Yes! Our apples too! So frustrating!!
At least they are finishing what they started! And good for you for getting some ripe blueberries to pick if you cover them. Wondering they are disappearing into thin air bc animals enjoy snacking on them when only 85% ready to eat?
At the end of the season here (with the first hard frost) I try to collect all the green tomatoes still on the vine, and use them to make a green tomato relish. Or, just fry them up.
I put all my green tomatoes in a brown bag/sack and they all eventually turn red - sometimes I’ve used my last ones at Thanksgiving! No green tomatoes go in the compost!
Same here! By Thanksgiving we are usually homegrown tomatoed-out! ![]()
I gave my plants a serious haircut today (and got eaten by mosquitos). Very late in trimming them. Not sure if we will get more tomatoes
Picked the peaches! The bushy tail bastards did not bite every single one, thank goodness! The ugly ones will be turned into jam. The pretty ones will be eaten fresh!
First tomato sandwich with an heirloom tomato and basil (from my garden). Both on top of brioche bread with balsamic vinegar and EVOO (both from a friend who had just returned from Milan)
Even the basil looks yum!!! ![]()
My tomatoes are finally ripening and I just had a glorious tomato sandwich on a friend’s homemade sourdough bread. Perfection!
A couple of days ago I went to check on my deck container with herbs, and a wood rat
jumped out of it! My husband set up a trap baited with cheese. Nope. No takers. Today said rat again jumped out of the container! ![]()
I would try peanut butter.
Edit to add: I prefer to use “have a heart” traps when trapping things outdoors, because you never know what you might catch. I have occasionally caught things that I wanted to let go and didn’t want to harm.
Peanut butter did not work for our wood rats last year, hence cheese was tested in the electronic trap this time. We had success with electronic traps that are small so only rodents can get inside, but that was when roof rats were trying to move in with us. Wood rats apparently don’t like small tunnels and are not peanut butter or cheese lovers. ![]()
Nooooooo!
. I don’t know what a wood rat is but I’m not ok even thinking about a rodent of any sort jumping out. I’d have my husband hauling those plants far far away!
They are pretty common pests in the wooded areas around here. They have somewhat furry tails, unlike the house/roof rats.
I seriously cannot click the link and see a picture or I will not sleep tonight! ![]()
Checked the planter this morning - the rat jumped out of it again! ![]()
This would freak me out.
I googled “wood rat” and at least according to a quick online search they allegedly like to eat both cheese and peanut butter. I am wondering if they do not like your trap. I have several sizes of have-a-heart traps, and am sometimes surprised when small rodents do not go into the smallest size, even though it looks like they should fit. Sometimes I try two sizes at the same time and hope that whatever is causing problems at least wanders into one of the two.
The other thing that I can think of might be to physically exclude the rat from the planter. This might not however be easy. One option might be to fill it’s hole (if it lives in a hole that it dug in the planter) with gravel. A similar option might be to refill any holes that exist with soil, and they leave a half inch or so of gravel on top of the entire surface of the planter. I do not really know whether either of these will work. You could also fit metal mesh over the surface, cutting it to go around the plants (which probably means that several pieces will be needed), and then put a thin layer of gravel on top of the mesh.
At some point you need to decide whether this is worth the trouble. I might argue that extremism in the defense of plants (and blueberries) is no vice.
I think I’m going to put a net over the planter next time I go check on it.
Just need to find a good one as deer netting is too porous for rat catching and the one we use for scooping scum out of the pond is too big.
I think the rat has plenty to eat in the garden so it is not enthusiastic about food baits.


