Back in the late 80s I started getting a lot of landscape work for the faculty housing around UC Irvine in S California. Back then cats roamed freely and rats and rabbits were rare in the neighborhood. In the early 90s coyotes moved in and started taking pets so everyone brought their cats indoors. The rabbit population exploded first and later the rat population. I would drive in some mornings and there would be a hundred cottontails on somebody's front lawn. The coyotes did not control the rabbits or the rats! Around 2010 a couple bobcats moved in and took care of things pretty well for a couple years until they were killed by rat poison. To this day University Hills has to spend thousands on pest control. You can't grow any vegetables or fruits because the rats get to it first. But no one will control the coyotes so house cats can have free reign (little known factoid, coyotes are not native to the west coast, historically the desert SW and Great Basin/Plains. In fact they didn't occur east of the Mississippi until we built bridges for them to cross) so technically they are an invasive species. Cats are marvelously adapted for hunting rats, mice, etc. I know, the bird problem: in this neighborhood anyway you'd think the bird life would be flourishing from lack of predators. Not so, just normal numbers of the typical suburban colonizers like crows, mockingbirds, pigeons, etc. No abundance of local native avians. I believe I know why---1) the crows are eating nestlings and 2) the rats build nests in trees and eat bird eggs. This MAY be an instance of house cats being a suburban apex predator (similar to how reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone revived the ecosystem) where they eat some of the birds but overall the bird population is better off with them.
So this is my spiel for cats for rat control. The last two areas we lived in, and the current house in New Mexico, have had feral or outdoor cats and rats have never been a problem in the compost pile.
How wild! There are a few roaming neighborhood cats but I've never seen them take down a rate. One of them did leave a dead rabbit on our back step though!
Hi Boaz! Congratulations on your award! That’s very cool and inspiring. I have back garden rats, also drawn by my compost bin, and just write about that in my last post. I will read the article you linked.
A tiny auditorium of chipmunks would be the nicest thing 💚
Back in the late 80s I started getting a lot of landscape work for the faculty housing around UC Irvine in S California. Back then cats roamed freely and rats and rabbits were rare in the neighborhood. In the early 90s coyotes moved in and started taking pets so everyone brought their cats indoors. The rabbit population exploded first and later the rat population. I would drive in some mornings and there would be a hundred cottontails on somebody's front lawn. The coyotes did not control the rabbits or the rats! Around 2010 a couple bobcats moved in and took care of things pretty well for a couple years until they were killed by rat poison. To this day University Hills has to spend thousands on pest control. You can't grow any vegetables or fruits because the rats get to it first. But no one will control the coyotes so house cats can have free reign (little known factoid, coyotes are not native to the west coast, historically the desert SW and Great Basin/Plains. In fact they didn't occur east of the Mississippi until we built bridges for them to cross) so technically they are an invasive species. Cats are marvelously adapted for hunting rats, mice, etc. I know, the bird problem: in this neighborhood anyway you'd think the bird life would be flourishing from lack of predators. Not so, just normal numbers of the typical suburban colonizers like crows, mockingbirds, pigeons, etc. No abundance of local native avians. I believe I know why---1) the crows are eating nestlings and 2) the rats build nests in trees and eat bird eggs. This MAY be an instance of house cats being a suburban apex predator (similar to how reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone revived the ecosystem) where they eat some of the birds but overall the bird population is better off with them.
So this is my spiel for cats for rat control. The last two areas we lived in, and the current house in New Mexico, have had feral or outdoor cats and rats have never been a problem in the compost pile.
How wild! There are a few roaming neighborhood cats but I've never seen them take down a rate. One of them did leave a dead rabbit on our back step though!
Congratulations on the award!
Hi Boaz! Congratulations on your award! That’s very cool and inspiring. I have back garden rats, also drawn by my compost bin, and just write about that in my last post. I will read the article you linked.
Good luck!
Congrats on your award! That's so cool!!!! (And thanks for the mention, heehe)
Of course! Thanks for writing my favorite compost-related newsletter!
!! <3
Congratulations to you and Brooke and all the pollinator friends!