Nice People 12: Nice in Nice

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

I know this sounds lame - but I am not the sort of person with enough backbone to be dealing with boxes myself.... I don't mind lobbing slugs of poison randomly round the shed/base - the sort where they allegedly carry it off to their nest and die .... but I am not a box sort of person.

Here I've got a black plastic box about the size of a 6 pack of Coke .... it's got a small hole in one end... didn't see it, haven't been near it - just peered, nervously, at it from a distance....[/QUOTE

Oh, big box! They aren't traps but poison boxes, the rats aren't going to be in there.

I have smaller boxes, but lots of them. .


They really are easy. You have a little key, like a radiator key and you open them and put blocks of poison in, a bit like theses blocks of loo stuff that can go in cisterns, then lock again. .

These, according to rats are DElicious. The only key thing is to try and get them back in the same place, rats dislike change, suspicious little critters. And the boxes are best near edges.


Please, please don't lob poison down. Its appetising to all sorts of things I understand. Good and nice things too. If something carries it some way , through the new dogs garden, for example, or a garden with a child in it, and drops it.......its not great news.

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

So the boxes ... do what? They crawl in, have a nibble, then run off and die? So there'd never be a dead one in a box? Why the key - I mean, if nobody will ever be at the box except me and a furry, would I need a key? I am thinking "without a key, I could use a long stick to open the lid, then lob the poison in from a distance"

I did read they don't like change - so I was thinking, in the long-term, of incorporating stuff round the shed (back/inaccessible side) that I could move about easily (long stick, or things on (say) skateboards with a bit of string.... move stuff about every 2-3 days.

Although as for not liking change... the furries only appeared once I cut the s0ddin bush back!

The key so that children or more gifted critters cannot get in. If the rats spread it about there might be accidents like above.

Yes, they squeeze in, have a munch in situ, then when bored ( or full, or thirsty wander off and die. The blocks need to be in the right place, its a basic but compact design really. Could you just keep a pair of gloves for the purpose? Is it the poison or the furry potential or finding something dead that's scary?

Alternative of course is to just have rat lady out if / when you see them again which is not at all an unreasonable solution.

GDB2222

GDB2222 wrote: »

My impression was that the entire NDG family was like that. In awe of the lot of you!

I had a list of three jobs to do.
Defrost the freezer.
Put up the succah.
Mow the lawn.

This was two weeks ago, and I've done the indoor job. The freezer. In the meantime, everything outside is thoroughly wet. The lawn is a foot high and unmowable.

It's not made any better knowing that your dad has probably mowed 400 acres in that time.

Lawn is done. Twice. Once on the longest setting, and again on a medium setting. I have done the two mows at right angles to each other. Otherwise, if you do them both in the same direction, it's hard to work out on the second mow which bits have already been done.

Put up the succah next. But next what? Next hour, next day, next year?

lostinrates

GDB2222 wrote: »

Lawn is done. Twice. Once on the longest setting, and again on a medium setting. I have done the two mows at right angles to each other. Otherwise, if you do them both in the same direction, it's hard to work out on the second mow which bits have already been done.

Put up the succah next. But next what? Next hour, next day, next year?

When I do it twice I some times do the first cut in a bit of a crazy random swirly thing.

I admire your restraint

GDB2222

lostinrates wrote: »

When I do it twice I some times do the first cut in a bit of a crazy random swirly thing.

I admire your restraint

You and fir have far, far more energy than me. It took me ages just to cut it straight, let alone swirly.

My compost heap has grown considerably today. I was going to cut the lawn diagonally. The idea being that I would always end up near the compost heap, which is in a corner of the garden. But too complicated with the electricity lead and the garden benches.

GDB2222

I fancy a Winnie the Pooh rat trap. It has a small entrance, plus an enormous amount of honey inside. (Bears like honey, and I assume that rats do, too.) Anyway, the rats squeeze in through the door, and gorge on the honey. Then they are too big to get back out again. You take the trap complete with rat down to the river bank, well away from PN's house, and leave it there. Eventually, the rat slims down enough to escape, once it has finished all the honey.

lostinrates

GDB2222 wrote: »

You and fir have far, far more energy than me. It took me ages just to cut it straight, let alone swirly.

My compost heap has grown considerably today. I was going to cut the lawn diagonally. The idea being that I would always end up near the compost heap, which is in a corner of the garden. But too complicated with the electricity lead and the garden benches.

Lawn is my domain, and a have the motability lawn mower.....speaking of which, I might do it again tomorrow.

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

... a bit of a crazy random swirly thing.

I do that. Get the lawnmower out, start it near an edge, then randomly walk at pieces of grass that catch my eye as "the biggest bit" or, "a bit you missed".... at some, random, point, I'll attack a specific edge .... then I'll park the mower and walk off. Go back 10 minutes later and you can spot other bits you missed, so I do those. All very random, in every direction..... job done, take cuttings to the tip and put mower in shed

PasturesNew

GDB2222 wrote: »

My compost heap has grown considerably today.

Watch that... you'll get furries

silvercar

GDB2222 wrote: »

Put up the succah next. But next what? Next hour, next day, next year?

Next year,....after Yom Kippur.