Fortunella survives the rat

[ric]

This is one of the Citrus that were chewed on by the supposed rat. I thought I would share a picture with you befor I chop the fruit and repot

[Mitchell]

Very nice!
Must start some fruiting plants.... Amazing.!

[Joel]

Does anybody know how to keep the bush rats away? I want a deterrent not a rodenticide. They ate some tubers of my unusual australian terrestrial orchids. They also climb and re-position wired branches.

Joel

[kvan64]

scatter some rat pellets on the grounds near your bonsai?

[Jamie]

gday joel,

i was under the impression that bush rats cant climb..? i remember seeing it on a documentry..

just done a little reading and it seems the organic method of deterring rats and mice is the use of a herb pepper mint, supposedly what it does is some how give of a smell similar to felines?? just what i read anyways, couldnt hurt to give it a crack!

jamie

[Jerry Meislik]

Nice Fortunella. It is one of my favorite plant species but slow to get any trunk size.
Jerry

[aussie4bonsai]

+Hi ric
Try Four and Plaster of Paris 60/40. ( keep dry)
They don’t eat much after that and you will find skeletons with white plugs in them.
Good luck Barry

[Greth]

Catmint and Catnip (Nepeta) species, are meant to be the ones to deter mice, though with my experience of these kind of herbal folklore stories, you are probably best off growing catmint in a terracotta pot and then throwing the pot at the mice/rats.

While I admit that Strabo had a point :

I shall never lack a good supply of common mint, in all its many varieties, all its colours, all its virtues. But if any man can name the full list of all the kinds and all the properties of mint, he must know how many sparks Vulcan sees fly into the air from his vast furnace beneath Etna. Strabo, The Little Garden , 840 A.D.

I have found not a single reference to Peppermint or any other Mint species being used against rodents, just spent a while going back thru every reference from Ancient Greece onwards. Wormes in a manne's teeth, maybe, but not rodents. If Jamie can find his reference, I would be interested to read it, but it isnt in any of the most comprehensive herb books I have read, and I have read hundreds, especially folklore and history.

Best I can offer you is hire of a champion mouser! Not letting him go for free, he just found a nest of baby bunnies and is bringing one home every day.

On the Bushrats dont climb myth, I am reminded of the snake researcher who thought the Death Adders he studied never climbed, until he did a careful tracking, and after that always checked up as well as down.

[Jamie]

a quick google search will find a lot of info...

here is one http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Mice-Naturally

heres another http://www.ehow.com/way_5183297_rat-rep ... cipes.html

and one more http://www.ehow.com/about_5335999_mint-repel-rats.html

and another http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/801/

as for bush rats not climbing i remember watching a zoo doco about it all as the bush rat enclosure was getting invaded by common rats, so was just going off the info i seen.. do you need referances for that too???

[Chris]

On the Bushrats dont climb myth, I am reminded of the snake researcher who thought the Death Adders he studied never climbed, until he did a careful tracking, and after that always checked up as well as down.

theres the awnser go buy or catch a death adder

[Greth]

No academic references there, just a bunch of internet rumour. Worth as much as the paper they werent printed on. Find me a real reference to a real herb author, not LariAnn from Wisconsin, and I will include it in my book as an amusing mention from folklore. But still not recommend it unless I have some scientific papers too.
LariAnn was probably the one who posted it to Wiki, where it has been copied by the other two.

Pmsl laughing Chris, yes snake keeping would also be a great deterrent, didn't suggest it as most people arent keen on them. You could even go a python, and non venemous.

[aussie4bonsai]

+Hi ric
Try Four and Plaster of Paris 60/40. ( keep dry)
They don’t eat much after that and you will find skeletons with white plugs in them.
Good luck Barry

Ric
It's Flour and Plaster of Paris
Barry