permaculture

[John Thomas Naisbitt <johntnaisbitt@gmail.com>]

On a side note, a few K9 breeds have been developed in history for
maintaining rat populations at a minimum on boats and barges. European
breeds, such as the Schipperke, have been around since the mid to late
1800's which was a very significant era of the transworld shipping trade
and large infestations of brown rats on a global scale due to those trades.

Rats are tough, social, and have few successful predators. I like the
artificial sweetener idea in the Diet Coke, but it is a poison and the long
term downstream effect could impact another predator or scavenger species
in the neighborhood. (not to mention giving $$ to Coca Cola Co.).

Anyways, my two bits. Good luck.

John


On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 4:02 PM, John D'hondt <dhondt@eircom.net> wrote:

>
> Rats are athletes. I have not found a way to create barriers that works. In
> the past we had rats eating every last pea of what would normally have
> given
> us about 100 kilos of dried peas in less than a week. We trapped them and
> shot them and driven to desperation I electrified all access routes. They
> then climbed a 15 foot elderberry tree and jumped from there over all the
> electric cables into the peas (ten foot high). Other years they would eat
> all the skirret then all the beetroot.
> We found that rats exterminate one crop at a time. Only when there is
> nothing left of one crop do they move on to something else. Even if there
> is
> no food in your barn, they will get it outside and drag it to their nests.
> Even if they have to climb up a concrete wall 4 meters high.
>
> What did cure our rat problem was diet coke and it's artificial sweeteners.
> I have just three pet drink bottles hanging up around the gardens and about
> 2 liters of diet coke will do us for a year. It is not the gas for I refill
> the bottles only when they get empty. Rats love it, mice or voles don't
> touch it. And the rat numbers are completely down.
> john
>
> > This year I've been dealing with rats in my barnyard.  I'm not
> > looking for help dealing with that problem: I'm trying to articulate
> > the pattern I'm seeing within the rubric of permaculture.
> >
> > The specific scenario:
> >
> > I have a pest[1] (brown rats) that have taken up residence in my
> > barn.  I have used traps as a control[2], and I've recently taken
> > to hunting them too.  As I've hunted them, I noticed that they've
> > used the barnyard environment in a way I hadn't considered/been
> > aware of.  Building paths and finding routes.  Many of these paths
> > emerged because of design decisions I'd made: they favor walls,
> > narrow passages, and dark places.
> >
> > I'm working to introduce more barriers[3] to prevent access to
> > areas I'd rather they not be in.  But this feels underwhelming as
> > a description of what is happening at the system-level.
> >
> > In the permaculture rubric, what am I doing?  What pattern is this?
> > What phrase describes this activity?  Again, not looking for advice
> > on rats: I'm looking for hooks I can use to describe these
> > interactions and help model the patterns.
> >
> > Thank you!
> >
> > -Alan
> >
> > 1: http://sunflowerriver.org/wiki/Pest
> > 2: http://sunflowerriver.org/wiki/Control
> > 3: http://sunflowerriver.org/wiki/Barrier
> > --
> > .i ma'a lo bradi cu penmi gi'e du
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