everybody good morning jeffer executive
Garden it is a wet clammy but sunny 98
degree morning here in Houston Texas
here in visit July 7th okay so this
episode's probably gonna be too popular
were some but others I think will
appreciate it but it really has to deal
with dealing with pests okay and I get
this question often so I'm gonna answer
it so if you don't like the answer
excuse me the answers that I give and
the solutions that give then you
probably turn off now now I'm I'm a big
big big animal rights person so I have
dogs I love animals
I contribute to things like saving the
Lions in South Africa and elephants and
all that so I'm a big animal advocate so
don't get me wrong however when it comes
to gardening like you see here this
beautiful garden of eggplant a little
patience because we put up fences like
this around our we spend time and money
to put up around to keep the pests out
and when the pests get in it really
wreaks havoc because we only grow five
or six plants in this situation you want
them we want to enjoy the fruits of our
labor ourself for the vegetables or
labor ourself but if you're in Texas and
probably most days you're listening to
the number one issue we face in pest is
mice and rats okay and we just gotta get
rid of them the rodents and they really
don't have any place and they can find
their ways into small cracks to wreak
havoc in your garden I'll show you what
has happened here with this beautiful
what looks like a beautiful eggplant
garden above right but down below we got
problems okay so I've already gotten
some so I caught the culprit last night
which is one rat and I'm sure where
there's one there's others but I call it
one last night but I'm gonna show you
what I use to
rid myself for these critters so let's
take a look at the catch first so I
won't get too graphic but there's the
catch okay one right now you could say
what does one rat do what you know let's
share the the fruit and the vegetables
with one rat however let me show you
just with what one rat I believe can do
to a Japanese eggplant garden so take a
look at that okay all from two nights
okay
all of these eggplant are ruined
okay and sometimes like this one they
just take one little bite out of it
other times they got it like these
completely and they get pretty fat okay
so this is just one this could be
Tomatoes this could be cucumbers this
could be peppers in fact my pepper
garden I lost about 25 peppers this year
due to what it's usually when I go away
for two days and I come back and I find
this and it's too late okay to set the
traps it's not too late but too late to
save the food we're the vegetables so
that's a problem so let me show you what
I do here
okay and I opened up this side of the
fence and I'm over at Tony's garden and
I'll show you what I do so we'll put
some disclaimers here because I want you
to really be careful to protect all
other animals other than rats and mice
okay and I know I'm gonna get this all
address it right now Birds I pretty much
leave a leave alone okay I grow enough
well I grow most of my fruit within a
caged area keys the roof piece around so
there's no way for birds to get in you
got to spend money if you don't want to
put nuts up or something and it's
obviously illegal to shoot birds and I
just wouldn't do that and I grew enough
cherry tomatoes that they could have
some rats and mice or a different
different situation in my book so
there's two different types of traps I
have so the ones that I found to be the
best I'm not going to give the brands
you can go to the store this is a famous
brand you simply put the piece of tomato
they hid that white thing BAM it snaps
on them as you saw
with around okay kills them instantly
instantaneously no pain no suffering for
the rat they're done the good thing
about this is they're like three or four
dollars versus the vector ones that are
would those things rot they're
ineffective and you need a stronger one
the mice this the mice the other ones
may kill the rats they won't so this
will kill away okay and the plastic so
they don't rot and they last forever so
get yourself four or five of these okay
and then the other thing I use again the
michaelis in a name this is rat poison
that they seem to love and they eat a
lot and now the thing to be careful
about this is that you probably only
want to use this outside don't use it in
your house because Iraq goes what they
do is they eat it and it makes them very
thirsty and it just kills much poison
okay and you don't want to go out dying
in your attic or your cellar and it's
just smelling up the rest your house so
use those outside now the caveat that I
will say with both of these is you have
to be very careful okay you do not want
things like stray cats getting into them
raccoons other dogs for goodness sake
house pets any other type of animal
getting into them so well I set these
things are where I know my animals can't
get to them and for the most part no
larger wild animal can get to them that
opossum however last week
unfortunately in my garden we have a
space that's about like this that Iraq
could get through when a baby raccoon
did get through and it didn't kill him
but it snapped him by the foot or the
tail and I was away and my wife had to
deal with the possum because it was
hissing at her and so forth so she
called animal control but that's a
rarity I usually don't have baby possums
a regular possible wouldn't be able to
get into my all caves in area but my
point is you don't want a cat or a dog
certainly your family pet to eat the bat
poison so
wherever you put it like I'm putting
this in Tony's garden it's completely
fenced off and I know there's no animals
and their dogs and their cats around so
they won't get into it this will could
kill seriously hurt your pets if they
get into that poison and certainly it
could hurt maybe their foot or something
if that that snaps other foot okay so
you want to be very careful about where
you set these having said that they're
highly effective against mice rats which
is again in Texas here is a number one
issue that I face and I don't have any
empathy for that because they just do
havoc so again unless you want your your
vegetable garden look like this in a day
or two
set the trap again I'm not a fan of
anything that makes anything suffer
these things snap on and snap their neck
real quick and they're dead I don't like
people who put glue traps down I think
that's inhumane if you're gonna kill
them kill them quick and get it done
with but otherwise you know again so you
had you have a tag plant here that are
done my peppers growing over there that
would be knocked out - I got cucumbers
rats love to gnaw on them I've got
canned elope starting I've got melons
starting in there and you'd be surprised
you'd be very surprised with those
little things can do this mice rats do
these rats can gnaw into I mean if they
can get into an eggplant they can
probably I don't know if they can get
into a cantaloupe or melon but they
could do some serious damage Tomatoes
they love so tomatoes they will take one
or two bites and leave the rest your
Tomatoes ruined same with peppers so
again this is an episode quick quick on
how to protect your fruits and
vegetables of your labor from really
mice and rats and again I caution please
do not put these things these traps or
poison out where there's any chance of a
bigger animal
come neighbors pet or your pant getting
into it it's not worth it quite frankly
I would tell you especially if you have
a cat then it's an outside cat they will
take care of the mice and the rats best
hunters ever I would not use anything
like this because you're gonna harm your
family pet or your neighbor's pet or a
cat that maybe you just live out in the
wild so that's it hope you've enjoyed
this I found these two things these the
rat poison in this black plastic rat
trap to be the most effective and I
gather a ton of mice and rats and
dispose of them in a humane way anyway I
hope this answers a lot of people
questions I get questions all the time
people take a picture of their fruit the
vegetable
I'd say 9 out of 10 times it's a rat or
a mouse ok
until next time Jeff your executive
gardener take care bye
[Music]