in being angry with dh for killing and poisoning?

Ah, I love it there. We live about 45 mins away so dh and I are seriously considering getting a season ticket this - it's such a lovely day out.

I think that rat shit is better for compost than warfarin anyday. Having said that we have 2 pet rats and they are lovely. So I find it sad to think of any rats being killed and may not be an impartial judge.

I'd promise my dh a lifetime of sexual favours if he killed a Rat himself.

We had one earlier this year and the destruction it caused was unreal.
When the Rat man came out he failed to tell us that the poison actually makes them really thristy so the bloody thing bit through plasterboard into our kitchen and chewed its way through the dishwasher water pipe and the cable and flooded the kitchen

Rats are evil dirt vermin and must be destroyed!

But wouldn't rat or any other kind of crap add to the organicness(?!) of the compost! It's all natural baby! I personally loathe them but I'll admit rats probably get a bad press.

Right, I'd forget being narked at dh, and think practicalities (I don't know what was in my brekkie this morning - I'm proactive girl today for some reason!).

You need to find out how much poison he used, how much is likely to be on the compost, how much may be in other parts of the garden and how all this might affect pets, organic loveliness, oh, and the children! I doubt it will cause a serious problem to be honest.

IME the Centre for Alernative Technology in Machynlleth, mid Wales are the Gods of all things composty, but there must be tonnes of other advice out there (just tested that link and there's a 'compost doctor' on the front page!!). I remember something about how to avoid attracting rats to your compost heap - no cooked food was a biggie I think. But there are child and pet (but not rat!) friendly ways of catching rats as well - there are a couple in the yard of dd's nursery.

edam mentioned the National Poisons Unit - try them if you're still worried about health matters. My brother and I were rushed to hospital when we were little, I think I was about 4 and he was 6, as we'd eaten some grain that my dad thought may have rat poison on it (it was in the back of his pickup - he was a farmer at the time). I was given medicine to throw up as I'd only eaten a grain or two, but my bro had his stomach pumped as he'd eaten about a handful! I think they were just making sure.

Hope this helps. Feckin' hate rats! Eurgh, it's the tails! There should be a [shudder] emoticon thingy.

now i can't get UB40 outof my head (there's a rat in me compost...etc

I don't know whether you're being nreasonable...
I'd hate to have to deal with the rat issue myself.
I'd be narked about the compost but, as someone else sad, would already be tained with rat excretions.
I'd be secretly thrilled if dh had tried to be a mighty hunter and protector (let's just say it doesn't come easily to mine )
But I also get the feeling that whatever he did would have been wrong, because you're having a sticky patch.

Ewww, I'd have thanked my husband for doing this, rats are vermin.

We had one once and it gnawed a HUGE bit of the kitchen door off trying to get in there. Vile.

We had a tupperware pot eaten overnight and teabags shredded so we went out and got a mouse trap. Heard a horrid 'snap' in the night and next morning braved coming downstairs and found a mouse with very big ears in the trap.

Later found out it was a rat

Where are the bleeding cats when this happens? Curled up in their lovely warm beds that's where

Sorry Spider, was just caught a bit on the raw. Am sure it will be fine, what self-respecting moggy would eat a dead rat, anyway? Cats are hunters, not scavengers. But do read dh the riot act about having warfarin around the kids without telling you - it can kill humans (used as clot-thinning drug, if you haven't got clots it can make you haemorrhage. That's how it kills rats).

Rowan - fear not - I hahve not seen a rat in Brockwell Park for about 3 years - and anyway they were at the bottom of the hill - we are meeting at the top.
And it wouldn't be the full Brixton / Brockwell Park experience without a hint of potential rat menace.....

Spider - how come you have so many rats around you??? On the pillow???? I would have died and gone to heaven by now had I had as much contact with rats as you and your friends have! Thank God you're woman enough to deal with them!

That is the thread indeed. Hope your invisible sheild is up and full strength.

My mother avoided me for ages recently followed by me being so infuriated I lost the head and said "things that should not be spoken of".

ALl a bit inconclusive really not sure if I feel any better long term it just took me off the boil.

The festival sounds good though bit of chilling hopefully.

That was completely my nightmare scenario Spidermama - the thoughts of them getting into the childrens bedrooms!

A friend's pup died from leptospirosis contracted from rats last summer.....they are not my favourite small furry mammal....

'ppot' because I feel so strongly about this !!

Blu - rats! In Brockwell Park! For our meet-up!

Spider - maybe the me-big-man-you-rodent attitude goes hand-in-hand with the not-getting-on? I know my DP goes a bit Tarzan when we're rowing. Or he tries to, bless him. He's a lot smaller than me.

Oh Spider! Don't let your relationship go to ppot over some bloody rats, PLEASE !!!

Totally.

Try having rats moving around in the loft above your head whilst you try to sleep, and hear them scuttling through the cavity walls and gnawing on God knows what electrical cables...and then see if you still feel the same way

(Spidermama, must confess, have had horrible experience of rat, and therefore am totally irrational about them.)

ME!