>- Cut the end off big plastic soda bottles and slip them over your mooring lines and any water or power lines This sort of thing works on ships and boats with really high freeboard, like some models of Nordhavns and the like. But I've never seen it work on the sorts of boats many of us have. Rats and mice (like squirrels) are amazing jumpers, and they simply jump from the dock to the deck. A rat could easily jump from the dock to the deck of our boat--- our dogs do it and the cat owned by a liveaboard a few boats away does it without exerting any effort at all. There was quite a mouse problem the other year at one of the marine parks we frequent in the San Juans, and boaters on the docks were putting all sorts of things on their lines, from big pie plates to the soda bottle solution mentioned here. They made no difference whatsoever. In fact the person who was most conscientious about putting anti-rodent devices on his mooring lines ended up with several mice running around in his boat-- they simply jumped from the dock to his aft deck. So while preventing rodents getting on board in the first place is a good idea, unless you have a boat that has enough freeboard to make it impossible for the animal to jump to the deck, you better assume they can get on if they want to, so put some effort into making sure that if they do get on they at least can't get in. As to figuring how high a rat can jump, having been around rats at the old tuna canneries in Honolulu, I would suggest after you estimate how high a rat can possibly jump, double the figure....:-) As to putting screen over vents, I figured people would realize rodents would make sure work of the typical window screen material. On the two temporary vents we install on our aft hatches when we are not using the boat, I have put what's commonly known as hardware cloth in them. I have no idea how this material acquired this name, but it's very heavy wire soldered together to make a coarse screen and then galvanized. The rest of the boat's vents have bronze grates over them. ______________________________ C. Marin Faure GB36-403 "La Perouse" Bellingham, Washington [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/ms-tnef which had a name of winmail.dat]

Hoooo-Boy, my favorite subject (NOT). I wrote about an infestation at our marina last year. This is a good time for a follow-up. Around this time last year we had a number of boats on our dock suddenly experience rat damage. I cannot describe the damage any better than Marin has except to repeat that they eat the darndest things. My immediate neighbor showed me a piece of his bilge pump hose that looked like a telephone cord. It was eaten down to the wire. Another neighbor came back to his boat after several weeks and found the stench of rat urine everywhere. All of his cushions and bedding were throw always. A big issue is that rodent damage may not be covered by insurance! Check your policy. In ours, it is specifically excluded. I am not proud to say that it took a raised voice and unpleasant conversation with the Port of Seattle (and two months) to get them to call an exterminator. Everyone wants to deny responsibility. The exterminator used poison boxes and they worked. I checked him checking the boxes and it is obvious when poison has been taken from the boxes. No signs of dead rats but you know they are. The Port was storing two derelict boats on our dock and many of us felt that this was ground zero. Several boxes were placed around those boats and poison was taken. The derelicts are gone and the traps are still out and no one has reported any damage since last winter. However, this is the time of year in the PNW when rats look for a warm and dry indoor habitat. It is amazing how they can get in. They can jump up higher than you think so rat guards on your lines may not keep them off your decks. If there is the tiniest opening or, even better, an engine room vent - they are in. Even if you have never seen or heard of a rat in your marina I recommend a trap or two on your boat. Is there a restaurant in your marina? How close is the dumpster? Any boats near you that have not been visited since that beer and pretzel party last summer? Your marina has rats. The exterminator showed me that the water pipes and conduits that run the length of the dock (along side the dock at water level) is a rodent highway. They can run all the way out to the end undetected. Safe Trapping. Eric Thoman Abyssinia www.kayaktransport.com