuts so happy!! I've seen so many bees on all our flowering stuff. I'm really happy! My dad talked me into mushroom soil over basic mulch and I also think things are doing better for it.
@Marvin not sure if too late to plant tobacco, one year I grew a HUGE plant I was so happy. Tried to dry it went south sadly. Please man keep posting about it!
We (SE PA) had 90s all week then tons of rain, everything is going nuts so happy!! I've seen so many bees on all our flowering stuff. I'm really happy! My dad talked me into mushroom soil over basic mulch and I also think things are doing better for it.
Yeah, it's pouring now down here and I'm very grateful, aside from it fucking up the holiday weekend.
Some of the bigger leaves got mangled by the heat, which is a shame, but a majority of my plants are doing very well, so I'm optimistic. The varieties of tobacco I'm growing are supposed to get much bigger, so even the ones that are kinda scarred might grow past this setback.
