Cob: rat runs--cleanliness

[lightearth at onebox.com]

Never seen them in Cob walls but nothing would surprise me with rats. I too thought because of the "path of least resistance" that hollow walls would be much preferred, at least they seem to be for mice.

Rats and mice attacked a lot of my little planted trees, chewed off their bark in the winter and killed them by girdling them. What seemed to work best and easiest in this circumstance was clear distance between the nearest brushy plant area and my little trees. It, of course worked to wrap the trunks but just having 2 feet around the tree open appeared to deter them significantly. Maybe this would work around a rat-infested house area.

The other wisdom I've gleaned in population control:

1) unsuitable habitat (help them make choices to be away from you!)
   i.e. lack of food sources, difficult - steel wool pathways
2) predators (cats, snakes, hawks ...)
3) direct extermination (poison has been the best/unfortunate one I've found - at least w/mice)

BTW, I saw an unbelievable example of predation by a bred species down in Indiana, near my farm, where some people brought in a small 'pack' of 5 rat Terriers and then brought down a huge old clay/hollow brick/cement silo that had been used for grain until recently. As the silo was pulled down, the rats ran everywhere while the spastic little terriers went bezerk in the van. Then upon release from the van the terriers tore into the rubble and methodically killed hundreds of rats/mice as the people removed the broken chunks - looked like almost none survived - the terriers were right on each one - bit their neck, dead, on to the next etc.....Amazing!


Marlin

-- 
     Marlin Nissen
   - Outta The Box-
  lightearth at onebox.com
(608) 213-9405  Cell/voicemail

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm"  - Emerson



-----Original Message-----
From:     Priscilla Stuckey <pstuckey at california.com>
Sent:     Tue, 29 Apr 2003 07:11:47 -0700
To:       coblist at deatech.com
Subject:  Re: Cob: rat runs--cleanliness

I'm a newbie to the list--Oakland, CA, homeowner, wanting to turn my 
half-ownership of a house into a whole house, and probably will 
actually be able to afford it if I build "dirt-cheap."

I have PLENTY of experience with rats here in this woodsy 
neighborhood--I've spent hundreds of hours and several hundred 
dollars rat-proofing my house--so I wanted to clarify something.

Rats show up, at least in urban & suburban areas, not because of lack 
of cleanliness, but because, like crows, they are opportunists and 
will go wherever there is food or shelter--that is, wherever there 
are humans. Here in the Oakland hills that means the basements of 
every hillside-clinging, expensive home. The only way to keep rats at 
bay is to seal every nook and cranny around your house (especially 
around pipes and wiring--the rat/mouse freeways) and then trap the 
ones that were indoors. BTW, rats are no less clean than squirrels. 
We just like squirrels better because they have fuzzy tails, and they 
weren't implicated in the plague. Rats have a bad rep because, since 
they are mammals, like us, and live close to us (closer than 
squirrels), diseases can pass more easily between the species.

I have a question, too, regarding rats & cob houses: I was really 
surprised to see the rat question come up on this list (you mean my 
rat-fighting days aren't blissfully in the past if I build a cob 
house?) because I thought that the solid construction would eliminate 
the problem. How do rats become a problem with a cob house?

Priscilla







At 8:38 AM +0000 4/29/03, Brent Flaco Wilson wrote:
>In a permanent culture where things have their place, and homes are 
>built intelligently into the landscape major varmint problems aren't 
>an issue.  But one animal that really keeps rats away is a hungry 
>housecat, and for that matter if you live by the river, grow a 
>forest for hawks, owls, and eagles, then have coyotes roam thru, and 
>your house dog, ok, thats how rats are kept at bay where I grew up 
>plus the kleen house and the raised foundation.  SO I think lets 
>keep parts of this totality in view as equal.  So I have also seen 
>cob homes in heavy forest with owl, coyote and other predators 
>keeping rats at bay, though the rats did crawl on the roof at night. 
>And once again a hungry cat protected their neighbors house.  So cob 
>off the ground with a proper ecosystem suited to the local area with 
>a domestic predator is pretty darn safe! flaco
>

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