Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

in being angry with dh for killing and poisoning?

59 replies

Spidermama · 03/05/2007 22:10

I found a dead rat curled up in the compost bin. When I told DH about it he admitted that he knew there were rats down there so he put poison down the hole he found under the compost bin to kill them.

I'm upset, but he's angry that I'm upset. You see he reckons I should be pleased and grateful that the big hunter/warrior (him) has protected me and the kids from the terrifying invader (rats). However now there's a rat's body in the compost and who knows how many more in their hole.

He says he'll dig them out and sort out the bottom of the compost bin so no more holes can be dug in it but my point is, why didn't he do this to begin with? Then they'd have gone away because their food supply was cut off, surely.

Now we have poison in our garden and compost as well as dead rats.

So. AIBU? Or what?

OP posts:
Original poster
Spidermama · 03/05/2007 22:34

Oh fuck edam, I'm so sorry.

OP posts:
MrsApron · 03/05/2007 22:36

Oh yeuck Spidey. Is this what you were fuming about earlier in the week?

What a waste of effort re organic compost.

I would be pretty narked about the compost, v narked about the poison (child risk).

The poisoning was the lazy way to deal with it for him.

I think I would be most narked because he did it even though he knew you wouldn't want this as a solution, he is trying to dress it up as him being nice. When in fact he did it to be lazy knowing what your choice of solution would be.

whomovedmychocolate · 03/05/2007 22:40

Edam, sorry to hear about your cat. I'm sure s/he had a wonderful life with you though.

rowan1971 · 03/05/2007 22:40

Agree with the Apron. Have no strong feelings about rats' rights myself, but if he only did it this way to avoid a row he was being unreasonable.

Original poster
Spidermama · 03/05/2007 22:41

MrsA I was narked about other stuff earlier in the week. This is one in a string of recent 'crimes' of his. We're not getting on all that well atm.

OP posts:
Blu · 03/05/2007 22:41

The Rats of Brixton.
Wasn't that a song, by the Clash?

I take your point about the organic compost and possible pet danger.

The council had a big poison offensive against the huge plague of rats by the pond in Brockwell park and loads of crows and a couple of small dogs got poisoned

Original poster
Spidermama · 03/05/2007 22:41

PMSL @ 'rats rights'.

OP posts:
mateychops · 03/05/2007 22:43

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, so what do we do about the rat shit in the organic compost?

MrsApron · 03/05/2007 22:47

Sorry to hear that you are not getting on Spidey. How is everything else? I keep checking in on the mother thread but cannot bring myself to post just now because I have too much on to have a setback just now.

Original poster
Spidermama · 03/05/2007 22:48

I would wager a bit of rat poo decomposing is better for you than an liberal scattering of highly toxic material.

I'm not expert though. But matey you should have seen it's ickle fluffy face all curled up and dead. Now what brute could do such a thing?

OP posts:
mateychops · 03/05/2007 22:49

ME!

mateychops · 03/05/2007 22:50

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

handlemecarefully · 03/05/2007 22:51

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

Original poster
Spidermama · 03/05/2007 22:52

What mother thread MrsA? You mean the oldie starring greensleeves and lots of others working through mother stuff?

My mum's coming to visit on Sunday. Our relationship is, erm, quietly raw at the moment so it should be interesting. < Gulp! >

I've got loads of stuff on at the moment too and I keep thinking I'll post about some of it then finding it's all too big and complicated.

I'm planning to go to a festival at the end of the month with my dd and my baby so that's keeping me going.

OP posts:
Londonmamma · 03/05/2007 22:52

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

rowan1971 · 03/05/2007 22:52

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.

Londonmamma · 03/05/2007 22:53

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

Original poster
Spidermama · 03/05/2007 22:53

Good God HMC!

I remember my friend saw a rat on her sleeping son's pillow when she was in her flat in Kennington.

But my compost bin is a long way from the house so I don't feel particularly threatened at that distance.

OP posts:
Original poster
Spidermama · 03/05/2007 22:56

Lol yes rowan. He does seem to get a bit flooded with testosterone when we're not getting on. Also he has been working with Sky TV football type people for the past month and it has rubbed off a little.

Now he is back to doing proper art this month so perhaps he'll re-balance a little.

OP posts:
handlemecarefully · 03/05/2007 22:57

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....

MrsApron · 03/05/2007 22:57

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.

Londonmamma · 03/05/2007 22:57

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!

Blu · 03/05/2007 23:02

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.....

Original poster
Spidermama · 03/05/2007 23:05

No invisible shield but am trying to be transparent. Failing though.

I haven't done any confronting and I don't know if I ever will. I did with my dad a while back and I'm still not sure it was the right thing to do.

Anyway I digress. LondonM that's the whole point I'm NOT dealing with rats and what's more I'm critisising my husband for dealing with them.

Oh well, I think I'll sleep on this one.

Night.

OP posts:
edam · 03/05/2007 23:08

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).