# Forum Home Renovation Pest Control  Something is eating my strawberries

## Moondog55

And I don't like sharing.
May be possums but I think it's rats, due to our next doors chickens and poor pest control on that side of the fence.
So we have just ordered one of these smart rat killing machines from New Zealand.  https://goodnature.com.au/?utm_sourc...tm_medium=flag 
I'm hoping to kill lots of the buggers. Doing it this way as I've come around to the belief that poison as such does more harm than good it it escapes into the environment.
I'll post an update or more as soon as it arrives and if and when it starts killing rats

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## r3nov8or

Looks good https://youtu.be/LHdTJ8XaPzM

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## Uncle Bob

Not cheap hey. Let us know how effective they are.

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## PhilT2

The advice on that site says to remove other food sources, how can you do that and still grow something? I have raised beds with possum proof mesh over the top. A gap opened up in the side and rats got in. They climbed the sweet corn and ate only the ripe cobs, then burrowed in and ate the sweet potato and had the tomatoes for dessert before I found the gap. They also chewed through the fine mesh I had over the cauliflowers and ate the whole plant.
Good luck with the trap but I don't think it will be enough.

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## Moondog55

I think that part of the traps success rate is the "irresistible" bait they sell.
I've been told that it is a mix of peanut butter and Nutella and I know that works very well on mousetraps, but I also think it will be just a part of overall control. I saw a Small Owl dead on the footpath recently; a result of killing rats with poison probably so using ratsack actually hinders biological control.
I'm thinking about getting a small trail camera to monitor the garden beds, but Cecile thinks that is probably not a good use of the money at the moment

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## Moondog55

I haven't put up the traps we bought.
Despite finding two dead rats in the back yard recently there is no evidence of gnawing on the little detectors.
Next door says they haven't been putting out poisons/ratbait or any traps the rat problem seems to have diminished.
I wonder if the extremely wet conditions here have drowned the buggers in their burrows?

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