On 7/3/05 17:51, in article , "Janet
Baraclough" wrote:

The message
from Sacha contains these words:

I wouldn't make a new heap until you're sure you've got rid of the rats
altogether. And then make sure absolutely nothing meaty or even eggy goes
onto it. That said, rats eat almost anything and I've seen them going up a
fig tree after the fruit! If you can, it might be a good idea to make it in
a different area so that you can keep an eye on the present one, just in
case you don't get all the rats this time.

No point, unless she's nocturnal :-). Rats are everywhere in rural
and urban UK, we just don't see them often because they mostly move
around at night.

The ones I had can't have read the books then. They were all-too-visible in
broad daylight!

No amount of poisoning will make someone's garden or
street a rat-free zone for longer than a day or so. Unless the compost
heap is very dry, it's unlikely they are nesting in it. I would empty
and use it as planned, and as they don't like disturbance you can be
pretty certain of not surprising them at their lunch. Wear gloves by all
means, but one is far more likely to become infected with Weill's
Disease from dabbling in garden pondwater than from a compost heap.

But IF the compost heap is wet..... I think as a precaution I would
certainly wear gloves. It's quite possible they're nesting in next door's
garden, her compost heap or somewhere in whatever is around and about. But
we have poison put down every 6 weeks here right through the breeding season
because of mice, mainly but also in case of rats. In my old garden, I don't
recall having to do the poison thing more than twice in 8 years in that
house but we did get rid of that compost heap and the grass was mown
regularly. A little later, I saw rats running across the lawn much closer
to the house and disappearing up a drainpipe which really did bother me!
Some poison in the attic of what was a small annexe soon dealt with that.
snip
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)