Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Friendly Area Neighbors (FAN)c/o Neighborhood Program99 W. 10th AvenueEugene, OR 97401
Website: friendlyareaneighbors.org | Facebook: friendlyareaneighbors | Twitter: @FANEugene1
PRESORTED STANDARD
US POSTAGE PAID
EUGENE, OR 97401
PERMIT NO. 377
your eugene neighborhood newsletter
2018 R.A.T. ExtraFriendly Area Neighbors NEWS
Inside this issue Signs of rats: how do you know if you have them?
Decision tool: how to proceed
Four steps to get rid of rodents
Rodent facts: fun facts to know and tell
Navigating government resources
New data tool: use our phone app to report rat observations
Urban farming: keys to managing your flock to prevent rats
Backyard composting: options for dealing with kitchen waste to avoid rats
Some scary rat stories from neighbors
Community CalendarSee friendlyareaneighbors.org for complete listing
Friendly Park Care DaySunday, March 25, 9 a.m.–noonMonroe St. & W. 25th Ave.Tools provided
Rodent Action Team (R.A.T.) meetingSunday, April 15, 3:30–5:00 p.m.Washington Park Community CenterWashington St. & 19th Ave.
Worm bin composting workshopSaturday, May 12, 10 a.m.–noonOSU Extension Service, 996 Jefferson St.compost kitchen waste by letting worms eat your garbage!$40 materials fee and pre-registration required
By Deb Jones, FAN neighbor and newsletter editorFriendly Neighborhood, we have rats! Lots of
them. I bet you know this already. We are experi-encing a spike in our rat popu-lation. Hence, we devote this special edition of our newslet-ter to rat control.
According to informal neighborhood data collection, city data, and anecdotes among neighbors, rats have been in all corners of FAN in recent years. Please don’t feel ashamed or embarrassed about having rats!
As we drill down into the causes of our boom-ing rat population, we realize that lots of our backyard activities have created a buffet table for
rats. We need to clean up our act and act together. Humans and rats have evolved together over mil-lenia. They will always be with us. Our goal is to
curb the rat population so we peacefully coexist with them—and they are doing less dam-age. Rats consume and contam-inate food, damage structures and property, and can transmit diseases to other animals and humans.
FAN formed a Rodent Ac-tion Team (R.A.T.) last year to get a handle on our rat situation, provide information to neighbors, and work more closely with the city on rat control. Dozens of neighbors have attended our meetings and helped guide our path.
A special edition of our newsletter on RATS!
continues on page 3
All rat control experts agree on these two long-term strategies
To control rats for the long-term, as a neighborhood and city we need to:
STOP feeding ratsSTOP providing rats with
places to shelter
From County of Los Angeles Dept. of Public HealthYou are much more likely to find signs of rats
than to see the rats themselves—because rats are usually active and feeding at night. If you see rats outside during the day, you almost certainly have a major rat infestation nearby. If you find rats inside your house, they are no doubt feeding inside your house.
Signs of rodentsSeeing them: when rats are present, they can be observed in trees, on wires and fences, or running along pathways in vegeta-tion. Mice are more often observed inside a structure than outside.
Droppings: skinny pellets 1/2–3/4 inch long, are most often seen around nesting sites, runways, or feeding areas.Burrow holes: look for fist sized holes in your yard. You might find these under the cover of thick veg-etation or piles of junk in your yard. Or near your
house. Stuff the hole loosely with wadded up newspaper to find out if the burrows are being used.Noise: rats can be heard at night running within the walls, ceilings or attics, also make scraping, gnawing, or squealing sounds.Damage: rodents like to chew and gnaw on objects,
How do I know if I have rats?
Rodent FactsFrom Multnomah County Health Department
Rodents are a public health risk because they spread disease.
Rats eat everything!
Rats climb, jump and swim. If a squirrel can climb it, a rat can climb it.
Rats chew through plastic, wood, soft metals, electrical wires (sometimes causing fires) and even cinder block, brick, and concrete sewer pipe.
Rats squeeze into tiny spaces and nest where it is dark and warm.
Young mice can enter through openings slightly larger than ¼ inch in diameter and juvenile rats can enter openings as small as ½ inch in diameter.
The house mouse, roof rat, and Norway rat can re-produce year-round when adequate food, water, and harborage are available.
Rats can reproduce up to 6 times a year with litters averaging from 4 to 8 pups each.
Each night, rats can travel from 100 to 300 feet from the nest in search of food.
Roof rats are extremely agile and can swing beneath rafters, jump as far as 4 feet from branches to roof-tops, and climb pipes and wires.
Roof rats often enter and nest in the upper portions of buildings.
Rats and mice are nocturnal with most activity tak-ing place between sunset and sunrise.
Compiled by Friendly R.A.T.After lots of inquiry, we have found that
government response to rats is dispersed over numerous government agencies. It’s a challenge to decipher who has jurisdiction over which situation. Let this summary be your guide when you contact agencies for help, or to report a rat problem.
Eugene Planning: provides information about rat prevention and elimination at eugene-or.gov/rats. Direct questions or requests for more informa-tion about city educational outreach and materi-als to Lindsay Selser, Communications Analyst: [email protected] or 541-682-6021.
Eugene Public Works: responds to rat com-plaints in our sanitary sewer system. The sewer system is designed to be closed, but rats can enter the system via breaks in sewer pipes under city streets and between the city system and sewer pipes to homes and businesses. If someone has a rat problem at their home, they may notify Public Works at (541) 682-4800. Within 48 hours, this department will check for rat activity in the nearby sewer system, and place rat bait if appropriate. They will not bait again if there is already bait in the manhole. The sewer is separate from the city stormwater system. It is not safe to place poisons in the open stormwater system, since it drains directly to streams.
Eugene Code Compliance: re-
sponds to complaints about rats on private prop-erty. Staff will conduct a field investigation to confirm the complaint and determine a food source or other conditions contributing to the problem. Staff contact the owner(s) and work to resolve the issue—either through education or, if needed, the formal enforcement process.
Enforcement can follow a number of steps depending on each situation. Typically staff will continue to work with the owner to reach volun-tary compliance. If this fails, a Notice to Correct is issued, giving the owner a specific number of days to correct code violations. Contact this office at (541) 682-5819 or file a complaint at pdd.eugene-or.gov/CodeCompliance/ComplaintStart.
Lane County Health Department: through its Environmental Health section, conducts regular public health inspections of restaurants, food carts, food booths, school cafeterias, and day cares. The
presence of active pest control measures within a business’ food safety plan is part of the inspection. To report rat sightings at the above types of busi-nesses (those where food is served), call (541) 682-4480.
Oregon Department of Agriculture Food Safety: To report rat sightings at businesses that grow, process, or sell food retail (for example, grocery stores), contact ODA at (503) 986-4720.
so look for teeth marks on fruit or branches, and inspect for chewed wood, cloth, plastic, and paper.Smudges: black greasy marks on exposed runways or walls are made when a rat rubs its dirty hair against a surface.Runways: rodents repeatedly use the same path-way between their nests and food sources. Rat runways are easier to detect than mouse paths and show up outdoors in ivy and other ground covers as smooth, well packed paths free of vegetation.Tracks: watch for footprints in dust or mud. In dry weather, dust an area inside or outside with flour, then look for rodent tracks soon after.
Adapted from Multnomah County Health DepartmentEditor’s note: Steps 1-3 below are essential for
long-term management of rat populations. There’s no getting around this fact. But if you diligently employ only the long-term fixes of steps 1-3, it may take several years to see results. Then if you fast forward to the quick fix of traps/poison in step 4—but omit steps 1-3—the rats will probably return. The use of poison to control rats is controversial in our neighborhood. However, since we know it is both potentially dangerous yet widely used—espe-cially by do-it-yourselfers—we need to address its use here.
The Long-Term FixesStep 1: Take away their food. Rodents will eat anything. You must get rid of their food to get rid of them. Common food sources include: • Bird food/feeders • Chicken feed/pet food • Unprotected compost • Garbage• Pet waste • Fallen fruit and nuts from
trees or unharvested produce from gardens
Step 2: Keep them out of your house. Small openings in homes, buildings, and sheds must be sealed to prevent rodents from entering. • Check for openings where pipes or wires enter
the building, under eaves, and around founda-tions, doors and windows. Use cement, ¼ inch steel hardware cloth, or steel wool and spray foam to seal openings.
• Crawl spaces and attics must be sealed to pre-vent rodent access.
• Rodents often enter through open doors, win-dows, or through pet doors. Install thresholds to prevent access under doors.
Step 3: Keep them out of your yard. Don’t let your yard be a nesting zone for rodents. Rats will nest in: • Outdoor piles of garbage and junk. • Under wood piles or lumber. Stack wood piles
18 inches off the ground. • Under blackberry bushes, shrubs, vines and
tall grasses that are not trimmed or cut back. • Holes under buildings that haven’t been filled. The Quick FixStep 4: Eliminate them. Trapping and poisoning can be effective ways to eliminate rodents, but require careful adherence to instructions. For safety: always trap INSIDE and only use poison OUTSIDE.
The incorrect use of poisons can kill humans and other animals; the incorrect use of traps can harm humans and harm or kill other animals.
Trapping: Trapping is the preferred method for eliminating rodents indoors and outdoors. Snap traps are inexpensive and effective. Rodents tend to run along walls, so place traps next to a wall, fence line, or foundation. Place the trap under a long bin with 3" holes on both ends that allows the rat to pass through but prevents children's
hands or other animals from getting in. If you have an attic, crawl space, or shed that prevents other animals or children from accessing you may be able to forgo the protective crate. Peanut butter usually works as bait.
Poisoning: Poisoning is not an ideal way to eliminate rodents, but you may feel it is necessary to control a bad infestation. Hiring a professional will minimize the danger of poisons. Poison is not recommended for indoor use, as rodents can die inside walls and produce a putrid odor. Always use a secured bait station to keep poisons away from children, pets, and wildlife. Be wary of false advertising of poisons that are safe for people, pets, and wildlife.
Follow these four steps to get rid of rodents
Submit your rodent observa-tions to our new phone appBy Eric T. Jones, FAN neighbor
To better understand changes in our rat and mouse populations, we have created a mobile phone app. Residents can use it to provide simple presence-absence data about rats and mice they see in the neighborhood. It's a simple but powerful
open source app that runs on iOS and Android. You don't need to be a scientist—this is a participatory science experiment for the general public. Your help and patience as we get it implemented is greatly appreciated.
Visit friendlyareaneighbors.org/rat for instruc-tions on downloading and using the app. A rat observation takes typically 1 to 3 minutes to enter. Your observations will immediately show up in our app database. We are eager to see our data set develop.
Additionally, we are also looking for individu-als to be part of a more formal data collection team with training, regular meetings, and online bulletin board discussion. Email [email protected] if you are interested in joining our team. Kids 13+ are welcome with parent’s written permission.
Navigating government resources
Signs of rats continued fr. page one
Friendly Area Neighbors Newsletter
Editor: Deb Jones Design and layout: Peg Freas Gearhart
We would like to hear from you! Send your com-ments, letters to the editor (limit to 200 words), and community calendar events to: [email protected] or Friendly Area Neighbors (FAN) c/o Neighborhood Program 99 W. 10th Avenue Eugene, OR 97401Visit the FAN website for more information about your neighborhood: friendlyareaneighbors.orgThis is the official newsletter of the Friendly Area Neighbors (FAN) in Eugene, OR. Funds for the printing and mailing of newsletters are provided by the City of Eugene. Newsletters are produced by neighborhood volunteers and are free to residents and businesses of the neighbor-hood. Space is available for letters to the editor or articles from neighbors and will be published as space permits. The information provided and the views expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the position of the City of Eugene or Friendly Area Neighbors.
Get involved in your neighborhood!Friendly Area Neighbors (FAN) works in teams to develop the work of the neighborhood association and projects of interest to neighbors. Contact us on: friendlyareaneighbors.org/contact.html. All are wel-come to join our teams or sit in on any discussion to learn what we’re working on. Visit friendlyareaneigh-bors.org for a full listing of our action teams.
R.A.T. (Rodent Action Team): providing information for controlling the neighborhood’s burgeoning rat population. Join the group elist at friendlyareaneigh-bors.org/rodent-action-team.html.
Next meeting is Sunday, April 15, 3:30-5:00 pm, Washington Park Community Center.
Rat resources on FAN websiteBy Steve Piercy, FAN neighbor and webmaster
The new FAN website has a page devoted to rat resources and our Rodent Action Team (R.A.T.). Check it out!
friendlyareaneighbors.org/rodent-action-teamIn addition to the resources found in this news-
letter, you can sign up for R.A.T. email updates. We also have links to additional articles, such as con-trolling rats without poisons, cleaning up after a rat infestation, rodent-proof construction methods, and tips for selecting a pest control pro.
Help wanted• neighbors to use our new phone app to re-
cord rat observations. It’s quick and easy. See article on page 3.
• neighbors to contact city council to express your concern over our rat population and support more educational efforts to con-trol them. [email protected] or (541) 682-5010.
• neighbors to star in educational videos. Con-tribute your story of successful rat interven-tion and management:-your tightly managed backyard chickens-your rat proof compost pile-your rat proof bird feeder-your sealed up home or apartment building (videographers provided)
Contact: [email protected]
By Bill Bezuk, Owner, The Eugene Backyard FarmerFor as long as there have been towns and cities,
there have been rats in them. Rats and other urban predators thrive and adapt due to bountiful habitat and a constant food source. In many cases, urban farming can provide just the things rats need to flourish: food and a place to live.
So many people in our area consider themselves urban farmers that Eugene was named as the top place for urban farming by the real estate website Redfin. Urban farm-ing is usually done out of a sense of responsibility to the ground, plants, and animals. But if done irresponsibly, urban farmers are only making a welcoming habitat for rats, mice, opos-sums, and raccoons.
So what can a responsible urban farmer do to be sure that their property is not contributing to the problem? Address where predators might live and consider what they are eating.
The most important thing you can do is elimi-nate their food source. Rats are opportunistic omni-vores and will eat almost anything available. They
also generally eat at night, so think about what they might be getting into once you go to bed. Since chick-ens do not eat at night, there is no need to keep the feeder in the coop. Most urban farmers go outside each night to close the coop anyway, so it takes only a few seconds to move the feeder into a sealed galvanized container.
It is common for urban farmers to toss extra kitchen scraps into the
chicken run. But what they do not eat by the end of the day needs to be collected and composted or tossed in the garbage. Provide just enough kitchen scraps to keep the hens busy all day—but not so much that there is food left on the ground at the end of the day. And even if you do not keep chick-ens, you could still be contributing to a rat prob-lem, if you leave dog and cat food out at night.
By Deb Jones, FAN Rodent Action TeamLots of Friendly neighbors are avid vegetable/
fruit growers and loyal composters. It’s part of who of we are as a neighborhood. It’s a healthy addic-tion! Gardens and composting bring us fresh food, recycled nutrients, a more sustainable community, and joy. Unfortunately, if poorly managed, these activities can also invite rats to move into our yards and homes—despite our best intentions. The more neighbors partake in backyard farming, the better we need to manage these activities. Poorly man-aged urban gardens add dishes to the buffet table for rats.
For kitchen food waste, use one of these rat proof options:1. Compost your kitchen scraps in a self con-tained tumbler or worm bin.
The City of Eugene Love Food Not Waste Program allows residents in small pilot areas to put kitchen scraps in their yard debris cans. Please stay tuned for program expansion updates later in 2018.2. Make your current compost pile rodent proof.
You need a very TIGHTLY constructed com-post bin to exclude rodents. Eliminate all cracks ½ inch and larger for rats, and ¼ inch and larger for mice. Wow! That’s tight.3. For the skilled composter, make your open compost piles cook fast and hot.
Rodents will stay away from hot compost piles even if they contain kitchen scraps. This involves judi-cious layering of materials, regular turning, and moisture man-agement. Let’s be honest—most of us don’t have the time, energy, or back strength to sustain this level
of compost management. 4. Put your kitchen waste in the garbage.
This option will be painful for loyal compos-ters. And yet there is no shame in going this route, given the state of rats in FAN. Many households are using this option until they get their rat situa-tion under control.
For general yard waste, use # 3 or 4 above. Even if you are not adding kitchen scraps to your compost bin, rodents may still seek shelter in your open pile, especially in warmer and drier weather.
There is abundant information online about best composting practices for backyards. The OSU Extension Master Gardener Compost Specialists program is a primary local resource: extension.oregonstate.edu/lane/gardens/compost. Rather than attempt to cover composting basics in this newsletter, we simply are outlining your options for handling compostables to deter rodents.
How urban farming can contribute to increases in rats, and what to do about it
Exclude rats from your home compostables
Real rat stories from FAN neighborsA hole under my son’s bed was gnawed out
in the last couple weeks. They also peed in and ate wires in my gas range and dishwasher and I had to replace both for $1700. We have needed many other repairs due to them eating around gas lines where we had to cut metal plates to block them. It’s been a 13 year long battle.
FAN neighbor Erin, 26th & Adams
I was woken up in the middle of the night by a rat crawling over my blanket.
Anonymous FAN neighbor
I have had rats both in my house and in my yard. They have destroyed my garage and the
amount of feces left behind is unbelievable. I have lost many nights of sleep because they are also very loud. It is absolutely horrible and it is getting worse.
FAN neighbor Andrew, 25th & Oak
Rats have chewed wires and wood siding try-ing to get into crawl space along our house. The rats run along the electrical wires in our backyard to get to our neighbor’s chickens. There are several burrow holes along edge of our deck and in our lawn where the rats retreat to. We’ve seen them scavenging around the compost bin but there’s a metal grate on bottom so the rats can’t get to it.
FAN neighbor near 19th Ave. & Adams
