I learned recently that San Francisco is becoming overrun with rats. This SFGate piece was literally titled “Infinity of Rats." Here is a story on San Francisco being the “4th Rattiest City in America.”

The way I have experienced this personally is in the way that rats have repeatedly attacked my citrus trees. In one night, they will eat literally all the leaves and chew off a lot of the bark. They chew ONLY THE RIND off of any lemons, and just leave the naked lemons on the ground. This is the current state of my largest lemon tree.

Please enjoy some close-ups of the branches that have been denuded of their leaves and had their bark chomped off.

But honestly, I take a lot of inspiration from this tree. Despite it losing almost all of its leaves, the little flowers and proto-lemons at the top are still trying to grow. It hasn’t given up. You go, tree!

At least I can say that I recently got a dwarf lime tree sapling, and I’ve planted it in a container that’s VERY tall (3 feet?) and will hopefully provide a defensible barrier to any lime-hungry rats.

I don’t really have a point to this post. I just can’t believe the rats are literally EATING MY TREES. The end.

P.S.: For the love of all that is holy, please don’t give me unsolicited advice about the rats. Either it is not applicable in this particular situation, appropriate for a yard with two dogs, or I have already tried it (and I really had hope for the Peppermint Dr. Bronner’s!).