RATastrophe Strikes the Greenhouse
The not-so-romantic side of our lives at Big Rock is rearing its big ears and bushy tail. It seems the mild winter and wet spring has favored rats around here. This summer has been consistently hot, with triple-digit heatwaves circling through each 10-day forecast. Many nights have stayed in the 60s, unusual for the high desert, which can have a freeze any night of the year.
It has been HOT.
Below is an excerpt from my Garden Journal. We've always had rats here, they came with the ranch, and we've done a lot of work to remove places where they can live, but we can never get away from having hay stacked in the barn. So despite our cats seemingly residing in the haystack, the packrats have a home there too. We have decided some giant rats have the bluff on the cats because one of our cats regularly brings us smaller ones.
Our horse waters catch them a few times most months, but they still reign the ranch between that and the cats.
Then, a mouse got into the center building for the first time. Half is called the Room of Requirement. This is where we store our recreational gear and extra stuff since our house has very little storage. The other half is the Bird's Nest. It is roughly finished and where I do my sewing and store my craftsy and office stuff. The cat's home base is the Room of Requirement; this little mouse snagged pounds of cat kibble, packing it away in some of the most astonishing places. We have no idea the extent of the damage yet. We are slowly reclaiming it after I found and axed the little hideaway that has caused SO much damage to our stuff. We have a trailer parked next to it to throw all the mouse-damaged things into; all of it is destined for the dump.
It feels so terrible.
Our saddles have been gnawed on; they must be stored in the horse trailer to keep them safe. I've paired down so much tack from rodent destruction. It's horrible!
One year, when I had my Subaru, I took it in because it wasn't blowing air well. Turns out it was because a rat nest was blocking the air. Poor mechanics cleaned it up, and I had AC again. But think of how long we were having rodent den blown onto us! YUCK!
I started seeing chopped and dropped plants in my raised beds out front of the house this late spring and had to search the local gardening Facebook group to find out what plant predator does. Pack Rats. They mowed the whole bed down. Clover, borage, lettuce, kale, herbs, and more are all chopped off.
Then they started chopping off the pansies I planted in pots around the house. I knew it was only time before they found the greenhouse/high tunnel.
Ans they found it. Now that you have some context… read on below.
I couldn't bring myself to go out to the greenhouse the next day. The following morning I bucked up and went out to find they had concentrated their efforts to the beets. They chopped and dropped plenty of beet foliage but had also begun eating the exposed beet roots, putting craters into them.
Now I know to brace myself for more destruction and disappointment.
If it weren't so hot and I wasn’t so pregnant I might have more fight in me.
We will attempt the safest eradication solution: buckets partially filled with water rimmed with peanut butter. It is pretty cruel to imagine even rats drowning to death but having bated and set traps with a toddler, cats, and dog around or poison out just isn't worth it. So while we are feeling rather beaten by heat and rodents, we are pulling ourselves together in an attempt to save our possessions and growing food.
It really is always something around here, like it pours hardships rather than rain all summer in the high desert. We haven't even had a ripe tomato, and I'm shamefully praying for an early Fall and Winter.
We have an abundance of tiny frogs which are a delight to discover in the greenhouse.
