Rat Report from a Sleepy Sean

A little background: this morning at 6 AM, Susan brought her Rat Terriers over for a little sleuthing in the garden. Here's Sean's report from the expedition:

"Good morning all, Thanks for joining us, Dick. Well those were happy little hunters! The hot spots in the Patch itself were the compost area and the shed. The area between the eastern set of compost bins and rain barrels had a nest under the stored burlap. Susan said burlap must be dry--moist they heat up and draw rodents. Ours is moist and warm. We moved to other side of bins on concrete for now. They also should be elevated for storage. The bins opposite were active too. Dogs found activity in two bins closest to sidewalk and there is a burrow under the tomato growing up the back on center bin. Under shed is still an issue and Susan said flooding it only wastes water. Worm bins also had rodent activity-it was hard to get dogs out of them! Areas with broken concrete in Patch also were hot spots. The most activity was along back of gazebo in Garden of Happiness. By base of grape-broken concrete again, the clematis nearest the Center, and the base of the climbing hydrangea near entrance to Center have HUGE burrows. Easily seen. Go look. There are cultural things we can do-including being better at harvesting. BUT-especially with shed, if we are going to solve the problem-we are looking at traps or poison. Or we lose crops and live with multiple species of disease vector rodents. Susan will be back with dogs for a visit closer to sunset another day. Thoughts? Sean, sleepily"