On Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:36:33 +1100, "Farm1"
wrote:

"Jeßus" wrote in message
.. .
On Mon, 12 Nov 2012 16:27:41 +1100, "Farm1"
wrote:

"Jeßus" wrote in message
...
My poor Silver Birches have taken a real hammering from the little
*******s. It's so disheartening to see a birch tree grow so well, then
overnight the main stem is snapped clean off about 2 metres from the
top... I melted some lard yesterday and mixed some kero in it. I'm
going to smear it all over the birch tree's trunks in the hope it
deters them.

Interesting recipe :-)) Wonder if it'll work? I'm trying to deter rats
round my hen house ATM. I don't want to use poison so it's a watering can
of water down each hole once a day. I now know what the expression
'drowned
rat' means. I haven't quite managed to drown any yet but they sure hate
water in their holes and come up looking very saggy and most definitely
'Not
happy Jan!'. ******* things.

Yeah, I can't any kind of plastic around the chook pen as the rats eat
it... I've had a few rats and mice drown themselves in the water
bucket, which is great. I use rat traps with peanut butter, caged off
so only rats and mice can access it.

One of the old Earth Gardens or Grass Roots mags (whichever one it is that
has Jackie French writing for it) had a great 5 gallon bucket rat/mouse trap
made by Kackie's husband. The rats/mice climbed up a rampy/laddery thing on
the side of the bucket and when they went to get the bait, they were
effectively walking the plank and dropped into water for a very long
swimming lesson. I've been meaning to hunt out the article for weeks so if
I find it, I'll put the details in here so you can get it on interlibrary
loan.

I too can't use poison but I am sure tempted. I have no objection to them
being drowned.

Sorry for missing the rest of this thread until now...

Drowning is one of the better ways IMO and don't have a problem with
it. I've found quite a few mice and rats who've drowned themselves in
buckets of water every now and then. If you do find those details, I'd
be interested in having a look, cheers.