In article ,
"Paul Kelly" writes:
|
| Do you live in town or country?
|
| In town putting meat on the compost bin is an open invitation
| to foxes and rats.

Suburbs. There are both in the vicinity, and I believe that both
visit the garden regularly. It is an old wife's tale that putting
meat scraps or bones on the compost heap attracts rats (or even
foxes) any more than anything else does. I don't know whether
putting whole joints on would, as it is not something that we do!

Note that there is a similar old wife's tale that is more common
in the USA but still appears here, where it is putting cooked food
on the heap that attracts rats. I have even heard the variant that
it is putting uncooked vegetables that does, so now we have covered
all bases :-)

Unless you run a VERY wasteful kitchen, then just heaving all
kitchen waste on the heap is usually fine. I can believe that
the occasional rat or fox will be attracted by certain foods, and
obviously meat scraps are one of the more likely, but it is rare.
This is not just my experience, either, but has been told to me
by several rat-catchers (sorry, pest control operatives).


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.