POISON FREE SOLUTIONS

Rodents

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Mice + Rats

Mice eat plants and the seeds of plants including weeds to survive. They also prey on insects, helping to keep the populations under control.
Mice sustain all carnivores includes snakes, fishers, foxes, coyotes, hawks, owls, skunks, bobcats, bears, and mountain lions.

  • Plant a border of mint varieties, lavender, rosemary, sage, marigolds, snapdragons, geraniums. See this Bay Area Landscape webpage.
  • From the San Francisco Chronicle, “Flowers That Deter Animals” include “aromatic annual herbs, such as mint, lavender and catnip. For perennial plants that repel mice, consider amaryllis (Amaryllis), lavender (Lavandula) or daffodils (Narcissus).”
  • New organic products are on the market which include balsam fir, peppermint, clove, cinnamon, garlic barrier concentrate. Natures Mace rodent repellent contains essential oils peppermint, spearmint, garlic oils and putrescent egg.
  • Castor, clove, peppermint and cedar wood oils – Rat Magic.
  • Motion detecting water spray – 
  • Strobe lights: Information is here. A product using LEDs – Rid-A-Rat

Professional-level repellents for mice and rats are available. You can Do-It-Yourself or you can ask a rodent/exclusion company.
Garlic Scentry Garlic-based.
DeTour Contains white pepper.
Sold in containers it is called RoadBlock.
PRO-PELL is made up of peppermint, rosemary, and citronella essential oils that contain the smells and tastes that rodents hate. It is sprayed on the foundation of a building and is not easily washed off. It now comes in a concentrate to dilute for spraying or a safe user-friendly closed container at, for example, Wildlife Control Supplies.
The Nixalite website has many useful products and suggestions for animal control.

Here is an organic repellent to keep rats off your trees.  See this video – IV Organic 3-in-1 Plant Guard.

A new technology uses electrified mats which repel without harming rats, or anyone else. It is completely effective – a one time solution. Great for buildings and automobiles. It comes from the UK and is called RatMat there, and TheGridGuard in the US.

  • Seal all buildings. Do it yo urself or hire a rodent exclusion company. Copper Blocker Pet Stopper is copper mesh to block holes. 
  • Do not overfill trash cans or dumpsters and make sure the lids are tightly closed and no spillage on the ground.
  • Maintain a tightly closed barbecue and clean after every use.
  • Maintain garage doors closed with door sweeps. Seal all entry points.
  • Underground Barriers – make a pea gravel trench barrier 6 inches deep in the ground and 2 feet wide. 
  • Squirrel Baffles – These are barriers to stop rodents from going up trees. They are for rats as well as squirrels. Here is a link for a Google Search to multiple suppliers – Google Search for Squirrel Baffles
  • Encourage biodiversity. Animals that eat and frighten rats, mice, gophers and ground squirrels – coyotes, domestic dogs and cats, foxes, and bobcats all monitor and capture at rodent burrow entrances; skunks, rattlesnakes, and gopher snakes corner rodents in their burrows. Owls and hawks capture above ground.
  • Consider owl boxes and raptor poles/perches (one owl eats over 1000 rodents a year!). See ‘Use Birds of Prey’
  • Remove trash and secure garbage bins.
  • Pet food. Leave outside only enough for one feeding, this includes bird seeds.
  • Remove pet feces.
  • Pick up fallen fruit, use tree cuffs metal, plastic on large trees. 
  • Remove piles of debris, vegetation, and plants that feed and conceal rodents, such as ivy.

Use This Checklist:

Rodent Proofing and Exclusion Companies

For professional help, hire a rodent exclusion/proofing company instead of a conventional poison-supplying pest control company. They SOLVE the problem by removing the causes and entryways, with guarantees, not set you up for a monthly bill to re-supply unnecessary poisons. Examples in southern California (rodent clean-up and exclusion):

Many homeowners and businesses have pest control companies now that they can try to request more animal-friendly control methods from.
 
Some companies offer organic control and live trapping IF that is what the customer requests.
 
Here are questions to ask a pest control company you have hired or are thinking of hiring to determine what non-poisonous methods they offer.
 
Do they
– Identify attractants on the premises and give advice on preventative steps
– Examine the exterior and interior to identify where rodents are entering
– Use wire screening and rodent proof sealants
– Offer organic repellents
– Offer live trapping and release
– Use exclusion methods that allow animals to leave and not return, such as one-way doors
 
Other questions:
– What do you do when you find raccoons, squirrels, skunks or birds with their mothers?
– Do you know when are the animals’ breeding seasons?
– When you capture an animal, will you release it within that individual’s home range?
– How often will you check on live traps, usually every 24 hours, or done by the owner?
 
Avoid companies that 
1) Use fear mongering tactics and insist on using outdoor trapping as the main means of rodent control, including snap traps and poison bait boxes
2) Use glue traps for rodent control
3) Use carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, or any gases 

Gophers + Ground Squirrels

A typical pocket gopher can move approximately a ton of soil to the surface each year. This enormous achievement reflects the gopher’s important ecological function. Their tunnels are built and extended, then gradually filling up with soil as they are abandoned. The old nests, toilets, and partially filled pantries are buried well below the surface where the buried vegetation and droppings become deep fertilization. The soil thus becomes mellow and porous after being penetrated with burrows. Soil that has been compacted by trampling, grazing and machinery is particularly benefited by the tunneling process.

In mountainous areas, snowmelt and rainfall are temporarily held in gopher burrows instead of running over the surface, where they are likely to cause soil erosion.

Surface mounds created by gophers also bury vegetation deeper and deeper, increasing soil quality over time. In addition, fresh soil in the mounds provides a fresh seedbed for new plants, which may help to increase the variety of plants on a site.

Many mammals including bobcats, coyotes, raccoons, foxes, snakes, owls, raptors, and mountain lions eat gophers and squirrels. Gophers and ground squirrels share their burrows with other species including burrowing owls, weasels, snakes, squirrels, skunks,  armadillos, kangaroo rats, woodchucks, lizards, spiders and prairie dogs.

This is why treatments involving pumping gas into burrows should be avoided. Here is a statement from the Environmental Protection Agency in regard to carbon monoxide or dioxide treatments, but it applies to any gas.

  • Break up burrow holes with a rod and pack them down solidly. They do not like their burrows to be disturbed and they will eventually move on.
  • Before sealing up the burrow holes add a few repellents
  • Castor Oil: Castor oil is an all-natural repellent that delivers a foul smell. As a result, rodents relocate from the area. Castor oil repellents come in liquid and granular form or make your own. The difference is in the modes of application:

    Ready-to-Spray Liquids. A concentrated castor oil solution mixes with the water, covering the lawn and garden and penetrating into the ground.
    Granules. Biodegradable, castor oil-infused repellent granules spread across the affected ground and are activated by water, which sends the repellent deep into the soil. To use across a large area of land, use a fertilizer or granule spreader.
    Castor oil products
    Bonide Repellents – gophers, moles, voles. Also  available at local stores.
    Critter-Max is similar and available at EZ-Flow
    Here is an article about how to make your own castor oil mixture.
    Molexit is a product available here.
    Gopher Scram is another good one.

  • Critter Ridder uses powerful pepper-based ingredients.

  • Uncle Ians squirrel/gopher repellent is also pepper based.

  • Nature’s Defense consists of essences such as garlic, cinnamon, clove, white pepper, rosemary, and thyme.
  • Use vanilla flavored coffee beans one cup in each hole, garlic cloves, cat, dog, and human hair can be placed in the burrow before closing it up
  • Predator urine! GOT CATS? Kitty litter with urine can be placed in the burrows. It MUST be biodegradable and use ONLY the urine balls.
    Those golden balls are great for protecting your garden!
    Here are two links –
    1) Top 5 Biodegradable Litters That Really Work and 2) 10 Best Eco-Friendly Cat Litter in 2020 Reviews
  • Plants – Daffodils, narcissus, most irises, dahlias, society garlic root systems form a natural barrier.
    Sour clover (Melilotus indicus) is a nitrogen fixer and has 8 foot long roots that repel gophers and ground squirrels. It was used in orchards for rodent control before the advent of pesticides. See Gopher Stopper Clover information.
  • Motion detecting water spray –
  • You can reduce or prevent damage significantly by using 1/4 to 1/2 inch gauge stainless-steel mesh fencing to limit gophers’ and squirrels’ ability to invade your yard. Here is a company that supplies and installs it:
    – Gophers Limited gopherslimited.com/wire-roll-installation (831) 335-2400.
  • Here is an example of what can be done in residential yards, and also for ballfields.
  • Install mesh fencing in front of openings, underneath porches, and around vegetation.
    To exclude from foundations or crawlspaces/porches, create an L- shaped barrier to at least 2 feet deep with the hardware cloth.
  • Surround a garden or field area with a trench barrier from 18 inches to 3 feet deep and 2 feet above the ground. Make an L-shaped bottom with the hardware cloth. 
  • Use hardware cloth to line your entire garden.
  • Construct a mesh cage around plants or the entire garden.
  • Allowing food sources and debris to accumulate is like inviting squirrels for a snack. Maintain the cleanliness of your yard to avoid attracting rodents.
  • Rake up fallen berries, nuts, acorns and fruit. 
  • Use tree cuffs metal, plastic on large trees. 
  • Pet food. Leave outside only enough for one feeding, this includes bird seeds. 
  • Remove trash and secure garbage bins.
  • Consider owl boxes (one owl eats over 1000 rodents a year!), and raptor nesting platforms. See ‘Use Birds of Prey’
  • Consider snakes. Gopher snakes are harmless and love to eat gophers!
    Information: www.livescience.com/53484-gopher-snake.html
    You can buy them here: www.backwaterreptiles.com/snakes/gopher-snake-for-sale.html
  • Encourage biodiversity. Animals that eat and frighten rats, mice, gophers and ground squirrels – coyotes, domestic dogs and cats, foxes, and bobcats all monitor and capture at rodent burrow entrances; skunks, rattlesnakes, and gopher snakes corner rodents in their burrows. Owls and hawks capture above ground.
Moles

Don't Make a Mountain Out of a Mole Hill

It’s just a mole.
Moles are small mammals adapted to a subterranean lifestyle. They have cylindrical bodies, velvety fur, very small, inconspicuous ears and eyes,reduced hindlimbs, and short, powerful forelimbs with large paws adapted for digging.

They provide many positive contributions to the soil, gardens, and the ecosystem, including soil aeration, feeding on slug, earthworms and other small creatures that do eat plant roots, and providing prey for other wildlife.

  • Coffee grounds: Sprinkle some fresh coffee grounds throughout the lawn and garden, or toss your brewed coffee grounds into the garden.

    Garlic: Sprinkle freshly chopped garlic cloves in mole tunnel openings and surrounding soil. Or make a spray bottle solution of 2 cups water and 4 tsp. garlic powder, spray area.

    Castor Oil: Castor oil is an all-natural repellent that delivers a foul smell to a mole’s tunnel. As a result, moles relocate from the area. Castor oil repellents come in liquid and granular form or make your own. The difference is in the modes of application:

    Ready-to-Spray Liquid. A concentrated castor oil solution mixes with the water, covering the lawn and garden and penetrating into the ground.

    Granules. Biodegradable, castor oil-infused repellent granules spread across the affected ground and are activated by water, which sends the repellent deep into the soil. To use across a large area of land, use a fertilizer or granule spreader.

    • Nature Mace’s Mole Repellent 100% Castor Oil
    • Enviro Pro Mole Scram Granular Repellent
    • Sweeney’s Mole and Gopher Repellent
    • Chase Mole Granules
    • Liquid Fence Mole Repellent
    • Scoot Mole Repellent
    • Molexit

    Here is an article about how to make your own.
    Also, daffodils, narcissus, and irises are plants that are known to repel moles.

  • You can reduce or prevent damage significantly by using 1/4 to 1/2 inch gauge stainless-steel mesh fencing to limit moles’’ ability to invade your yard. Here is a company that supplies and installs it – Gophers Limited gopherslimited.com/wire-roll-installation (831) 335-2400 (same method applies for moles).
  • Here is an example of what can be done in residential yards, and also for ballfields.
  • Install mesh fencing in front of openings, underneath porches, and around vegetation.
    To exclude from foundations or crawlspaces/porches, create an L- shaped barrier to at least 2 feet deep with the hardware cloth.
  • Surround a garden or field area with a trench barrier from 18 inches to 3 feet deep and 2 feet above the ground. Make an L-shaped bottom with the hardware cloth. 
  • Use hardware cloth to line your entire garden.
  • Construct a mesh cage around plants or the entire garden.
  • Here is a website for chew-proof netting – Chew Proof Netting
  • Moles prefer moist and loamy soil, because it’s easy to dig through and is abundant in worms and grubs.
  • Use a lawn roller to pack down loose soil, making it less favorable to dig through.
  • Avoid over-watering your lawn to keep moisture levels down.

Glue Traps Are Inhumane!

"Trapped animals chew off limbs, starve, dehydrate, and suffocate while trying to escape from the glue."

A red-shouldered hawk unable to fly after getting caught on a Glue Trap. Photo by Rebecca Dmytryk.

"Getting stuck to the trap does not kill the mouse. Instead, it becomes distressed and suffers greatly."

NEVER use glue traps.  These references explain why:
• Humane Society: www.humanepestcontroltips.com/sticky-glue-mouse-traps
• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals:
www.peta.org/issues/wildlife/wildlife-factsheets/glue-traps
and www.peta2.com/news/mouse-glue-traps
• Wildcare: “Why You Should Never Use Glue Traps”
• TV news story with an example of a hawk caught in a glue trap.

NEVER Use Traps Outside Your Home

Dumpsters

Before sanitization.

After sanitization.

Rat infestation caused by improper management of a neighborhood dumpster.

What we often find is that people are BREEDING rodents by supplying them with ample food supply in the trash.  At commercial or business properties, ill-maintained DUMPSTERS are the source of rodent problems.

Go check the dumpsters in the morning BEFORE they are emptied
• Are they overstuffed and not closable ?
• Are the lids open? Do they have lids at all?
• Are the lids pinned against the wall and cannot be closed?
• Are the lids warped preventing them from sealing tightly?
• Is there a gap in the center of the lid or edges larger than you could fit a DIME through? This is all a mouse needs to get inside to the endless food supply.
• What is the condition of the dumpster? Is it rusted?
Are there any holes that have rusted through providing rodent access?
• When was the dumpster last power washed? Dumpsters MUST be washed down on a regular schedule.
• Is there spillage on the ground?

For any of the above problems, the company supplying the dumpsters is responsible for maintaining them. Contact the company that supplies the dumpsters to fix them. They are responsible for supplying safe and functioning dumpsters.

Unauthorized access and overstuffing the dumpsters must be prevented. A locking system, where a bar stretches across the top and can be locked at the side, is recommended. This stops both unauthorized access and overstuffing.

Malibu has passed an ordinance requiring that dumpsters be locked like this. Here is a news story on it. Please have your city do the same! Here is more information.

Request Safe, Sealable, Sanitary lids and Dumpsters for the health and protection of our citizens and those who serve the community.

Here is an innovative dumpster collection technology that is used in many places in Europe, and is now available in the US. It thoroughly contains all the garbage securely – Underground Refuse Systems.

 

auto, car, cadillac

Automobile Protection

  • Leave the hood up.
  • Remove all food!
  • Remove or seal off rat hiding places. 
  • Block entrances to the garage
  • Drive your car once in a while.
  • Spray them with repellents.
  • Strobe lights like the LED-based Rid-a-Rat or combinations with ultrasound such as BORHOOD Car Rodent Repeller.
  • Use natural repellents for the engine compartment, e.g., peppermint oil, Irish Spring soap, Fresh Cab, and laundry dryer sheets. Rataway is one product with some of these ingredients.
  • Guardfather –  Magnetic container with essential oils that repel.
  • Honda Motor Tape. Infused with capsaicin, hot pepper, used to wrap electrical wire harness.
  • How to Rodent Proof Your Engine The Easy Way – Video. Using peppermint oil in a spray bottle and applied to the engine compartment, rodents and most specifically rats are repelled by the smell.
  • A new technology with electrified mats that repel rats. There are special designs for automobiles. It comes from the UK and is called RatMat there, and TheGridGuard in the US.
Use Birds of Prey

Owls & Raptors are Part of the Solution

Where to get owl boxes
– Sam Ramirez has a proven design with various levels of assistance –  Humane Pest Control
– Great place to get owl boxes, installation, and knowledgeable people, in Sherman Oaks: Wild wildWings LA
– Buying Barn Owl boxes, and a lot of information about them:  www.barnowlbox.com and www.naturesremedy.co
– Barn Owl Boxes – Informative website to order boxes by a very experienced expert, Tom Stephan. Based in San Diego but covers California and beyond.

How to build your own Barn Owl Box from Humane Wildlife Control – Barn Owl Box Plans and Video – Supporting Owls in Your Community, Rebecca Dmytryk

Hints on barn owl box deployment from Ventura County Water Protection District and Ojai Raptor Center:
1) Several small holes should be drilled near the tops of the sides of the owl box to prevent overheating.
2) In areas with no shade, a second roof about 1.5 inches above the regular roof is a good idea for the same reason.
3) To prevent occupancy of owl boxes by bees, dust the inside with diatomaceous earth.  The bees don’t like this fine white powder.  In fact, it is used to repel many insects.

Raptor Perches design from the Ventura County Water Protection District: Raptor Perch Design VCWPD 6-26-18

Barn Owls and Raptors in Use
– Raptors Rather Than Rodenticide – Organic vineyards in Napa and California WORK!
– From the Barn Owl Box Company: Barn Owls in Integrated Pest Management 
– Barn owl boxes in vineyards in Lodi, CA
– From the November 2015 issue of Australian & New Zealand Grapegrower & Winemaker magazine. Advice to vineyards and other farmers – Attracting Birds of Prey
– Potential for Barn Owl as Rodent Biological Control in Central California Vineyards: digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1018&context=biosp
– From the Central Coast Vineyard Team:  Pamphlet on barn owl boxes
– From the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources:  Barn owls help clean up rodents naturally.

VenturaRaptors

 Ventura County Raptor Study – RAPTORS are MORE EFFECTIVE THAN POISONS for limiting rodent damage to dikes, dams, and levees. Flood control is very important in Ventura County. They must prevent burrowing rodents from damaging water flow structures. They did a careful two year study and now will be removing poison bait stations and replacing them with owl boxes and raptor perches. 

The full 93 page study by the Watershed Protection District is here.
Good article about it with comments by Karl Novak

– Israel has made a huge investment in owl boxes for agricultural, and it is paying off:
a) The Israeli-Jordan barn owl love that knows no borders
b) Israel leads the way using Barn Owls and Kestrels to replace Rodenticides
c) Project Bird Box Israel

lindaWowl

This Barn Owl can hear your heart beating!

Barn Owls are declining because of habitat loss and rodent poisoning.

The Barn Owl has excellent low-light vision, but its ability to locate prey by sound alone is the best of any animal that has ever been tested. It can catch mice in complete darkness in the lab, or hidden by vegetation or snow out in the real world.

A barn owl will eat at least 1,000 rodents a year. For every owl that dies prematurely from poisoned rodents, 1,000 extra rodents are free to multiply.

If we don’t want the rat population to explode we must STOP USING RAT POISONS. All poisons kill the predators as well as the “so called pest.” In the long run your problem becomes harder to manage. The food chain if allowed to thrive will keep the balance. As we always say, “No Poison Is Safe.”

A study conducted in Ventura County, CA found birds of prey to be MORE EFFECTIVE THAN POISONS at limiting rodent damage to dikes, dams, and levees. 

Owl Nest Boxes Regulate Rodents

"A nesting barn owl pair and their young may kill and eat up to 3000 rodents per year."

barnowl_button
Owl Nest Boxes Regulate Rodents

"A nesting barn owl pair and their young may kill and eat up to 3000 rodents per year."

barnowl_button
Use Cats

Put Cats to Work!

Ventura County Animal Services has healthy cats who would love to be put to work! These cats are unsuitable to be house pets but would flourish in a barn, horse stable, warehouse, garage, garden shed or other appropriate indoor/outdoor location. In return for your care, barn cats will help keep rodents away from feed, grain and food storage areas. Not only will you enjoy watching these cats work, you will be providing them a much-needed home. See their website Working Whiskers.

In Los Angeles, the Voice for the Animals Foundation has a similar program – The Working Cats Program. They cleaned up the downtown Los Angeles Flower Market which had a rodent problem for a 100 years! Another great Los Angeles rescue group is called Best Friends.

Here is a success story at Cal Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, making use of these cats: Cal Lutheran Cats. 

Meet Mia the cat working at DIY Hardware Center in Agoura Hills.
She is a rescue from the local animal shelter.
Thank you DIY Center!

Benefits of Rodents
  • Rodents can prey on insects, helping to keep their populations under control.
  • Rodents sustain carnivore biodiversity by feeding snakes, fishers, foxes, coyotes, hawks, owls, skunks, bobcats, bears, and mountain lions.
  • A typical pocket gopher can move approximately a ton of soil to the surface each year, aerating it and improving soil quality.
  • Abandoned burrows house numerous wildlife species including amphibians, reptiles, and other mammals. 
  • Rodent burrows prevent soil erosion from surface runoff especially in mountainous regions.
  • Rodents can prey on insects, helping to keep their populations under control.
  • Rodents sustain carnivore biodiversity by feeding snakes, fishers, foxes, coyotes, hawks, owls, skunks, bobcats, bears, and mountain lions.
  • A typical pocket gopher can move approximately a ton of soil to the surface each year, aerating it and improving soil quality.
  • Abandoned burrows house numerous wildlife species including amphibians, reptiles, and other mammals. 
  • Rodent burrows prevent soil erosion from surface runoff especially in montainous regions.