Any ideas as to what species? There are some native rat and mouse
species that you should be honored to have in your yard, and others,
such as Norway Rats, that definately cause greater problems than just
eating extra seed. If you can get your hands on a reliable mammal
field guide, I would say that you should figure out who you're dealing
with before "whacking" the rodents. If you can establish that they are
natives, I would definately reccommend the Hav-a-heart traps, they have
worked like a charm for me in the past, I had a deer mouse infestation
a while back, and they were all safely relocated to a nearby greenbelt.


If they are Norways, escaped pets (multi-colored, often calico fur),
then yes, I would reccommend a humane dispatch. They can simply cause
too much trouble if left unchecked. With regards to methods of doing
so, I would have to lean towards non-toxic methods (i.e. rat trap, the
ones that look like big, gray, plastic chip bag clips, their name
escapes me, anyone...?) and away from poisons. Even the most
specialized pesticides or herbicides have consequences for other
wildlife, and curious ground-lovers (juncos, towhees, sparrows) can get
into almost anywhere that a rat could. The humanity of the rattrap is
also more appealing, would you rather succumb to food poisoning, or
have a tree fall on you? Sorry for the analogy, I can't think of any
others that are as descriptive and less graphic...

Chris Duke
Bellingham, WA
dukec at cc.wwu.edu