It won’t kill them. It will just scare them. It doesn’t put out enough electricity to kill them.

They just YIP! and awaaay they go, and they look back never to forget that again.

If I wanted my dogs dead I’d just let them eat the dead, poisoned rats. If nothing else, it would be a whole lot cheaper than trying to electrocute them. But here’s the bottom line: I want to avoid killing my dogs, what’s left of them. I really hope I’m done burying dogs for a while. It’s been a tough three months in that regard.

Get you a “bulldozer” fence charger with some metal T-posts, a roll of electric fence wire, 3 – 6 copper ground rods, put a strip or two of bacon on the fence wire after you hook it up….turn it on. Now just wait.

As for the lizards, find you some tobacco dust, if you can find any. You won’t have anymore lizards, or bugs.

Gee this kind of thinking seems to mostly come from YOUR side as far as I can see, need I remind you of Fred Phelps and his lovely examplars of virtue who believe that we deserved 9/11 for *gasp* allowing gays and lesbians the same rights as everyone else… Nope, sorry. All of this kind of twisted rhetoric that IVE ever seen has come from the far right and nowhere else :)

Are you suggesting we try cat poo? That’s an interesting idea, and we have plenty of that. Yeah, we have a cat too. He just doesn’t venture into the back yard because of Sally. We used to have cockatiels too, but Sirocco ate them. Incidentally, I’m sorry to report that Sirocco passed away on Saturday. She was 14, and had been getting more and more frail over the last few months, culminating with a respiratory infection we just couldn’t beat. Mrs Rico and I were originally planning to attend the garlic festival up in Gilroy this past weekend, but we cancelled our plans because Sirocco’s condition was deteriorating fast. Sadly, it turned out to be the right call.

The new Repel is a mild-mannered cousin that has done nothing to keep skunks away from my house, but it might work on teeny little rodent noses. Have you tried mothballs or moth crystals?

I have fought the fight with other critters. In Colorado, the elk would raid my haystacks, and eat literally tons and tons of the stuff. I even bought an expensive waterproof battery operated radio, set it to a heavy metal station, and put it on the haystack. The next day I found it trampled into the mud made by elk pee. True, I thought it an appropriate response to the music, buy my God, man, if Van Halen won’t drive them away, what will?

Mice and rats might be afraid of owls, and most flower and plant stores sell plastic owls, some even battery operated so they move their heads. Right now I am working with Archie, the plastic alligator, and Hal, the plastic blue heron, to try to keep pelicans away from my fish pond—they are either effective or the pelicans have already eaten all the fish.

I tried the flour idea, and assuming the lizards are eating just insects, the purps are rats and mice. A friend of mine offered to let us borrow her dog, who she swears is the best ratter in the world, to stick in the garden for a few days. I turned her down though — I suspect a bull in a china shop has nothing on a Great Dane in a garden in terms of potential for destruction.

Mrs Rico, bless her heart, decided (quite independently, and without consulting me) to try an alternative strategy: spread bird seed on the yard, presumably to divert their attention. Uh honey… we’re trying to get rid of the rats, not expand their menu.

So now we have lots of birds in the yard. Maybe it’s just coincidence, but I’ve noticed the number of peck marks in the apples and pears are up.

Anyway, the good news is that I believe I’ve finally found a brand of poison the rats find as delectable as the tomatos. Be it that, the bird seed, or just the fact that there aren’t so many more tomatos left to eat, the attacks have declined. But now a new conundrum has come to the fore: how do you keep dogs from eating dead rats?

This home gardening stuff is haaard werk!! Lol!

and amazona, ur such a breath of fresh air. I so missed the romper room “them n us” stuff since w left office.

I’m sure that will be the official position of the liberals.