The palm grower’s enemy is back

[happypalms]

7 hours ago, sonoranfans said:

7-8 years ago I did see a rat, once.  But the last few years the mature palm forest has brought an ecological balance;  Prey, meet predator.  This barred owl is so quiet you would not know its there, it likes the tall roosting potential of this royal but there are plenty of roosting spots in or near my yard.  I have heard an owl hoot late at night over the years, but this fall with the cool weather I've been watching often near sunset and I have seen it fly in 5 times in the past two weeks.  I expect the rats are no shows at dinner, and even squirrels seem to have almost vanished.  I sometimes sit and watch the bird for 20 minutes before it moves to another roosting spot in the wooded area behind my place.    

Beautiful picture love i, we have the lessers sooty owl, and the powerful owl that can eat a possum it’s one majestic owl and very rare, so I feel very blessed to have both owls in my area. 
Iam sure once you’re owl has descimated the local population of squirrels and rats it will find another spot. 
I can tell where the owls sit in my garden by the droppings on the ground all in the same spot from sitting in the same roost spot all the time.

The most beautiful sounds is at 3 in the morning in the dead calm of night I love it.

[happypalms]

12 hours ago, pogobob said:

Some days are better than others. Money well spent 

For the mice it was a bad day! But may ask about that killing machine the A24?

[happypalms]

12 hours ago, Darold Petty said:

@pogobob,  I had a problem with a trunked Howea, the rat would chew through the top of the petiole, just below the frond blade.  This would happen one frond each night.  I tried spring traps, glue traps, metal band around the trunk, nothing helped. In desperation I purchased this very expensive trap.  It worked, the corpse had dried blood out the earholes the next morning, very satisfying !!

For those unfamiliar with this trap, it was invented in New Zealand.  It is a most clever design, forcing the rodent to stand on its hind legs to investigate the bait within the top of the black section.  When this occurs, the rodent trips the trigger, causing a horizontal bolt (inline with the A24 printing) to strike the rodents skull.  Then the rodent falls away.  It is powered by a CO2 cartridge, and automatically resets for the next victim.  My favorite detail is that this is a mechanical kill,  and there is no risk of poisoning a non-target animal that might scavenge the carcass.  (the reason I do not use poison)       

Very intriguing little death machine you have, I like it but somehow I don’t think the rats like it. 
What particular bait do you use? How much does it cost? And thirdly where can I get one? 
I need this thing they call the A24! 
I wish they only eat Howea sp but unfortunately the rats in Australia only eat rare and expensive imported seeds and seedlings, they have had there fair share of Howea sp. 
I haven’t put baits out for a long time for the reason you mentioned I couldn’t bring myself to killing a powerful owl just for a palm tree the environment is more important to me!

[happypalms]

12 hours ago, pogobob said:

Great explanation Darold! Precisely why I bought a couple of these. Out here we have bobcats, coyotes, weasels, hawks, owls and more scavengers and we respect them. But the rats and mice have done some expensive damage to our vehicles wireing in the past and our plants. Another cool feature is the trap has a digital counter that keeps score, so some times I notice no dead critters but the numbers tell me that something came by and enjoyed a snack. 

Don’t forget the house fires from rats chewing electrical wires, a mechanic mentioned to me you leave the car bonnet up to stop them getting into the car and eating the wires. I will stick with a biological control method of carpet python snakes until I can get the famous A24!

[pogobob]

They are available on Amazon for about $200. Expensive but not comparable to the monetary damages that can occur from the little varmits! 

[peachy]

On 11/26/2025 at 6:34 AM, Jonathan said:

This is unfortunately the solution. We have an absolute feral cat plague here at the moment, haven’t seen a rat or mouse for over a year. Usually the rodents move into the greenhouse in winter and wreak havoc, this winter not a single one. The downside is that the bloody cats have killed everything else as well - bandicoots and all the ground nesting birds, lizards, etc. 

So the solution to the cat problem is this little cutie who's coming home with us on Friday!

If she's anything like our previous shepherds she'll chase the cats away and leave everything else in peace. Yep, we'll end up with rats and mice again but that's a small problem compared to the devastation cats cause.

 

That's one seriously cute turd factory.  I have two 3 month old Pekingese puppies here if he needs a sibling 

[happypalms]

3 hours ago, pogobob said:

They are available on Amazon for about $200. Expensive but not comparable to the monetary damages that can occur from the little varmits! 

Thank you I will look into it. Cheap in comparison to the damage they can do, and if they work as good they say I will get two!

[Jonathan]

10 hours ago, peachy said:

That's one seriously cute turd factory.  I have two 3 month old Pekingese puppies here if he needs a sibling 

Now that would be a strange looking wolf pack!