The message .com
from "La puce" contains these words:
Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:

How did I get here from an open compost heap?
I don't know but don't worry, you're amongst friends here ;o)
Which part of planet earth do you live in?
Norfolk. Where's'you?

Lancashire. I think a mix of our two climates could be the perfect
conditions for a wonderful garden. All my lavendulas come from your
part of the world. I'm expecting to get a new one next year, Kew it's
called, it's a red one. Perhaps you've come across it?

Come across it? I've never heard of it. (Or lavendula, FTM)

--
Rusty
horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

In article ,
"gentlegreen" writes:
|
| They'll also invade if your bird table is next to the compost container.
| They'll also use it for a place to stay even if food is elsewhere.
|
| I'm guessing this is the explanation for the rat hole found leading down
| under the decking in the garden of a friend - ...

It is. An experienced ratcatcher told me that they invaded compost
heaps for shelter, warmth and worms - all of which are inseparable
from composting - and I can confirm that from my experience. It
is complete hooey that the cooked/raw status of food makes any
difference, and almost entirely so that the presence of small
amounts of meat scraps does.

If you are in the habit of putting whole legs of lamb or chickens
on the heap, you will attract foxes. Possibly cats and rats as
well, but definitely foxes.

Talking about such beliefs, we haven't had anyone claim recently
that a pyramidal shaped compost bin works better than a cylindrical
one. It's the energy flows, you know.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

gentlegreen wrote:
"Richard Brooks" wrote in message
...

david taylor wrote:

Sorry another late reply from me. Rats do invade compost heaps if you put
cooked scraps on them both in town and country, We had a rat in our heap
in rural Cheshire-it had dug a beautifully cylindrical hole under the
garden fence to get to cooked kitchen scraps. Our cat dealt with
subsequent intruders.
The information on cooked food came from a farmer friend who has to
control rat populations as part of his job.
We now have a sealed wormery for kitchen scraps.
Regards
David Taylor

They'll also invade if your bird table is next to the compost container.
They'll also use it for a place to stay even if food is elsewhere.


I'm guessing this is the explanation for the rat hole found leading down
under the decking in the garden of a friend - she has a huge phobia of
mammals - even squirrels - and it provokes a huge row if one tries to sneak
even a bread crust into her well-sealed plastic compost bin - whereas a few
feet away the food is spilling off the bird table ....

If I found my compost bin was encouraging rats I would probably deploy
chicken wire or something. (I did unfortunately choose a plastic bin with a
fairly useless sliding hatch but this is now turned to face the earth bank
the bin is set into)

I'd go for that chain link fencing like the military use if a rat has
the same strength of teeth as a squirrel!

I'm going to make a bin out of concrete filled between wooden shuttering
as soon as I've got the time. My home-built wooden area is now lined
inside with concete slabs but there is a gap. There's even a large hole
under the concrete foundation of our garden shed and a large pile of
shingle beside it.

One phenomenon I routinely observe is that worms are forever climbing up the
inside of my plastic bin and gathering under the rim of the cover.


That should be okay though, shouldn't it. Hold on! Are birds landing
on the lid ? Worms come to the surface if there's vibration as they
think it's raining. It's even an English competition to collect the
most worms by beating on the grass.


Richard.

This last message has a noticeably arrogant tone.
We now live in Devon and have moles and badgers in our garden. Badgers have
now started excavating the lawn-for and our approach lane for earthworms,
moles live on earth worms and I have mentioned that in our clay they favour
cultivated ground or woodland rather than the lawn.
We have had rats or a rat in our shed. It ate some seed and broke into a bag
of bonemeal. Our neighbour has had rats in his donkey shed.
Given all this choice I have seen no evidence of rats in two large compost
heaps (4 cubic metre) -and as for them eating earthworms -pull the other
one!The compost heaps are in woodland adjacent to a paddock with stabling
for two horses.
Our farmer friend in Cheshire had three cats to keep down rats and called in
a professional ratcatcher every four years, so he knew what he was talking
about!
Regards
David T

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

In article ,
"gentlegreen" writes:
|
| They'll also invade if your bird table is next to the compost
container.
| They'll also use it for a place to stay even if food is elsewhere.
|
| I'm guessing this is the explanation for the rat hole found leading
down
| under the decking in the garden of a friend - ...

It is. An experienced ratcatcher told me that they invaded compost
heaps for shelter, warmth and worms - all of which are inseparable
from composting - and I can confirm that from my experience. It
is complete hooey that the cooked/raw status of food makes any
difference, and almost entirely so that the presence of small
amounts of meat scraps does.

If you are in the habit of putting whole legs of lamb or chickens
on the heap, you will attract foxes. Possibly cats and rats as
well, but definitely foxes.

Talking about such beliefs, we haven't had anyone claim recently
that a pyramidal shaped compost bin works better than a cylindrical
one. It's the energy flows, you know.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

It is. An experienced ratcatcher told me that they invaded compost
heaps for shelter, warmth and worms - all of which are inseparable
from composting - and I can confirm that from my experience. It
is complete hooey that the cooked/raw status of food makes any
difference, and almost entirely so that the presence of small
amounts of meat scraps does.

If you are in the habit of putting whole legs of lamb or chickens
on the heap, you will attract foxes. Possibly cats and rats as
well, but definitely foxes.


I think I'm with Nick and the OP on this one. Rats eat pretty much
anything - they got on to our canal boat once and ate the soap out of the
middle of the Brillo pads, leaving the wire wool nicely fluffed up. I really
can't believe that they are that fussy whether your offerings are cooked or
not - "I won't eat this carrot - it's raw" is not something a rat is likely
to think.

In article , Pete Franklin
writes

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

It is. An experienced ratcatcher told me that they invaded compost
heaps for shelter, warmth and worms - all of which are inseparable
from composting - and I can confirm that from my experience. It
is complete hooey that the cooked/raw status of food makes any
difference, and almost entirely so that the presence of small
amounts of meat scraps does.

If you are in the habit of putting whole legs of lamb or chickens
on the heap, you will attract foxes. Possibly cats and rats as
well, but definitely foxes.


I think I'm with Nick and the OP on this one. Rats eat pretty much
anything - they got on to our canal boat once and ate the soap out of the
middle of the Brillo pads, leaving the wire wool nicely fluffed up.

Soap is apparently a favourite. On Lundy Island they test for rats by
leaving out soap and candles - if the rats are around they will nibble.

I really
can't believe that they are that fussy whether your offerings are cooked or
not - "I won't eat this carrot - it's raw" is not something a rat is likely
to think.

I asked this question on urg a while back, and someone suggested that
cooked is tenderer so more calories for less effort, which I suppose is
a possibility. And someone else that most meat on compost heaps has been
cooked, so that's where the association came from.


--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

Kay wrote:
[...]
I asked this question on urg a while back, and someone suggested
that
cooked is tenderer so more calories for less effort, which I
suppose
is a possibility. And someone else that most meat on compost heaps
has been cooked, so that's where the association came from.

The latter was perhaps me, no doubt among others. The only way the
advice can be analysed to make everyday sense is as a clumsy way of
saying "left-over food, including meat or fish, as opposed to
vegetable trimmings and the like". The idea is of the washer-up just
scraping everything left on a plate or in a pan into the compost, and
that's likely to include bits of meat or gristle or bones. Few
families can often throw away much raw meat, so to that extent it's
comprehensible.

As composting advice, though, the consensus seems to be that it
doesn't make a lot of sense even when it's interpreted that way. I
still have a lingering doubt, but those arguments have been
persuasive. I'm sure people have different experiences: gardening's
like that.

--
Mike.

In article , Mike Lyle
writes

I'm sure we've done this before, but I'm absent-minded as well as
curious.

Why do you need to buy worms? Doesn't Mother Nature provide round
your way? Presumably it isn't a matter of NZ flatworms, as you've
found corpses.



Earthworms aren't bradlings are they? I do have them in my large compost
bins but I need them there. The ones in the wormery just seem to
disappear, but I have no idea where. I've followed all the instructions.

Janet
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

If you are in the habit of putting whole legs of lamb or chickens
on the heap, you will attract foxes. Possibly cats and rats as
well, but definitely foxes.

well ......

Years ago when I had cats, once they managed to bring home a large cooked
joint of meat. I couldn't see how they could possibly have got it over the
fence. I thought it a bit odd so put it straight in the compost heap.
Another time it was a whole racing pigeon !


Talking about such beliefs, we haven't had anyone claim recently
that a pyramidal shaped compost bin works better than a cylindrical
one. It's the energy flows, you know.

Presumably you would want to make a really big pyramid with a compost
tumbler in the "hot spot" ;-)

In article , Janet Tweedy
writes
In article , Mike Lyle
writes

I'm sure we've done this before, but I'm absent-minded as well as
curious.

Why do you need to buy worms? Doesn't Mother Nature provide round
your way? Presumably it isn't a matter of NZ flatworms, as you've
found corpses.



Earthworms aren't bradlings are they?

No. Brandlings like higher humus. But they are there (whether as worms
or coccoons I'm not sure), just waiting for a dose of rotting vegetation
to start breeding.

I do have them in my large compost
bins but I need them there. The ones in the wormery just seem to
disappear, but I have no idea where. I've followed all the instructions.

In that case, the conditions aren't right. If the conditions are right,
they rapidly breed.

--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

In article , Kay
writes

bins but I need them there. The ones in the wormery just seem to
disappear, but I have no idea where. I've followed all the instructions.

In that case, the conditions aren't right. If the conditions are right,
they rapidly breed.



How on earth do you test for the right conditions? I follow the
instructions to the letter and yet and yet ...........
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

"Richard Brooks" wrote in message
...
gentlegreen wrote:

One phenomenon I routinely observe is that worms are forever climbing up
the inside of my plastic bin and gathering under the rim of the cover.

That should be okay though, shouldn't it. Hold on! Are birds landing on
the lid ? Worms come to the surface if there's vibration as they think
it's raining. It's even an English competition to collect the most worms
by beating on the grass.


We don't get many birds where I live :-(

I suppose it could be the unfamiliar acoustics of a plastic bin ..... quite
an achievement for worms to manage to climb up the sides though ...

It's a bit unfortunate as some of them tend to fall off when you lift the
lid - hopefully they find their way back in ....

"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...

That's a non sequitur.There may have been cooked food in your heap,
but that does not prove the reason for the rat going in it. I saw a
rat-hole in my warm compost heap the other week, but there's no meat or
cooked leftovers of any kind in that heap because I have other uses for
that material.

Many people fail to understand the difference between correlation and cause
and effect. Hence one can propose interesting theories like 'Global warming
is caused by a decline in the number of pirates' see www.venganza.org for
more details.

Pete