Cob: rat runs--cleanliness

[David Knowlton]

carry on with the good fight against rats!

squirrels carry plague in california - don't kiss any

david






>From: Priscilla Stuckey <pstuckey at california.com>
>Reply-To: Priscilla Stuckey <pstuckey at california.com>
>To: coblist at deatech.com
>Subject: Re: Cob: rat runs--cleanliness
>Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 07:11:47 -0700
>
>I'm a newbie to the list--Oakland, CA, homeowner, wanting to turn my 
>half-ownership of a house into a whole house, and probably will actually be 
>able to afford it if I build "dirt-cheap."
>
>I have PLENTY of experience with rats here in this woodsy 
>neighborhood--I've spent hundreds of hours and several hundred dollars 
>rat-proofing my house--so I wanted to clarify something.
>
>Rats show up, at least in urban & suburban areas, not because of lack of 
>cleanliness, but because, like crows, they are opportunists and will go 
>wherever there is food or shelter--that is, wherever there are humans. Here 
>in the Oakland hills that means the basements of every hillside-clinging, 
>expensive home. The only way to keep rats at bay is to seal every nook and 
>cranny around your house (especially around pipes and wiring--the rat/mouse 
>freeways) and then trap the ones that were indoors. BTW, rats are no less 
>clean than squirrels. We just like squirrels better because they have fuzzy 
>tails, and they weren't implicated in the plague. Rats have a bad rep 
>because, since they are mammals, like us, and live close to us (closer than 
>squirrels), diseases can pass more easily between the species.
>
>I have a question, too, regarding rats & cob houses: I was really surprised 
>to see the rat question come up on this list (you mean my rat-fighting days 
>aren't blissfully in the past if I build a cob house?) because I thought 
>that the solid construction would eliminate the problem. How do rats become 
>a problem with a cob house?
>
>Priscilla
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>At 8:38 AM +0000 4/29/03, Brent Flaco Wilson wrote:
>>In a permanent culture where things have their place, and homes are built 
>>intelligently into the landscape major varmint problems aren't an issue.  
>>But one animal that really keeps rats away is a hungry housecat, and for 
>>that matter if you live by the river, grow a forest for hawks, owls, and 
>>eagles, then have coyotes roam thru, and your house dog, ok, thats how 
>>rats are kept at bay where I grew up plus the kleen house and the raised 
>>foundation.  SO I think lets keep parts of this totality in view as equal. 
>>  So I have also seen cob homes in heavy forest with owl, coyote and other 
>>predators keeping rats at bay, though the rats did crawl on the roof at 
>>night. And once again a hungry cat protected their neighbors house.  So 
>>cob off the ground with a proper ecosystem suited to the local area with a 
>>domestic predator is pretty darn safe! flaco
>>
>
>--
>


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