[Fiipolera]

With winter coming the rats have been edging towards the house. The dogs have been going NUTS chasing them. Today they chased one under the fence and proceded to try scratching thru the fence to follow the rat.
They are coming to work with me tomorrow, so we don't have to worry about them digging out. On the way home we'll stop at the farm supply store and pick up more hot wire and insulators and put up a hot wire along the bottom of the fence.
DH is going to spend the weekend making bait boxes so we can 'feed' the rats. In a week or two the rat population should be greatly reduced.

Last winter we saw ONE rat, so far this year, we've seen several. I really hope this isn't an indication of it being a bad winter.

[paydayus]

Same here. Rita is taking being a Pit Bull Terrier a bit seriously this year and has been trying to catch and kill rats in my yard. A few months ago she was chasing one, it made it to the fence and she hit the fence after it. She ended up scraping her nose and near her eyes on the twisty part at the bottom of the chain link. Just needed to be cleaned, ointmented and allowed to heal, but I worry what could have happened. She could have hit the fence at a different angle and put out an eye!

So wish I could electrify my fence, but I share it with neighbors and we have kids. I'm managing her with supervision atm, but want a privacy fence as soon as I can afford it.

We, the people on the block, have complained to the city about the rats. Rats have even eaten things around houses and the electrical of a neighbors car. City says they did some sewer work and chased the rats into the neighborhoods and that the rats will go back into the sewers when the sewers have become "established" again. I ain't buying that. Why go live in the sewer again when you have such good eating and accomodations by human houses?