A pest or two.

Posted on 6 Jul, 2008 2 comments

The bandicoot I mentioned before, is a native marsupial, not much bigger than a large rat. They are a bit destructive in the garden. They scuffle through the heliconia’s and love digging in between the clumps and shift the mulch in the process. This morning again I found one had been ransacking my garden beds. I can easily correct that by pushing the mulch back with a little spade. But when I saw the holes in the lawn I was really mad. The red dirt was pushed to one side, including tufts of grass and their roots. Now you all know how hard it is to get dirt back in the hole: you never find enough of it. So I just have to leave it at that. Lucky we don’t get too many of them, but one alone can do a lot of damage. Let’s hope it soon goes to the neighbours, haha.
B.T.W. ( means by the way ) we have a very different grass than in Europe or colder regions. Ours is broad leaved and makes endless runners. It looks a bit like buffalo grass. It stays green longer and is very hardy, is soft to walk on too. Buffalo has a little smaller leaf and can make some people very itchy when sitting with bare legs on it. Not this grass. And I wished I knew the name of it! We fertilise during spring and summer maybe 3 or 4 times with nitrogen. It makes it greener.
The other real pest is rats! As this is a semi rural area, amidst the cane fields, we get rats at the end of the summer who want to live for free under the roof. I hate them, they run around and make a hell of a racket in the night. Sometimes it even sounds as if they are falling through the ceiling. So we had to poison them and put some bait on the ceiling. Did you know there are white rats here? Well, I didn’t and those are even protected. Can you image? Well, I have no mercy for rats, white or black ones and I cannot see who actually tries to live under the same roof with me. We’ve got rid of them, about three lots at different times. These were all grey rats and very kind too, because none of them died on the ceiling ( I mean try and find them there! ) and I found them all in the garden. Well, my nose did! The dogs are not one bit interested so that is safe.
Another real pest is the cane toad. ( Bufo marinus ). But I tell you about that another time.
Then there is the mistleto and the bouganvillea for another day.

Comments

Pottygardener

Your grass sounds similar to what we see when we are in Goa. I guess being broad leaved it is more suitable for hot climates, our narrow English grass would not survive!
Here at home, being rural we too get rats. But it tends to be mice that get into the walls and loft. Last year one got itself between the downstairs ceiling and upstairs floorboards! Took some getting rid of!

6 Jul, 2008

Marguerite

Oh Pottygardiner, you must have had a bad time. And you will only know when you can smell them. Thank you for reading my blog. I haven't seen your page yet, but it is very late here now, so tomorrow I'll visit you.

6 Jul, 2008

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A pest or two.

A pest or two.

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