In article ,
Jake wrote:

I manage several estates of offices and in one we had a major rat
problem - the rodent contractor put more and more bait boxes down but
the problem kept getting worse until I got the refuse contractor to
weld metal grilles over the drainage holes in the wheelie bins at the
end of last year so the rats cannot get in to the food waste inside.
This year the rat problem has miraculously disappeared. They're
opportunists at the end of the day.

Yes - but, in most of the country (i.e. suburbia), there is so much
surplus dog and cat food left out that opportunist food isn't their
main concern. In my garden, there is a perfect correlation between
a rat problem and one particular neighbour keeping dogs. Without
that, I can discourage rats just by turning the heap over.

More locally, a couple of years ago a neighbour saw rats in her garden
and went ballistic - knocking on doors almost daily to tell us to
beware. Turned out that she was throwing her after-meal waste in a
corner of her garden behind the shed. Once she stopped, the problem
disappeared.

That figures.

Mind you, last year she knocked on my door saying she had an adder in
her garden. Turned out to be a slow worm. She nearly fainted when I
picked it up to carry it away! Don't tell her that I've occasionally
had (real) adders in my borders!

They aren't exactly a problem, either.

With a big grin I leave it to others to debate whether the apostrophe
should be before or after the s in wives ;-)))))

I shall hang my head in shame and go and stand in the corner :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.