Italian Cypress trees 50' high in a row of 15 trees = rat hotels overlooking koi pond!

[Jacque44]

Has anyone else had a problem like mine? I notice all the rat droppings at the base of my Italian Cypress trees and stay out of that area which lines the back of my property. I contacted UCDavis today and said they are getting their water from my 1500 gal. koi pond and if that wasn't the case, they would get it from the neighbor's pool wouldn't they? How to get rid of them without spending too much money is my problem for now! The favorite part of my house is the koi pond my son built many years ago with all the koi and plants and flowers! I love this group and always learn from you all and enjoy the pics! Have a good night from Sunny CA!

 

[slakker]

Water source is one issue, but what about removing all food sources? We have Norwegian brown rats in our area and removing and limiting access to foods like bird seeds, compose (fruit/veg) helped minimized them. I even live trapped and removed them...

The other thing is natural predators like neighbourhood cats or birds of prey also minimizes them.

 

[Dave 54]

Water source is one issue, but what about removing all food sources? We have Norwegian brown rats in our area and removing and limiting access to foods like bird seeds, compose (fruit/veg) helped minimized them. I even live trapped and removed them...

The other thing is natural predators like neighbourhood cats or birds of prey also minimizes them.

slakker has a very good point there Jacque44 , we keep cats they keep the mice down [weve only ever seen one dead rat brought in by one of the cats but that was many years ago].
The cats will not predate the fish simply because your pond is in their turf thus its theirs , we even get our cats sleeping by the pond or around it

Dave

 

[CometKeith]

It may not be practical for you but we have a lot of Peregrine Falcons by us. They will catch any small animal on 4 legs pretty easily.

 

[DrCase]

I have two Italian cypress , I never noticed or looked for a problem
If you could safely feed them rat poison you could bring the numbers down