{"id":6197,"date":"2026-08-08T14:41:57","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ninebyeighteen.com\/?p=6197"},"modified":"2026-08-08T14:41:58","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:41:58","slug":"oh-rats-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ninebyeighteen.com\/?p=6197","title":{"rendered":"Oh, Rats!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\" — Rats \ud83d\ude41 <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
We are having a major rat problem in the community garden this year. They are decimating the tomatoes. Even the unripe, green ones. There are bait stations in and surrounding the garden, but with the abundance of fresh food, the rats do not seem to bother with the bait. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Everyone\u2019s plot is affected. We always have some losses, but this year, we reached a different level. About a week ago, another gardener gave me a couple of nylon mesh bags. I assumed the rats might just \u201cjuice\u201d the tomatoes right through the bag, but it was worth a try.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$
Protective nylon mesh bag, August 2<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The nylon bags have been working so far but they are small. I was trying to take one bag off today, and accidentally pulled the tomato, which had grown and was now stuck inside (it was the tomato from the picture above; all the other tomatoes in the picture had disappeared).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$
Protective wire mesh bag, August 8<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
I also ordered wire mesh bags to cover individual tomatoes. They finally came today. I installed about 15 or so \u2013 all the tomatoes I have currently left. It\u2019s just sad. Fingers crossed I can save at least a few handfuls of tomatoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$ <\/figure>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We are having a major rat problem in the community garden this year. They are decimating the tomatoes. Even the unripe, green ones. There are bait stations in and surrounding…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[54,29,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pest","category-summer","category-tomatoes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7mi2j-1BX","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ninebyeighteen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ninebyeighteen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ninebyeighteen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ninebyeighteen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ninebyeighteen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6197"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ninebyeighteen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6236,"href":"https:\/\/www.ninebyeighteen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6197\/revisions\/6236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ninebyeighteen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ninebyeighteen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ninebyeighteen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

\"\" — Rats \ud83d\ude41 <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
We are having a major rat problem in the community garden this year. They are decimating the tomatoes. Even the unripe, green ones. There are bait stations in and surrounding the garden, but with the abundance of fresh food, the rats do not seem to bother with the bait. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Everyone\u2019s plot is affected. We always have some losses, but this year, we reached a different level. About a week ago, another gardener gave me a couple of nylon mesh bags. I assumed the rats might just \u201cjuice\u201d the tomatoes right through the bag, but it was worth a try.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$
Protective nylon mesh bag, August 2<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The nylon bags have been working so far but they are small. I was trying to take one bag off today, and accidentally pulled the tomato, which had grown and was now stuck inside (it was the tomato from the picture above; all the other tomatoes in the picture had disappeared).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$
Protective wire mesh bag, August 8<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
I also ordered wire mesh bags to cover individual tomatoes. They finally came today. I installed about 15 or so \u2013 all the tomatoes I have currently left. It\u2019s just sad. Fingers crossed I can save at least a few handfuls of tomatoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$\"\"$ <\/figure>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We are having a major rat problem in the community garden this year. They are decimating the tomatoes. Even the unripe, green ones. There are bait stations in and surrounding…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[54,29,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pest","category-summer","category-tomatoes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7mi2j-1BX","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ninebyeighteen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ninebyeighteen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ninebyeighteen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ninebyeighteen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ninebyeighteen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6197"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ninebyeighteen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6236,"href":"https:\/\/www.ninebyeighteen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6197\/revisions\/6236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ninebyeighteen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ninebyeighteen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ninebyeighteen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}