Uninvited Garden Guests
I noticed a hole leading into my hugelkulture row of watermelon and zucchini this is what it caught.
The damn thing went up and sniffed the trap but didn't go in the hole. I guess I will be trying different baits until I can catch him. I have caught 3 or 4 little field mice so far this season but this is first time I have noticed a rat making my hugelkulture style rows into it home.
That looks like a pretty good size rat! They seem to be smarter than chipmunks, you can catch those in a live trap pretty easily.
I'm guessing that you have one of those square frame kill traps over the hole. I've used those in the past when I was living in the country, they're quite effective if you can get the critter to set it off.
Yeah it's one of those square traps, I was hoping to get it returning to its den, but it appears too smart to walk through the trigger posts. I will probably end up investing in some live traps this week. My neighbors resort to poison immediately so I want to catch it before they notice. I don't like the idea of hawks/dogs etc eating poisoned animals.