what is coming into our garden at night?

[vannah]

Recently moved into a new house, the garden is large but very 'enclosed' and private, with hedges all around. On the first morning we woke up to find a plastic bag containing bright blue rat poison torn and left on our lawn. We were shocked, worried as we have 2 very little dc.
Now a few weeks later we found two bags today, again torn and left in EXACTLY the same spot. One bag was empty the other contained animal feed, the sort you would use at a farm.

I dont think the neighbours have pets. Is this a fox, squirrel or rat? Also found some loose blackish pile of poo a few weeks ago on the paving.

any ideas? thankyou...

[thisisyesterday]

poo sounds a bit foxy to me

[fishie]

fox behaviour. unless it is really small poo ie might have come from a rat or squirrel's bottom.

[McDreamy]

Badger? We are having badger problems at the moment - they have dug up our front lawn and the neighbours - apparently looking for worms!

[vannah]

gosh, never considered badgers/hedgehogs. The poo was about was about the amount a dog would do, but no shape - just a soft round mound. Yuk, feel sick...

[pushmepullyou]

Like a Mr Whippy icecream? In that case probably a badger. Fox poo is solid and twisty at the end an hedgehog poo is smaller and also solid and twisty.

Badgers will rip up anything!

[TokenFemale]

you know a lot about poo pushmepullyou

[vannah]

thankyou pushmepullyou...dont know what to think/do...

[thehairybabysmum]

where are the bags of poison coming from?? Rodenticides are (obviously) v. toxic and they should be stored somewhere inaccessable (by law). If a badger/fox can access a bag of poison so can a child!! If you know the source i would suggesta call to the Health an Safety Executive and defra.

[vannah]

thanks thbm, I wish I knew where on earth the poison came from - I was horrified - what if my toddler had got to it before me?
How can I find out? too embarrassed to knock on the new neighbours door and ask if they keep rat poison about there garden shed..

[abroadandmisunderstood]

can I jump in for a second? Something is digging almost 3 inch deep holes all over the lawn at night. Poo is hard and long. Hedgehogs have been seen around at dusk before. Do they dig like this?

[thehairybabysmum]

i would ask the neighbours,nicely. Totally reasonable to say you are concerned for your child. Do you know hte neighbours...helps if they're nice i guess.

[MollieO]

Ime fox poo looks similar to dog poo and is incredibly smellie. If I had bags of rat poison deposited on my lawn I would be knocking on neighbours' doors whether I knew them or not. Very dangerous if you have young children (rat poison, not knocking on neighbours' doors!).

[morningpaper]

God, I would put CCTV cameras up and alert the police

Sounds like a neighbour is throwing the stuff over a fence?

[vannah]

thankyou! neighbours on one side, very friendly. The other side, quite hostile - tried on 2 occasions to be warm but when I finally saw one of the family members, she was quite unfriendly..
morningpaper, thats exactly what I thought when i first saw the poison, but then i saw the bag was ripped and assumed an animal had dragged it there. Certainly seems so, now that another bag with feed ended up in the same spot..

[thehairybabysmum]

have alook here

i would ring this no.
Health and Safety Executive
(HSE) Infoline: 08701 545500; Website:
www.hse.gov.uk)

i would also ring the council and speak to the environmental health officer.

[morningpaper]

hmm it doesn't seem likely that an animal is taking a snack-bag of poison, ripping it open on your lawn and snacking on it regularly, does it?

Are your neighbours psychos who want to poison your children?

[GiraffesAndDucksSayQuack]

Iggle piggle is often in the garden at night I heard

[morningpaper]

Is he trying to kill himself?

He DOES suffer quite badly from isshoos

[vannah]

thanks for the link thbm and esp the no..
morningpaper im going to have nightmares tonight..

[NormaJeanAteMyHamster]

Badgers are apparently having a hard time at the moment because there hasn't been much rain recently and so worms in short supply. I am tempted to feed them but don't want to encourage foxes. Apparently Badgers king of the heap though so if they get to food first foxes will leave alone until they've finished and poor little hedgehogs won't go near it if they smell badgers!