someone wrote:
"John L" wrote in message
...
I've just seen a rat come over our garden shed roof, down the gutter, up
the stick that holds the bird feeder, and then start feeding itself. It
did it 3 times in 20 minutes. It looked huge (but then: they always do
I believe). It was definitely a brown rat - pink paws and all that.

So: tomorrow I buy a couple of rat traps, and tell the neighbours; on
Tuesday I'll tell the council (FWIW).

We live in a rural village right next to fields/woods (hm - sounds
great don't it?). However our houses are standard 60s semis (i.e. not
converted barns on the site of an old farmhouse). We've been here 25
years, and I don't ever remember seeing a rat before in such flagrant
proximity.

So: any comments from people here who have suffered from rats? I feel
we need to eradicate them ASAP.


We've lived on the edge of a small town in Wilts for over 30 years. There
are lots of old houses and cottages, with crumbling drains and so on, and
everybody round about has always had rats. We have a big compost heap into
which we put our kitchen stuff. The real problem is not our compost heap,
it's people on the nearby main street eating takeaways and tossing their
chips and stuff away.

So yes, we've seen a lot of rats in our time. But we have always had two
cats that take care of the problem.

A bigger problem is on our allotment a quarter mile away: we have to plant
either early or late sweetcorn, to fool the rats. If we plant ordinary
sweetcorn they have the lot.

I was standing in the bus station in Swindon a while back, there is a very
small hedge, about 6' long x 2' wide x 4' high nearby. Little rats were
playing among the roots.

You're never more than ten feet away from a rat, wherever you are. Google
it and see.

Do you believe everything you read on the internet?

That statement - 'you're never more than ten feet away from a rat' is
utter twaddle.

I'm saying that as someone who used to earn his living in pest control.

Anything you put on a website (****ter, farceboo, even newsitems) will
show up if you feed the right words into a search engine.

--
Rusty

"Rusty Hinge" wrote in message
...
someone wrote:
"John L" wrote in message
...

You're never more than ten feet away from a rat, wherever you are.
Google it and see.

Do you believe everything you read on the internet?

That statement - 'you're never more than ten feet away from a rat' is
utter twaddle.

I'm saying that as someone who used to earn his living in pest control.

Anything you put on a website (****ter, farceboo, even newsitems) will
show up if you feed the right words into a search engine.

--

No doubt you're right, Rusty, however there are a lot of rats about within a
2 mile radius of where I live. They're around in my garden and in our
allotment. And everybody else's gardens and allotments. My neighbour keeps
chickens, so she knows about this as well.

But as I said, not a problem here at home as the cats deal with them.

someone

John L wrote:
So: tomorrow I buy a couple of rat traps, and tell the neighbours; on
Tuesday I'll tell the council (FWIW).

We had a rat earlier this year, eating hte chicken's feed. The rat traps
were useless, all they cuaght were field mice.

On 4 Apr 2010 23:47:00 GMT, wrote:

The rat traps were useless, all they cuaght were field mice.

I'd have though the bar on a rat trap would have missed a mouse on
the platform... With traps rats are very suspicious, if you keep
going back and touching them or the imediate surroudings to inspect
the rats will avoid them. You need to have them so you can inspect
without getting to close/touching. Even then it can take quite a
while to catch a rat and if it only gets caught by a leg or tail it
will gnaw that bit off to get away.

--
Cheers
Dave.

someone wrote:
"Rusty Hinge" wrote in message

Anything you put on a website (****ter, farceboo, even newsitems) will
show up if you feed the right words into a search engine.

No doubt you're right, Rusty, however there are a lot of rats about within a
2 mile radius of where I live.

There are lots round here too - half a dozen less now than last week -
but rats are only as numerous as the food-supply and predators permit.
(Predators to include humane beans and other hungry rats...)

They're around in my garden and in our
allotment. And everybody else's gardens and allotments. My neighbour keeps
chickens, so she knows about this as well.

They do like chickens. The trick is (with chickens) to feed them little
an often if you can - that way there's nothing left lying about for the
rats. Then of course, you have to put the roosts in a rat-proof place or
Little Red Hen becomes Little Dead Hen.

The answer is a decent air rifle and something the rat has to climb to
get at the bait.

But as I said, not a problem here at home as the cats deal with them.

I had a cat like that once. She discovered rats (I saw it, and it was
hilarious - her eyes were like saucers and if she'd had eyebrows...).
Trouble was, once she'd polished-off the couple under next-door's
summer-house, and those round a neighbour's hens, she used to go off for
a fortnight at a time Big Game Hunting...

We had the infant Ravensbourne running by, and that was just too good a
source of simply *DELICIOUS* rats

--
Rusty

wrote:
John L wrote:
So: tomorrow I buy a couple of rat traps, and tell the neighbours; on
Tuesday I'll tell the council (FWIW).

We had a rat earlier this year,

Delicious, aren't they? Casserole it?

eating hte chicken's feed.

Oh. As you were then...

The rat traps
were useless, all they cuaght were field mice.

Not doing it right, then. 1) carefully bend the trigger until it /only
just/ catches, and it will go off if you so much as look at it too hard;
2) use milk chocolate. Rats are discerning creatures, so don't use that
cheap stuff sold for making cake icing or filling; 3) heat the
prongs/plate of the trigger and melt the chocolate on, so ratty has to
gnaw it; 4) fix a length of chain to the trap and have some stout wire
to fix the other end to something solid; 5) place the trap where you
want it and set it there - if you can move a set trap safely, it's not
set right. [ See 1) ]

IME the best trps are the galvanised pressed steel ones.

--
Rusty

Ann Lancing wrote in
:




Hello John,

I've just seen a rat come over our garden shed roof, down the gutter,
up the stick that holds the bird feeder, and then start feeding
itself. It did it 3 times in 20 minutes. It looked huge (but then:
they always do I believe). It was definitely a brown rat - pink
paws and all that.

So: tomorrow I buy a couple of rat traps, and tell the neighbours; on
Tuesday I'll tell the council (FWIW).

We live in a rural village right next to fields/woods (hm - sounds
great don't it?). However our houses are standard 60s semis (i.e.
not converted barns on the site of an old farmhouse). We've been here
25 years, and I don't ever remember seeing a rat before in such
flagrant proximity.

So: any comments from people here who have suffered from rats? I
feel we need to eradicate them ASAP.

Cheers
John
p.s. To save comments: in those 25 years we've always had compost
heaps (with no food scraps) and we've always had bird feeders.


Get yourself a cat. Ours caught 13 rats when our previous neighbours
had chicken.
Now we have a new neighbour he only catches mice.
Council Rat service was useless.

Ann




Do NOT buy a cat unless you keep it from shitting in others freshly dug
gardens

On 5 Apr, 11:45, Rusty Hinge wrote:
wrote:
John L wrote:
So: tomorrow I buy a couple of rat traps, and tell the neighbours; on
Tuesday I'll tell the council (FWIW).

We had a rat earlier this year,

Delicious, aren't they? Casserole it?

eating hte chicken's feed.

Oh. As you were then...

The rat traps
were useless, all they cuaght were field mice.

Not doing it right, then. 1) carefully bend the trigger until it /only
just/ catches, and it will go off if you so much as look at it too hard;
2) use milk chocolate. Rats are discerning creatures, so don't use that
cheap stuff sold for making cake icing or filling; 3) heat the
prongs/plate of the trigger and melt the chocolate on, so ratty has to
gnaw it; 4) fix a length of chain to the trap and have some stout wire
to fix the other end to something solid; 5) place the trap where you
want it and set it there - if you can move a set trap safely, it's not
set right. [ See 1) ]

IME the best trps are the galvanised pressed steel ones.

--
Rusty

I poisoned the rats under my shed. I also know about the slow and
painful death that I caused them, but that did not make any
difference. I must have eaten cheap pork or eggs, and I would rather
have a few days slow death of a rat than a lifetime of sitting in my
own shit like the majority of chicken and pigs that provide cheap
produce to take-aways, restaurants and supermarkets in this country.
Millions eat that every day.

So, please spare me the animal welfare arguments.

The rats in my garden were living under my shed, so I made a funnel
from an old lemonade bottle and poured poison in the holes every
morning until there was some remaining after 24 hours (which took
about 8 days).

I have not seen a rat in my garden for 15 months, which is an
improvement over seeing 9 at one time in 2008.

Job done.

Rusty Hinge wrote in
:

someone wrote:
"John L" wrote in message

nvalid...
I've just seen a rat come over our garden shed roof, down the
gutter, up the stick that holds the bird feeder, and then start
feeding itself. It did it 3 times in 20 minutes. It looked huge
(but then: they always do I believe). It was definitely a brown
rat - pink paws and all that.

So: tomorrow I buy a couple of rat traps, and tell the neighbours;
on Tuesday I'll tell the council (FWIW).

We live in a rural village right next to fields/woods (hm - sounds
great don't it?). However our houses are standard 60s semis (i.e.
not converted barns on the site of an old farmhouse). We've been
here 25 years, and I don't ever remember seeing a rat before in such
flagrant proximity.

So: any comments from people here who have suffered from rats? I
feel we need to eradicate them ASAP.


We've lived on the edge of a small town in Wilts for over 30 years.
There are lots of old houses and cottages, with crumbling drains and
so on, and everybody round about has always had rats. We have a big
compost heap into which we put our kitchen stuff. The real problem
is not our compost heap, it's people on the nearby main street eating
takeaways and tossing their chips and stuff away.

So yes, we've seen a lot of rats in our time. But we have always had
two cats that take care of the problem.

A bigger problem is on our allotment a quarter mile away: we have to
plant either early or late sweetcorn, to fool the rats. If we plant
ordinary sweetcorn they have the lot.

I was standing in the bus station in Swindon a while back, there is a
very small hedge, about 6' long x 2' wide x 4' high nearby. Little
rats were playing among the roots.

You're never more than ten feet away from a rat, wherever you are.
Google it and see.

Do you believe everything you read on the internet?

That statement - 'you're never more than ten feet away from a rat' is
utter twaddle.

I'm saying that as someone who used to earn his living in pest
control.

Anything you put on a website (****ter, farceboo, even newsitems) will
show up if you feed the right words into a search engine.


Wake up ratcatcher
"I'm saying that as someone who used to earn his living in pest
control."
If you were that (pest control) someone who used to earn a living then
you are either a liar or very very naive, or even stupid and maybe that
is why you changed vocations.
Try a scientific approach and yes, use the internet, but not
wikipedia....etc.etc.
Ask your local council for their quarterly or anual report on the subject
and buy a calculator to work it out. That is if you can switch it on!

This will help if you can work the calculator:-
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAndC...tAndWeedContro
l/DG_10026663

In article ,
Marq wrote:
Rusty Hinge wrote in
:
someone wrote:

You're never more than ten feet away from a rat, wherever you are.
Google it and see.

Do you believe everything you read on the internet?

That statement - 'you're never more than ten feet away from a rat' is
utter twaddle.

I'm saying that as someone who used to earn his living in pest
control.

Anything you put on a website (****ter, farceboo, even newsitems) will
show up if you feed the right words into a search engine.

Don't bet on it - there are fairly standard blocking techniques,
some of which even work some of the time :-)

However, your general point about the net being full of bullshit
is perfectly correct.

Wake up ratcatcher
"I'm saying that as someone who used to earn his living in pest
control."
If you were that (pest control) someone who used to earn a living then
you are either a liar or very very naive, or even stupid and maybe that
is why you changed vocations.
Try a scientific approach and yes, use the internet, but not
wikipedia....etc.etc.
Ask your local council for their quarterly or anual report on the subject
and buy a calculator to work it out. That is if you can switch it on!

Get back under your bridge!

Rats are not uniformly distributed. About a week a year, I am over
a mile from the nearest rat - while still on the UK mainland ....


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Marq wrote:
Rusty Hinge wrote in
:

someone wrote:
"John L" wrote in message

nvalid...
I've just seen a rat come over our garden shed roof, down the
gutter, up the stick that holds the bird feeder, and then start
feeding itself. It did it 3 times in 20 minutes. It looked huge
(but then: they always do I believe). It was definitely a brown
rat - pink paws and all that.

So: tomorrow I buy a couple of rat traps, and tell the neighbours;
on Tuesday I'll tell the council (FWIW).

We live in a rural village right next to fields/woods (hm - sounds
great don't it?). However our houses are standard 60s semis (i.e.
not converted barns on the site of an old farmhouse). We've been
here 25 years, and I don't ever remember seeing a rat before in such
flagrant proximity.

So: any comments from people here who have suffered from rats? I
feel we need to eradicate them ASAP.

We've lived on the edge of a small town in Wilts for over 30 years.
There are lots of old houses and cottages, with crumbling drains and
so on, and everybody round about has always had rats. We have a big
compost heap into which we put our kitchen stuff. The real problem
is not our compost heap, it's people on the nearby main street eating
takeaways and tossing their chips and stuff away.

So yes, we've seen a lot of rats in our time. But we have always had
two cats that take care of the problem.

A bigger problem is on our allotment a quarter mile away: we have to
plant either early or late sweetcorn, to fool the rats. If we plant
ordinary sweetcorn they have the lot.

I was standing in the bus station in Swindon a while back, there is a
very small hedge, about 6' long x 2' wide x 4' high nearby. Little
rats were playing among the roots.

You're never more than ten feet away from a rat, wherever you are.
Google it and see.
Do you believe everything you read on the internet?

That statement - 'you're never more than ten feet away from a rat' is
utter twaddle.

I'm saying that as someone who used to earn his living in pest
control.

Anything you put on a website (****ter, farceboo, even newsitems) will
show up if you feed the right words into a search engine.


Wake up ratcatcher
"I'm saying that as someone who used to earn his living in pest
control."
If you were that (pest control) someone who used to earn a living then
you are either a liar or very very naive, or even stupid and maybe that
is why you changed vocations.
Try a scientific approach and yes, use the internet, but not
wikipedia....etc.etc.
Ask your local council for their quarterly or anual report on the subject
and buy a calculator to work it out. That is if you can switch it on!

This will help if you can work the calculator:-
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAndC...tAndWeedContro
l/DG_10026663

You are either extremely gullible or incorrigibly stupid. You only have
to give the matter a minimum of thought to see the crassness of the
statement.

But even though 'little thought' seems to be your forté, you don't seem
to have engaged even that.

I'd see a specialist and get those chips planed off your shoulders.

The reason I only do the job part-time now is that in a few days I
shallbe seventy, so I've seen a lot more of life than you have, sonny.

--
Rusty

sutartsorric wrote:

I poisoned the rats under my shed. I also know about the slow and
painful death that I caused them, but that did not make any
difference.

While the decline to death is slow with most poisons (that's the legal
ones) the rat merely feels unwell and is not in pain. Warfarin and its
cousins act by preventing blood from clotting, so when the roughage
scrapes old skin off the villi in the rat's small intestine (as is
normal) the blood vessels are kept very close to the surface.

Sometimes they bleed, and this is normal. Not ideal, but normal. The
abnormal effect is that with Warfarin the vessels in the villi continue
to bleed, and this weakens the rat as its manufacture of fresh red
corpuscles can't keep up with the depletion, and ratty turns up its toes.

I must have eaten cheap pork or eggs, and I would rather
have a few days slow death of a rat than a lifetime of sitting in my
own shit like the majority of chicken and pigs that provide cheap
produce to take-aways, restaurants and supermarkets in this country.
Millions eat that every day.

Fortunately, living in the country, I can always get meat, eggs and
things of which I know the provenance. However, being mildly allergic to
eggs, they are used only in cooking, so I tend to get less than a dozen
a year. I can also bag rabbits, pigeons and sqrls if I really wany meat,
but I don't tend to eat a lot of that, either.

So, please spare me the animal welfare arguments.

You brought them up...

--
Rusty

Rusty Hinge wrote:
Fortunately, living in the country, I can always get meat, eggs and
things of which I know the provenance. However, being mildly allergic to
eggs, they are used only in cooking, so I tend to get less than a dozen
a year.

Sorry, slight turn in topic, but about your "slightly allergic to eggs"
statement - I've not been eating eggs for Lent, and now I am again, and
after a 2 egg ommlette, I had ... tummy trouble. It's not unheard of. I've
had tummy ache after eating duck eggs in the past, and since I can't tell
the difference between duck and chicken eggs anyhow, other than the size,
I've just stopped eating duck eggs. But this time it was /my/ chicken's
eggs, which I've not had a problem with before.
I was starting to wonder if it was white eggs, rather than the duck eggs, as
I had both white eggs this time (I had 2 brown eggs ready to cook, but Nick
came and nicked them before I had a chance!).
I know white and brown eggs are /meant/ to be identical other than the colour
of the shell, but does anyone know if this is actually accurate?

On Mon, 5 Apr 2010 20:53:27 +0100, wrote
(in article ):

Rusty Hinge wrote:
Fortunately, living in the country, I can always get meat, eggs and
things of which I know the provenance. However, being mildly allergic to
eggs, they are used only in cooking, so I tend to get less than a dozen
a year.

Sorry, slight turn in topic, but about your "slightly allergic to eggs"
statement - I've not been eating eggs for Lent, and now I am again, and
after a 2 egg ommlette, I had ... tummy trouble. It's not unheard of. I've
had tummy ache after eating duck eggs in the past, and since I can't tell
the difference between duck and chicken eggs anyhow, other than the size,
I've just stopped eating duck eggs. But this time it was /my/ chicken's
eggs, which I've not had a problem with before.
I was starting to wonder if it was white eggs, rather than the duck eggs, as
I had both white eggs this time (I had 2 brown eggs ready to cook, but Nick
came and nicked them before I had a chance!).
I know white and brown eggs are /meant/ to be identical other than the colour
of the shell, but does anyone know if this is actually accurate?


Yes it is. The colour of the shell has absolutely nothing to do with the
nutritional value, taste or anything else to do with the content of the egg,
and is related to the breed of the hen. Strangely, whereas in the UK brown
eggs are more desirable and are seen to be "healthier", in the USA white eggs
are more desirable and are seen to be "cleaner". Blame the marketing people!

--
Sally in Shropshire, UK
Posted through uk.rec.gardening

wrote:

/crack/

I know white and brown eggs are /meant/ to be identical other than the colour
of the shell, but does anyone know if this is actually accurate?

Yes. Utterly and totally true. There is no difference between the innards.

Albumen, mind, is mildly poisonous.

--
Rusty