The Trouble With Solutions

 

This week Boston news ran a story about how Medford residents are frustrated with the large number of rats (the picture was of a mouse) inhabiting their hamlet. Trust me Medford, when I post that I feel your angst.

Knowing practically nothing about Medford, I took a guess and commented that Medford didn't so much as have a rat problem as they had a shortage of predators problem. Suggesting that Medford increase their number of snakes, fox, weasel, raptor and coyote earned me more than a few laughing emojis. 

I had to concede that one solution does not fit all scenarios; and oddly enough other people who read the Boston news also had their own ideas on how to solve the infestation. In fact, several suggested domestic cats, like this new to my yard cat for example. While I imagine that our beloved neighborhood cat Tobie is none to pleased about this fluffy orange cat checking out his turf, Tobie clearly is not handling all of my rodent woes on his own.  If I'm to be honest however, I also must include to the list of cat solution conflicts, that it's estimated that outdoor cats kill between 30 to 48 birds per cat per year. That's 1.3 to 4 billion birds a year! (The Cornell Lab, All About Birds). 

I wondered if perhaps the solution didn't require a larger cat, one that didn't focus on birds so much? As it turns out, bobcats eat both birds and small rodents and a lot of other things; but mostly they prefer to dine on hair and rabbits. 

(bobcat) 

Perhaps it's time that I step out of the realm of Medford and check out something closer to home. There is currently quite the dustup over a certain gray fox wandering about in Saxtons River. It seems that residents are worried about the fox rambling about so close to houses during daylight hours. Some even suggesting that such behavior is odd for a fox and that it might in fact have rabies. One invested participant informed readers that they should stop composting for the time being as the fox was after their compost. I can imagine how she thought this as rodents do favor compost piles and fox favor eating rodents. 

All of this begs to question, what else do we get wrong? 

No, that's not a huge rat in my yard, it is an opossum. Feeling poorly for the Saxtons River fox, I attempted to defend its honor by explaining the tick / Lyme disease cycle and how mice are largely responsible for the transmission of bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi to ticks which in turn bite us causing Lyme disease. I know it's confusing because we call them deer ticks. Deer are poor transmitters however and they most often are just free transportation and a blood meal for the ticks. Mice account for around 90% of bacterium transmission rates to infected ticks. If you want to learn more about the tick/ Lyme connection and ways to reduce ticks in your yard, click on this link.  Just keep in mind that fox eat mice and mice infect ticks.

But doesn't it just make sense to learn to fall in love with passive tick eating opossums instead?

Admittedly, I too fell for the report that claimed that opossum eat thousands of ticks in a season. The trouble is, that research had yet to be peer reviewed prior to it exploding all over social media. Subsequent studies found no evidence supporting that opossum eat ticks. Love them anyway.

So it seems that we are back to reducing  mice populations and you might be surprised to learn what else eats mice and other small rodents.

(fluffy skunk bottom)

If nothing else is available racoons will eat mice too.

Crows, ravens, eagles, hawks, owls, blue herons and other birds eat mice.

Snakes, toads and frogs will eat mice too. Because so many animals eat small rodents and carrion, rat poison shouldn't be used outdoors where it can get into the food stream. Animals that consume a poisoned rodent are in danger of being poisoned themselves; and that includes our neighborhood cats.

 If the goal is to rid communities of rats (small rodents), then consider this: While it's true that too high of a concentration of rats potentially increases the spread of disease, it's also true that too few rats removes an important food source for wildlife.  Click on the link to read VT Small Mammal Atlas which states in part that, "So why aren't we over run with these rodents? Because they are a food source for most of the carnivores and omnivores living in our fields and forests. Without this food base our wildlife pyramid might collapse." The article also states that "of Vermont's 35 small mammal species, 13 (37%) are considered of highest conservation priority."

So while Medford and other communities may indeed be noticing an increase in the population of rats this spring, it's doubtful that their problems began with this spring's litters.  Their solution to this challenge is to figure out which part of it is the problem and which part the solution. In closing, I will share this one nature find. When I moved our winter birdfeeders away from our house, the mouse population inside our house dropped off.- Norma Manning

Rats Don't Have Racing Stripes

Those are fast shoes!" I used to tell our children this when they were small and didn't like change. I would have them run around like crazy until they agreed by saying something like "yeah really fast!" While they mostly outgrew all of those little white lies that mother used to make, "fast shoes" I think will always stay with them.  It's funny how these things travel across the curriculum of life and pop up in the most unusual places. Perhaps in their young minds they wanted to please mom and apparently mom for some odd reason valued fast.

A number of summers ago I installed a rather tiny pond in the planter outside of my living room windows. I was very pleased with my clever self and could hardly wait to see all of the  beautiful visitors that I would attract to it. Confirming my smart installation, my first customers were birds, chipmunks and squirrels. I purchased several inexpensive feeder fish to help keep the insects in check but for some reason they either vanished or leapt to their deaths. Ever the optimist, I rested my head on that while it seemed that I had an uninvited predator to the pond, perhaps it was a beautiful Great Blue Heron! The mystery continued for a couple more trips to the pet store and with not a heron in sight, I decided that it must be our endearing  neighborhood cat.

"Is that Figaro that I see outside of your house?" my neighbor asked one afternoon. Now rats aren't stupid animals, they recognize a welcome mat when they see one and that tiny pond was enough to invite Figaro and his very large extended family to my front yard. So mortified was I that Figaro was doing the backstroke in my pond that I repeatedly denied knowledge of his existence to my neighbor and swore my children to secrecy. 2,368 species and 1,759 subspecies of rodents in the world and I had to attract rats the size of morbidly obese hairless squirrels. I won't go into all of the details; but the Have a Heart traps couldn't contain them, I altered how I composted, we ended up tearing  down a big shed that came with the house when we bought it and I considered setting fire to the place.

Ginny is going on nine years old. For as long as we have had our little terrier mix she has been obsessed with the chipmunks that scurry along the planter with only a pane of glass between them. We call pulling back the curtains, "turning on Ginny's TV." Ginny intensely waits for a chipmunk's arrival and then the chase is on. Because I have lost so many plants in this way, we have to keep our plant table pulled back from the window which creates her speedway.  Chipmunks are clever mischievous little thieves with racing stripes and Ginny instinctively knows it. I have never successfully grown a sunflower for they are forever cutting them down for no other apparent purpose than for the sport of it. They scold anyone and everything with a sharp chirp and dig holes in the most inconvenient places -yet I would never dream of sending them packing like I did Figaro. If it weren't for our resident red fox family, Toby our new neighborhood cat and raptors, I am positive that I would be over run by Chip and Dales!

Now I know that this piece is getting long but it wouldn't be complete without informing you of the fact that those chipmunks given enough time and exposure to Ginny's obsession seem to make a game of teasing her. Once chase is given, those darn little rodents run to the end of the window, turn around and run back along the same path. This causes Ginny to zip back and forth until the varmint disappears down a hole or over the edge of the planter. I know what you are thinking and no I don't believe that I have lost my wits and this is how I know. One day while watching Ginny watch a frozen family of chipmunks, I witnessed the adult of the three go up to the glass and look at Ginny directly in the eye. Though Ginny carried on barking and scratching at the glass that chipmunk held fast then went back to it's youngsters and back to the window again. This was repeated until eventually those youngsters tried it too. Yesterday I heard a clicking at the window, I looked down to see that chipmunk's great great great grandchild scratching at the glass with its tiny paws. What could I do? I called to Ginny letting her know that her favorite program was on. - Norma Manning

Ginny waiting to race