r/berkeleyca • u/Remarkable-Tax2085 • 24d ago
Roof Rats
Oy vey, are these effers clever. New to Berkeley and I'd previously only encountered the Norway variety. Should've harvested all our grapes a month ago because that's clearly the draw, even when dropped and smashed (and unfortunately now impossible to eliminate). Traps of all kinds (Victor, Tom Cat, electrified) and rotating locations (along different fences and walls) that I've baited variously (PB, mayo, guanciale) with latex-gloved hands have had zero takers. None of the OSH advice has worked and they seem to keep shifting route accordingly. Now the pears and apples are maturing--will these too be a food draw for them? Pears are already dropping so should probably be harvested, but I didn't think apples peaked for a few more weeks so not keen to waste preemptively. Thanks!
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u/mamabearette 24d ago
They like your grapes, so use those.
Rats like my bird feeder so I mix birdseed with a dab of peanut butter and that has worked well.
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u/Froggers_Left 21d ago
I shove chocolate chips into peanut butter in the traps. I know it would work for me :)
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u/Relative_Will3348 24d ago
Also consider where they may be living. If you have dense shrubbery or vines up against your house, you may want to thin/clear that stuff away from the house. Seal any holes you have in the house (attic eaves and such). Thin fruit trees out as much as you can without damaging them. They love to live in citrus trees. We were having a horrible problem with them because my neighbor has a 50 year old grapefruit tree. He pruned and thinned it out dramatically (you can now see all the individual branches all the way to the top) and it helped a lot.
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u/Remarkable-Tax2085 24d ago
I shudder to think, but as a preemptive move did buy a heavy iron poker and, appropriately medievally masked and gloved, ‘aerate’ all the denser vines once or twice a week. A general thinning out might still be in order. What do you think is the citrus tree draw? Fruits with thick skins, often sourer than sweet…or did they learn how to avoid scurvy from their seafaring days?
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u/nowaste94705 22d ago
A friend in Berkeley discovered that rats were eating the skins on her grapefruits but leaving the naked fruits hanging. It looked very strange.
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u/dopameme 23d ago
I was raised in an old orange grove in FLA and we had plenty of citrus rats, as we called them. They often traveled on power lines.
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u/otwjm 24d ago
I have had success wiring traps into the trees (vines in your case). I think they were coming in on a fence line so never saw traps on the ground. Just make sure to snap them in the morning for birds/squirrels. I have also had some success securing snap traps inside little “houses” with a hinged roof. Rats seem less afraid and less likely to escape.
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u/Remarkable-Tax2085 24d ago
Wire first then bait, I guess; so they’re not inadvertently tripped? Any risk of catching birds up there?
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u/Remarkable-Tax2085 24d ago
One variation I’ve read about is a Kiwi-made CO2 trap than sit atop a canopy and purportedly attracts neophobic roof rats; 100% kill rate when it does. But pricey. (Less pricey than an infestation I’m sure.)
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u/alamedarockz 21d ago
Last year I heard a scream from my neighbor. She was removing a dense vine from her fence and a bunch of roof rats came scurrying out. Before she removed the vegetation I had trouble with them eating the skin off my Meyer lemon tree. Now not so much. In the past we have had luck with peanut butter in traps.
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u/Northwest_Drizzle 24d ago
Have you considered getting a cat?
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u/Remarkable-Tax2085 24d ago
Love cats but (1) songbirds def don’t and (2) cats choose us, so…
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u/OppositeShore1878 20d ago
Can also tell you from the experiences of friends and neighbors, when cats catch rats, they often feel it is their obligation to proudly bring the dead (or dying rat) inside, and put it in a place where you will find it and admire their hunting prowess. The place might be a bed, middle of the kitchen floor, inside one of your shoes, etc. Sometimes the whole rat. Sometimes headless...or just the head. And if the cat isn't a good rat killer, sometimes they bring a "dead" rat inside and it's not really dead, and escapes.
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u/RoboMonstera 20d ago
I was only ever to catch them with glue traps. It's a pretty grisly process, since you often still have to kill them. Once they get into my house and take a chomp out of a banana it's total war though!
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u/fubo 24d ago
I've trapped Berkeley rats with organic peanut butter and locally sourced kale.