ANY ROOF RATS IN THERE?

When you live or perhaps visit the West, you hear about roof rats. I've never actually seen one, but I've heard about them.

It seems that they love citrus when there's no other water available. Which is most of the time where I live. Oh, we'll be ok, as long as California and Colorado leave our water alone. But when you get about 4 inches a year, that doesn't leave much for the roof rats. As opposed to rug rats.

Why they live on roofs and I guess in attics is a mystery to me. But recently Bill, a roofer , told me a little about them.

Basically, they are pack rats. What he hates about them is that they make their nests with cactus, and as a roofer he comes across their nests sometimes by accident. In a recent discovery, he found candy canes in a nest. When he informed his customer, she said they were part of an outdoor Christmas display. She thought some neighborhood kids took them. Just your friendly pack rat/roof rat maybe preparing for his own Christmas display later in the year.

We don't have a lot of cats that spend much time outdoors. You see, coyotes love to eat them. And while our coyotes are running out of space do to urban sprawl, maybe we'll see an influx of cats to combat the rats.

But I love the coyotes. Maybe if we could teach them how tasty a roof rat is. Naugh, then they'd be running on top of our houses, making little coyote dens up there and attacking the roofers like Bill.