Daydream thread continues.....

alfie_1

My rats have started eating a bit of the homemade poison, which is great, I await on tenterhooks to see if it works. If it does, I'll give you the recipe.

be carefull where the "bodies" end up,[ im assuming you collect up the dead ?] as this time of year things like carrion birds,owls etc and other critters could be harmed. if its your "own" concoction im also assuming you do/dont know the time span of death taking place? also cats getting to the bodies ? ive had a cat that was secondry poisened and its not a pretty sight !
i use a poisen when i have a problem but only under the floorboards and i get the stuff that is dam quick and they always go to thier nest to die [house stinks for 48hrs.....not good but necesary] i never put it outdoors now cos of the cat experience.

Lotus-eater

Fair enough asessement, but it's not that sort of "poison", it's not really poison tbh, just makes rodents bodies erm... expand till they explode, as they can't pass gas.
I'm not even sure if it works....

But I'm at my wits end. Apart from getting a professional in who will use really nasty poisons, which I don't want for the exact reasons you bring up, I'm absolutely flummoxed. Every night they tunnel into my greenhouse again, every night I fill in the holes.
Plus, I can't really afford to pay a professional atm.

I don't think a terrier would work here, surely they would just stay in their holes?

Itismehonest

rozeepozee wrote: »

When we were looking round some of the examples of various architects work, we saw an example of a kitchen that stright out of John Lewis would have been £15 to £20K and the local kitchen shop had built it for £5 or £6K, so there are possibilities.

The brand new £10K electric Aga that the owner had had put in was the budget blower!

When we moved here the electricity was prone to power cuts. For instance, every time there was a thunderstorm somewhere in the area (not necessarily overhead) we had a blackout & they could last for hours. In bad weather it could be off for days or even weeks.
It has greatly improved across the years but, given where we are, there is always the possibility of an extremely bad winter which could mean no power. So, when we thought of replacing our old solid fuel Rayburn we looked at all the alternatives. The really stupid thing was that not one of the newer models (Aga or Rayburn etc.) worked without electricity. Even the non-electric ones needed electric to fire the oil/jets.
In the end we had the old one converted to gravity fed oil & it's still happily chugging along. It no longer has to run any radiators because we have a separate boiler (but then we'd have had to have a boiler if we'd changed to an Aga, anyway). It does heat an enormous hot water tank which we had to valve back into a nearby radiator to stop boiling!

Do you know where the rats are coming from, Lotus? They tend to follow set pathways - rat runs.
Our old council rat man seemed to know how to do it without causing ill effects in any of the other animals or birds - we had pigs, goats, chicken, ducks, a donkey & ponies at the time. There were also neighbouring farm cats &, obviously an enormous array of wildlife.

choille

Since it's starting to dry up ....dare I whisper it? I started to segregate the hens yesterday. I've been letting them all free range over the Winter as it was sooooooooo muddy. I clipped the black orps & popped them in their own house & pen. Cheeky Scot's Grey Hamish was nipping over for a sly...........tug? Then Big Black boy was out strutting about outside the caravan - goodness knows how he managed it.
I managed to get him back in the run at darkning by using peanuts....but will have to keep an eye out tomorrow to see how he's climbing up the fencing. They are so smart when it comes to sex..........

COOLTRIKERCHICK

sorry to hear about the other chook LIR... its hard i know, but to be honest over the years i have really hardened up with losing chickens and ducks either to foxes or being fine one minute and dead the next...

Lotus..... so rats dont fart then:rotfl: is your 'secret' poison baked beans? or sprouts?:eek::rotfl:

really hope it works, whatever you are using.... it comes to a point where you really do have to take desperate measures....

well..... good news foor me for a change:T I put in a paypal dispute for the whole amount ( eggs and postage) and the seller of the eggs paid in full:beer:.. I was eggspecting:D some insulting emails, saying it was my fault etc... but nothing, so they must have known there was problems with the fertility of the eggs...

Lets hope this is the start of a run of good luck for us...

Does anyone know when the clocks go forward? as it cant be long now.....

Rozee good looking plans.....

Itismehonest

Sunday 25th for the clocks, CTC

Glad you got your money back

alfie_1

re rats....not sure if it applies to your council but here you are allowed ONE free call out from thier "vermin squad". not sure if it to do with age/benefits but may be worth a phone call.??
just WATCH whoever/if they do it. when i moved here i got a private ratting company in as the house had been derelict for a year and was infested. he was USELESS !! spilling bait all over the place outside as he said the indoor rats had to go outside some when !! i made him pick every bit up. then complained to the co. told em im not paying for such bad work. ive done it myself safely since.

may pay you to track back from thier holes. is there a shed/woodstack/pile of anything they could have thier HQ in...

Itismehonest

alfie_1 wrote: »

re rats....not sure if it applies to your council but here you are allowed ONE free call out from thier "vermin squad". not sure if it to do with age/benefits but may be worth a phone call.??
just WATCH whoever/if they do it. when i moved here i got a private ratting company in as the house had been derelict for a year and was infested. he was USELESS !! spilling bait all over the place outside as he said the indoor rats had to go outside some when !! i made him pick every bit up. then complained to the co. told em im not paying for such bad work. ive done it myself safely since.

may pay you to track back from thier holes. is there a shed/woodstack/pile of anything they could have thier HQ in...

Just what I was thinking when I asked if CTC knew where the run was, alfie.
Apparently unlike mice, rats also need to be able to get at a good water supply. Sometimes it isn't food they're coming after, it's a drink

alfie_1

if you can find the HQ and put the poisen corn type in the centre, 99% sure they will die in the HQ

Lotus-eater

Well apparently it's this.

An alternative home made poison recipe for rodents is as follows:

• 1 cup of flour
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of baking soda (Bicarbonate of soda).

They die because they can't release the gas and it explodes their stomach, or constricts the lungs, depending who you believe.

They are now immune to the poison I was putting out, which has worked for the last few years.

There is a brook at the bottom of the garden and they burrow into the banks there and I have a "wildlife" area which has a huge woody compost pile, where they certainly may live. Blimey, they may live in many areas of my garden, it's none too tidy..... and I like it like that tbh. Water is no problem, due to the brook.

Next doors garden is perfect and they feed the birds alot.... alot, so they probably feed there and live in mine.

I've had a look due to alfie's moanings and it appears that my local council does rats for free, (I'm sure that's changed recently) not sure if that is just in the house or not. They do have a habit of changing things when you ring them up


Two days.......... I give it two days, then I'm ringing the council, to see what they say.