On Sun, 20 Apr 2003 17:51:33 +0100, Mimi De Moratti
wrote:

My house is surrounded by sheep/cows and wooden buildings storing hay etc. My
house is also built of wood and I have two sheds in the garden. Rats nested
in the compost heap which I have now cleared, but they are beginning to get
out of control, hiding in nooks and crannies. My birdfeeders have special
'seed catchers' underneath to help with spillage problems. I have tried
everything to discourage the rats but they are happy here! I don't want to
poison them because I imagine it is a slow and painful death (am I right?).
And I don't want to harm the shrews and my badger who visits me every night.
My landlord's Jack Russell spends a lot of time here and is interested in the
rats but is not keeping them at bay. I am anxious about health problems for
my vast bird population, and the saftey of their nests. Time is running out
and I really do need to find a solution to this problem. Has anyone any
experience of humane rat control? I know this problem has been tackled
before, but before anyone refers me to FAQs, rats are not covered! I did use
the search facility on the FAQs page and tried to get the Pests page, but the
link doesn't work.

Sounds like a solution looking for a problem.
IOW: Get some of those cat plagued urban gardeners,
to export their pesky feline visitors to your environs,
for mutual relief.

Bart