Topic: RATS!

[growmore]

Rats and lotties mostly go together ...Compost heaps are a source of warmth..I presume You are digging the compost in.So I would not hesitate to use it ...
With recent postings I think I will turn my potting shed into a laboratory
and my Greenhouse into a medical centre...It makes me wonder how I have grown Veg for 40 years.
Seriously though we should wash our hands etc before eating our sarnies ...cheers ..Jim

[Sarah-b]

On the topic of Weil's disease - our allotment committee has been asked to do a risk assessment and the risks of Weils disease is one of the things they have to look into. Not sure what the risk actually is, except i think it is definitely carried by rats. What worries me is the fact of the risk assessment - what's it for? Are they going to say allotments are far too risky places and should be shut down because they don't adhere to European Legislation??

Sarah.

[Sprouts]

Thought we were all working with nature! There are hazards out there, but most are man-made! Broken bottles are my highest risk of serious injury. 
Just as weeds are plants in the wrong places, I look on pests as wildlife in the wrong places, so squirrels, foxes and rats use my garden because it is a more welcoming habitat than the sprawling city and the modern farmland.  I enjoy their presence but take sensible precautions to safeguard my pets, my plants and myself!!
Nothing in life is without risk and as long as we are sensible as pointed out in previous posts, the positive benefits will greatly outweigh the perceived dangers.
Just get out there and enjoy the world!!

[ina]

I agree 100% with you.
As long as we are sensible, that's exactly what we are reminding each other of in this threat.

[paranoid mandroid]

if i get a scratch at all whilst out in the garden i wash my hands with dettol as soon as im finished in the garden or as soon as possible if im going to be more than a few hours. is dettol good enough to take care of things?

[Mrs Ava]

I am begining to feel quite guilty now....I am the chickaleeta that insists the kids wash their hands when they have been playing in the garden, and yet I can normally be found on the allotment, one hand elbow deep in compost, horse poo and earth, and a nice chicken sanger in the other, with a mug of coffee on the path, with loads of little flies floating in the top!  I am forever cutting my hands, getting splinters and blisters, and currently burns from the sap and stingers.  Must get sorted before mu luck runs out....or could it be, after spending the last 34 years in the muck, I am immune??

[ina]

There is a Dutch saying: Onkruid vergaat niet.
Translation: Weeds don't perish.

(in Dutch it sounds even worse, the literal translation for weeds is bad herbs hahahaha)

[Lady Cosmos]

A wee bit hard, to call her ""onkruid"" >:( >:(

[Palustris]

Don't know about tetanus, but I do know that I have just had an encounter with the original subject matter. Went to do some work in the greenhouse and to my  astonishment a rat calmly walked along the edge of the workshed, through the cat hole in the door and disappeared inside. I opened the door and there it was cheeky as they come just starting on a meal of Fatball (birdfood). It took absolutely no notice of me!. So, not being very keen on getting too close to rats I went into the house and carried our resident ratter out to the shed. In the mean time Ratty had had his main course and was tucking into an apple for desert. It then left the shed followed by cat and made its way very slowly across the garden. Here its progress was interrupted by three bantams who decided it was lunch on legs!. Cat walked away!. Spade descended and ratty was no more.
I presume it was sick anyway since it was very slow and rats normally do not hang around to be cat sniffed, henpecked or pancaked.
No need for anti-tetanus though!

[Wicker]

I know it's a serious subject but honestly, Eric, the picture you paint of that rat and it's demise - like something out of Tom and Jerry!!!  ;D ;D ;D

[Andy H]

Had a chuckle about Tom & Jerry scenario and EJ`s description on the plot!
Mud coated hands rubbed on jeans to get the "worst" off and out with the sarnie. Flies in coffee, dip muddy finger(albeit freshly cleaned on jeans!)into coffee to remove flies, wipe coffee from finger by applying to jeans again and drink coffee, being careful about the layer of skin that has formed, with the skin swallowed you pull a face and say erghh thats better! :-X

And have you noticed your finger is cleaner now :-\
Bet the original flies were better for your..............

Then you stand up and stretch you knackered back, make another argghhhh noise and contemplate how healthy all this organic gardening is for you and then spark up a f*g and continue :-X

[eileen]

Oh dear I think you've been spying on me Andy.  :P That is exactly what I do when I'm out in the garden.  :-[ :-[ :-[ Mind you I don't drop my f.g end in the garden I hygenically get rid of it in the bin!!!!!!!!!!!  ;D

[Jak]

Oh dear I think you've been spying on me Andy.  :P That is exactly what I do when I'm out in the garden.  :-[ :-[ :-[

Me too!!!!!  Though I used to throw my f*g ends on the ground (roll ups are bio-degradible!) ... not any longer though, I gave up smoking just over a year ago! <<pats herself on back>> ;D

Had a rat in my compost heap a couple of weeks ago! :o  I'd just added some stuff to my heap, I put an old bit of carpet back on top and then stomped up and down on it for a bit.  I reached over to lower the lid and a huge rat leaped out, over my shoulder and disappeared into next doors garden.  Frightened the life out of me! :o

Jak

[Doris_Pinks]

"SHUDDER" Jak!

[Andy H]

Argh! Jak!

Got me thinking.... I haven`t liked rats since I read the book 25 years ago. Can`t think of the author just now...?

Had visions of stomping on compo heap or pulling back the carpet and loads of giant rats jumping out and ripping out  juggular etc etc. The Lair was another one...... cringe :'(

[Doris_Pinks]

James Herbert,  Andy, I loved that book! We kept rats for a while, wonderful creatures, but the thought of a wild one running down my back from my compost sends me cold!

[Andy H]

Thats the one Doris, thanks.

[Doris_Pinks]

Da Nada!

[Jak]

I love pet rats, my cousin used to keep them, but my OH hates Rattus Norvegicus (sp?) with a passion boarding on phobia and some of it has obviously rubbed off on me! ::)  Every time I've opened the compost bin since I've had visions of the rat leaping out and going for my jugular! :o :o :o  I think it's gone now, I kept ramming a garden fork into the compost and stomping up and down on it and took some of the slats off so the front was more open.  I was hoping to persuade it that it wasn't such a 'Des-Res'.  Touch wood - it seems to have worked. ;D  Maybe the local cat population scared it off,  although it was almost as big as my youngest cat and my other one is blind!  Mind you there's a fine figure of a cat next door that wouldn't have had any bother dealing with it if he'd a mind too! ;)

Luckily I don't recall having read that particular James Herbert book! ;D

Jak

[Palustris]

There is another book about Rats, Rattus Rex by C.A.Mclaren and believe it or not it is a childrens book, rather scary though very well written.