Like ordinary outdoor gardens, home gardens are infected time and again by various insects and pests. Amongst them, rats are the most common ones usually seen around the homegrown tomato plants. That is because they love to savor tomatoes a lot compared to over fruits or vegetables if grown in the same garden.
Here in this article, I will reveal the easiest ways to keep rats away from your tomato garden.
Keeping rats off from tomato plants
Although rats can eat anything to live on, they prefer gardens the most as they sought to get fresh produce from there. Besides, tomatoes seem to be preferred rats and mice feed.
One way to keep off the rats is to alter the environment in which they love to dawdle around. You can do it by keeping your environment as clean as possible.
If you are a beginner to tomato farming, you can read Tomato Growing Tips for Best Harvesting.
How to identify rats in the garden?
The damage done by them can be easily identified from the tracks and droppings around the plants they have eaten. Rats can live around anywhere they feel right and also eat whatever they want to. Several food sources also attract them very quickly, such as garbage bins, compost piles, etc.
Steps to prevent rats from eating tomato plants
In this section, we will go through different ways of protecting the tomato plants from rats.
- Removing Easy Hideouts
Shift all the garden instruments, pipes, firewood, crate boxes, and other items from the garden where you will grow the plants, as this will attract the rodents very easily.
Moreover, check out the areas around the gardens and the rat’s runways. These runways are not the usual ones that are built to ease traffic congestions. These are trampled strips where the rats run off immediately to escape capture.
- Use Rat Traps
Lay rat trap on the runways and near the plants.Place traps in the caves near the places where you think the rats are most likely to hide around your household. If you plan on allocating many traps, make sure that they are placed around 20 feet from each other.
A way to attract rats towards the traps is to place crumbled pieces of pet food, bacon, dried fruits, etc. The point is, there are more mise than rats. So you will need lots of mouse traps & a few rat traps.
Do not use cheese or peanuts to lure them, as rats can take the food and escape without falling into the trap. Check out the traps often to dispose of them as soon as a rat falls into the trap.
In this case, you will require these gardening tools.
- Bait stations – Kibbled pet food, bacon, dried fruit, or nuts (Peanut butter), or rodenticide bait.
- Plastic ties and bag to
- Hand gloves
- Use Cloth Bags
Place some mothballs into a small cloth bag. Place a pole into the ground near the plant and tie the cloth bag with that particular stick or pole. Mothballs are natural rat repellents.
But,
The drawback of this step is that they dissolve quickly in the rain, so they have to be replaced immediately after a heavy downpour.
Also, make sure that the mothballs are being placed at a distance from the tomato plants. That is because, if it drains after a rainfall, the mothball ingredients will get mixed up with the tomatoes, thus turning it poisonous
- Pune Surrounding Tree Hedges
Prune the vegetation such as climbing hedges and tree branches which are over 3 feet tall, to make their habitats least comfortable.
The tool you need-
- Pruning shears
- Use Thrash Cans
Fit the dustbins with rodent-proof lids and get rid of the debris near the trash cans.
- Destroy There Habitant
Explore the garden for tips on rats, for example, nibbling and fruit damage. Also, look out if there are any possible rat nest sites, caves, or colonies.
You can read more: How to Get Rid of Burrowing Rats Fast.
The equipment you need-
- Soil or Root Digging Shovel
- Poison and Sprays
Poison the entice stations in the areas where you have set traps for the rats like burrows, runways, and places likely to have rats’ presence. Use plastic ties to attach the enticement stations with a fence or post firmly to the ground.
Spray or put rodenticides in each of the rat traps so that they are killed instantly. Some bait stations have ready-to-use bait, while others need the user to mesh the rodenticides(pellets) with the food provided to lure them towards the traps.
Disclaimer!
Applying poison is the last thing I would prefer. It has enormous disadvantages of killing squires, rabbits, birds, and other creatures.
Conclusion
Keep children and pets away from the bait stations or rat traps. Prevent them from going near-dead rats as they may be affected by alien viruses from the dead body.
Always place the rodenticide pellets or handle the bait stations or rat traps by wearing disposable latex gloves and disposable face masks. You are also in a high-risk zone of getting in contact with unknown viruses like children. Finally, clutch the dead rat, close the bag tightly before discarding the bag into the dustbin.
