Rat Destruction

[Tjohnson]

A few months ago a rat chewed off about 100 Archontophoenix maxima seedlings in a single night. Not a single stem/leaf was noticed in the surrounding area. I knew there was no way a rat could eat that much vegetation at once. Turns out I was correct. When moving around some C. glaucifolia yesterday, I discover this nest about 2 feet away. I believe I caught the rat shortly after it’s clear cutting. The positive news is these little palms are so aggressive, I have only lost 1, everything else rebounded.

[Darold Petty]

Sorry for your loss,  

 The risk at my place is Hedyscepe seed.  The roof rats (Rattus rattus) ignore the growing seed, but once the epicarp starts to change from green to red, then the rats will consume many seeds each night.  Now I must enclose the spadix with a wire cage.

[Fusca]

1 hour ago, Tjohnson said:

A few months ago a rat chewed off about 100 Archontophoenix maxima seedlings in a single night.

Yeah, that's a bummer.  Nice that you had survivors!  Same thing happened to me last year although not to that extent with no survivors!  I had several Sabal seedlings, Phoenix and a couple of Washingtonias in the same area but the rat concentrated his efforts on my Dypsis pembana hybrids and Livistona saribus and left the others untouched!    They have a discerning palate...

[Ben in Norcal]

Chamaedorea klotzschiana is the preferred target here.  They literally find every one I plant, and defoliate it.

[Tjohnson]

Previously they’d go after the D. lutescens that I’d use to shade the small stuff. They also got the Cryosphila stauracantha, but those have not rebounded well between winter and seeming much slower for me.

[Steve Mac]

C. oblongata was the favorite here, but it was not for nesting, apparently just for fun, all defoliated half way down from the top of the plants and left at the bottom.