Garden Pests and Diseases: If I play screech owl calls will I scare away the real owls?, 0 by Elphaba

Elphaba wrote:
I have the problem again this year of rats at the bird feeder. Last year I tried traps (they sniffed the peanut butter but went around them anyway); I only put seed out in the morning (the rats became day rats -- day-o, day-o, day rats come and they won' go home); I stopped feeding the birds (the rats started eating natural food in the garden like seeds). Finally, I came home one night and could hear screech owls making the biggest raucous. The rats were gone for a couple of weeks.

I saw two day rats yesterday. I was thinking that I'd take my laptop out tonight and play screech owl calls to see if I could scare them away. My question is will that scare away the real owls like a territorial thing? What about the birds that are nesting around here? How badly am I going to freak them out? Any other suggestions? I don't want to poison my dogs and so far there are no rats in the house or attic.

Pic from last year eating seeds.

This message was edited May 16, 2008 11:30 AM