Dear Joan: Recently, I noticed four small mounds of bird seed deposited in the fake lawn in my backyard. Neighbors have bird feed feeders in their yard, and I asked them to look at the seed. It was identical to the type they use (small sunflower seed and regular bird feed seed).
The next day, all four mounds were gone.
The mounds were fairly small, maybe an inch in diameter. Doves, jays and smaller birds are regular visitors to the area. Any thoughts on what bird would do this or why?
— John, Brentwood
DEAR JOHN: I suspect the bird in question is the four-legged, furry kind.
With a few exceptions, birds aren’t known for squirreling away their food. Their beaks are fairly small and not adept at holding larger amounts of seeds.
Squirrels, however, are notorious for that behavior. Rats do it as well. My guess is that a squirrel gathered the bounty and tried to bury it to eat later. Not finding the grass hospitable for hoarding, the squirrel later moved it elsewhere — or birds dined in.
DEAR JOAN: I read your column every week. (Could) you provide guidance on an ongoing problem with rats nesting in and eating the wood of our Italian (golden) cypress trees? We had three. One looked so bad a year or two ago that we got the gardeners to remove it. Now the second one is showing the same signs: foliage thinning and showing the woody branches.
I don’t want to consider anything toxic. We live a few blocks from a creek and get a variety of critters visiting our yard. They have made convenient passageways under our fence. The rats and squirrels use the telephone and electric wire “highway” adjacent to the cypress trees. I have been searching for an ultrasonic device (preferably battery-powered) which might annoy the rats enough to make them leave, without disturbing our neighbors. I hesitate to put up lights as these might shine into our neighbors’ bedrooms.
— Indira Sehgal, Mountain View
DEAR INDIRA: Rats aren’t easy to discourage. You can have temporary success using peppermint oil, lights or ultrasonic devices, but rats will eventually decide that getting into the tree is worth the inconvenience of the deterrents.
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Still, start by checking your yard for things the rats might find inviting, such as water and food sources, and remove them. If they’re coming in under the fence, you should close off the access. Prune your cypress to thin out the foliage and increase the distance between the fence and the trees, clean up vegetation in your yard and make sure garbage cans are tightly sealed. Remove or secure anything that might look inviting to a rat.
Rats are more active at night and roost during the day, so go into your yard frequently and shake the branches of the trees to scare away any roosting rats. If you don’t fancy having rats drop at your feet, you can use a hose to spray the trees from a safe distance. Remove any rat nests you find. If you do manage to annoy the rats so much they seek other nesting spots, be sure your house is sealed up to prevent the rats from moving in.
Animal Life runs on Mondays. Contact Joan Morris at AskJoanMorris@gmail.com.