[Pil-pc-oceania] Rodents and permaculture

[Julie Firth]

Hi Lawrence,
I have been living on a Permaculutre Farm in Geraldton Western Australia for the past 18 years where we experience a 6-8 month dry period every year and rodents have been the bane of my life. As we are organic and have chickens, large goannas and bluetongue lizards running around, that all eat rodents, using poison baits has always been out of the question.

I redesigned all my spaces and places to prevent rodents nesting close to food producing areas. Eaves on the house were enclosed with shadecloth, gutter pipes with discs around them like on ship ropes to stop rat transit.. I seperated all my trellis from major infrastructures as the place, it was an overhead high way linking orchard fences. shadey pergolas, nursery shadehouses and high fencing around all garden and orchard areas. I cut trees back from the fence lines so there was no transit routes to the fruit.  I have even changed my garden planting times to wait till the rains greened up the landscape before planting as rodents would also eat germinating greens. I grow very little summer crops now as we only get winter rains. It forced me to work with the season which is a good thing.
I spent a fortune on traps, lures, decoys, distasteful substances and even invested for a while in a slug gun.The numbers still seem to increase and entire crops were eaten out over a few nights.
What really broke the camels back was one morning when I walked into my commercial propagation nursery and found over 1000 seeds sown the day before, dug up and eaten in the night. My livilihood was suddenly at stake...

This was the point when I reconsidered getting a Cat. All the Neighbouring farmer had cats, weren't suffering rodents like we were. 
I got a cat and decided to train him to eat rats and mice. He lived in the shadehouse for the 1st six months of his life and was fed trapped mice and rats everyday. There came a point when there were alot more rodents out of the shadehouse than in. He got let out and the feasting began. He is a now a big farm cat that only gets the odd drink of milk and slice of bread, his preferencial diet is rodents and rabbits and catches at least one a day. He's not interested in the chickens. Occassionally I know he catches a bird, lizard and frog.. but in the balance of things it has a minor impact on the ecosystems here, which are still alive with native creatures, compared to the devastation caused by rodent plagues and his value controlling ferals is much more important to our livelihood. 

While the cat does keep the numbers down to a manageable minimum, A combined set of strategies still need to be employed to manage them effectively such as the ones mentioned above. We still make sure that potential rodent habitats such storage areas are always arranged in a way that the cat has access. e.g piles of timber stacked high enough off the ground so the cat can circulate around them or pulled out from walls. 

My new theory in this climate is that I need to 'control ferals with ferals'. I also feel "design to control rodents" should be taught an essential subject within Drylands Permaculture Design.

Hopefully this gives you some ideas and food for thought, obviously this is my experience in a different climate to yours and some of the strategies and techniques may not be appropriate in your environment.. especially getting a cat if he's not confined to your property when you live next to a nature reserve!

Good luck
Kind regards 

Julie Firth
Drylands Permaculture Nursery
333 David Rd, Waggrakine
Geraldton, W.A. 6530
Tel. +61 (0) 899 381 628
www.permaculturenursery.com.au
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