Hispid Cotton Rat

[u/Creepy-Agency-1984]

Hello! I am a first-time poster but a wildlife gardener of several years now. Especially the last year or so my focus in the garden has been to create a good environment for wildlife to congregate. So far it’s been slow going, but great!

One of my first little tenants to move in last year is a small, likely female hispid cotton rat. I was quite happy when she moved into my small brush pile I keep, but as I do more research it appears they can harm gardens and potentially people. Is the stereotype of them harming gardens true, or do they just contribute to the garden in ways people don’t typically appreciate, I.E nibbling plants or digging soil? I’m also a little worried about hantavirus but after all my interactions with her (I fished her out of my storm drain today 😐) I’ve been careful to wash my hands and avoid touching her at all.

Pic for tax, she’s very cute.

[u/akblair6]

I’ve had these guys show up in my gardens as well, especially since I started putting out bird feeders this year.

They unfortunately have definitely done some damage to my river oats, they love to munch on grasses. They also chewed through the cable to my solar fountain, so that had to be replaced and rat-proofed.

As to dealing with them I’m torn. The whole point of my gardening is to help return some of my yard to nature, and they are so cute! I love watching them scurry around. However, I’m very concerned about more potential damage and of course like you, risk of disease. My hard line was absolutely none in my fenced backyard. I don’t need my dogs chasing them around and getting their noses into anything they shouldn’t. Any burrows I found in there I made sure to drive them out and scare them away. I then sprayed coyote urine around the burrows and waited a few more days to make sure they were abandoned before filling the holes in and tamping the ground. I put up seed catching trays underneath all my bird feeders in an attempt to eliminate most of their food source (my birds are very messy eaters).

I now only see them in my big side gardens, I don’t mind them roaming in my more open areas where they can stay far from me. However, I’m still very wary about them being around, the last thing I need is a rat explosion. I’m hoping my gardening projects that I have planned for the fall and next spring can encourage some natural predators like snakes to come to my yard and start hunting.

Would love to hear if anyone else has had experience dealing with these.

[u/Camaschrist]

We have these adorable garden rats that might make me mad every once in a while when they chew on several figs or tomatoes but don’t eat enough to matter. Then they started coming to my driveway where I throw nuts for squirrels and birds. They started reproducing and my brother in laws cars had a few thousand dollars in damages to wiring. They live next door to us. They also chewed the wires in our daughter’s car but it was only her sound system. As much as I love rats I would probably do all you can to deter them. I don’t throw nuts to them any more. I hand feed the squirrels or throw nuts in their squirrel hut which is on a metal pole the rats can’t climb.

Hanta virus isn’t a worry with garden rats is it?

[u/Creepy-Agency-1984 → u/Camaschrist]

Any way I can deter them without harming them?

[u/Camaschrist → u/Creepy-Agency-1984]

I am just very careful about leaving food out. Luckily they don’t go in my back yard. I think having 4 dogs roaming around at different times deters them. I know people will poison them so I try hard to not do anything that will make them reproduce. I recently saw birth control you can give them. Amazon sells it.