"Vir Campestris" wrote in message
o.uk...
On 15/03/2015 07:26, Fran Farmer wrote:
so does fumigating their burrows by shoving a hose onto the end of an
exhaust pipe of a leaded petrol car and shoving the end down the burrow
and then closing over all holes with dirt and leaving the car running
for a while. These days that means you have to find an old car where
lead is added to modern fuel

It's not the lead, it's the carbon monoxide that does for them. Anything
without a catalytic converter will do - which includes old diesels as well
as petrol. A lawnmowers would probably do - although you'd have to run a
lawnmower an awfully long time to get much exhaust.

Andy

I do this for rats, we run a lawnmower engine under the chicken huts and the
rats run out into the jaws of the terriers. Snap. Into ratty heaven
instantly, much better thsn poison which I refuse to use since I had to kill
one dying slowly once when I used it. Never again. The poor thing took
ages to die until I firmed up and bashed it on the head with a brick - which
was difficult.
Terriers are best with rats, they either kill them immediately or they get
away for another time to meet the terriers again. A big rat almost bit the
nose off one of the terriers.
Boyfie kills the small rats. He is not brave enough to tackle the big ones
with huge brown chisel teeth. He needs the terriers for that.