Looks like it could get rid of a squirrel problem too. Maybe if someone could hybridize a Nepenthes to make nuts in it's pitchers...

The ubiquitous rats have almost abandoned these woods and I would like to show my appreciation to Mother Nature for making that possible! No Acorns on my Oaks last year, Zilch! A very few samara's on the Maples and a skimpy Dogwood fruiting season. The furry ones sat up in the Pines all fall, hulling the female cones to harvest the tiny pinenuts, making an unholy mess below, in all of the flower beds, walkways and drives. In places, I didn't have to add mulch, the hulls were so thick! In the past few years, thanks to my Hav-a-harts, I extirpated more than 60 of the nuisance ones and the neighborhood cats have taken care of the Chipmunk population, as well as containing the Voles. I occasionally see "A" (singular!) Squirrel crossing the road nearby and see where it scratched the soil under the Oaks, looking for the elusive acorns, but haven't caught it yet, so must not hang around here. I'm not sure they would savor any part of a Caladium plant, as they contain toxins, Calcium oxalate crystals & unidentified compounds. The effects of ingestion: severe irritation to mouth, lips, tongue, throat, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Possible contact dermatitis from cell sap. Squirrels are well known for digging in disturbed earth, searching for food that may be buried there. If your recently planted bulbs, plants are there, it could be buffet time! Unless they happen to be toxic. If you ever become successful in permanently excluding them from your property, apply for a Process Patent and retire, superrich, to your own tropical isle, that they haven't yet found! Rb

There is a saying that “By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation”. This is the power of rats and their family of rodents. With rodent population growing 10X faster than humans, the riot caused by them is also escalating at an equal pace. Polymer products are particularly affected since they cannot endure the attack by rodents. The article aims to demonstrate the rodent menace to the irrigation system especially to the agricultural valves, and the progress Irririch has made to protect the plastic hoses from rodent biting attacks. Rodent menace: The number may be intriguing but true; forty percent of mammal species found on earth are rodents. Scores of rodents are found on all continents other than Antarctica. Common rodents include mice, rats, squirrels, porcupines, beavers, guinea pigs and voles. Rodentia is an order of mammals also known as rodents, which is characterized by two continuously growing incisors in the upper and lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing. Gnawing is defined as the act of biting, chewing on, or eroding with the teeth. Rodent menace can cause severe economic losses. Rodents chew on plastic doors, sidings, benches, molded plastic parts, cables, wires, railway components practically anything. In the wild too, they chew on products made of plastics such as trash bins, containers, cables etc Rodent menace in the agriculture system Rodents are particularly fascinated to plastic pipes and tubing which are laid either on surface or underground. The color and odor of plastic pipes attract rodents, which in search of water and their fetish for gnawing action attack these pipes; that may or may not be hauling water. Cable Wires: Rodents gnawing through wires could result in short circuits leading to fire hazards; whereas damage to optical fiber cables could disrupt transmission of sensitive communication. Rodents often disturb underground train services and metro rail services. Sterlite Optical Technologies Ltd. has published several papers on rodent damage to wires and cables; vividly troubled by this issue. They claim that rodent attacks have been a chief cause for heavy maintenance cost of duct & direct-buried cable networks and is a threat to service operators in almost all geographic locations of the world. Drip irrigation & Pipelines: Drip irrigation, also known micro- irrigation, is an irrigation method which saves water and fertilizer by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of plants, through a network of valves, pipes, tubing, and emitters. However, the whole purpose of conservation of water using such systems turns futile if these tubes get vulnerable to rodent attacks. Current methods and their drawbacks for rodent control: Traditional chemicals used as rodenticides include organochlorine pesticides like Lindane and heavy metal based compounds such as Copper Naphthenate and Lead Naphthenate. These are used as additives in polymer industry during extrusion. However, these chemicals are not meant for use in polymer products due to following concerns: l Human Health Hazard : These harmful rodenticide additives volatilize at polymer processing temperatures and release extremely fumes. Not only does this lead to an extensive loss of chemical during processing; but also poses fatal hazards to workers handling such products at the shop floor. A short term or an acute exposure to such toxins can cause brain damage, kidney damage and gastrointestinal distress while a long term or chronic exposure would mean adverse effects on kidney, blood pressure and central venous system of humans. Carcinogenic and mutagenic disorders have also been reported. l Environmental issue: The use of such pesticides is a also serious environmental concern as they leach out from the polymer to enter the atmosphere and are later deposited by rain. They get carried into surface waters as well as ground water. Being fat-soluble such chemicals tend to accumulate through food chains, as is common with organochlorine pesticides. l Regulatory norms: Most countries like Finland, Indonesia, Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, Saint Lucia, Sweden, Australia, Austria, Cyprus, Norway and Sri Lanka have either banned or restricted the use of Lindane and other such poisonous pesticides. In India too, eminent government bodies like TEC, RDSO, etc have defined the antirodent test methodology to account for the non toxic nature of the additives, and to curb the use of hazardous chemicals by the polymer industry. Thus, control over rodents in a safer, better and eco-friendlier manner is the need of the hour; in India and other parts of the world. Non toxic and more efficient Solution: During the past years, Irririch agricultural valves also suffered these rodent attacks, the PE hoses alongside the valve body are time to time attached by the animal biting or gnawing, resulting the irrigation system failure and extra labor cost to repair these damaged hoses for getting the system back working. http://www.irririchvalve.com/anti-biting-irrigation-valves/

Work of a piliated woodpecker on a dead basswood (but there are living sprouts from it surrounding the dead part). Look at the amount of "sawdust" on the ground. While living in VA, I saw one in winter on the ground chopping into a fallen log. After it left, I went and looked at the log, and the chopped up part was littered w/frozen carpenter ants! It had discovered and chopped open a big carpenter ant nest and feasted on them.