To leave chocolate outside overnight

[ForeverBubblegum]

DS is 3 so this is the first year I've done a proper egg hunt. I've just been out hiding 20 (small) chocolate eggs in the garden. Then on the way in I had the thought that I might attract rats or something by leaving food out.

Do I need to get them back in and re-hide first thing tomorrow?

I thought this thread was going to be about some weird suggestions to improve chocolate's flavour that I'd not heard about before.

If a fox eats them it will probably die.

We left our our out one year and woke up to a squirrel sitting on the lawn munching on a pink, foil wrapped Easter egg. When we went out to the hunt, all that was left were bits of coloured foil strewn across the garden We learnt our lesson that year!

I told my DC that the Easter bunny doesn’t work at night, so they’ll have to wait till after lunch.

I’m not putting them out overnight in case they attract rats or other wildlife.

I wouldn't leave them out overnight because of wildlife. We actually had our egg hunt this evening after dinner because last year it was very hot on Easter Sunday, and the eggs had melted before the kids had found them all. My son wasn't impressed 🙄 . Something to bear in mind as I think the forecast for tomorrow is 26 degrees; do it early.

spiders will definitely be dragging their willy’s along them

yes, they’re right dirty bastards spiders are!

I’m relieved you’ve retrieved them OP. It might not have been just an egg hunt but a dead rodent, fox and cat hunt too.

Take them in, they'll get chewed on and/or smushed if a cat or fox rolls all over them.

We have always put ours outside the night before and have had no problems in about 14 years! All foil wrapped though.

I always hide mine in the house (which I know isn't traditional) and it's much easier. I wouldn't put them in the garden as there are cats, mice and foxes round here. So I wouldn't even be happy doing it in the morning. I'd also be worried about them melting outside.

One sunny Easter morning, one of my daughter's eggs (the big one) melted in the sun. So don't go hiding them much before the hunt. This was reasonably early in the morning, too. I was amazed that it could happen at that time of day.

(P. S. max temperature by 10am tomorrow is 18°C)

The birds ate ours one year, another year they melted in the heat. I'll do mine in the morning this year.

We did our Easter egg hunt today as have a dc birthday tomorrow and want to differenciate between Easter and their birthday.

I put the eggs out whilst husband distracted them indoors. A couple of the ones I put on trees were covered in ants by the time we got to them. They hadn't got through the wrapping but they'd obviously sensed the (ridiculously high) sugar content. I imagine if left overnight ants would chew through the foil and get in.

And yes foxes and rodents as well, probably leading to death or illness as they'd eat the foil as well.

Don't let a three year old outside at 6 in the morning, your neighbours will hate you. If there's two of you then one can do breakfast and so on while the other hides the eggs.

? We always leave them overnight and they are fine. Nothing eats them. They're wrapped up, after all.

Lol Mumsnet is always so strange and funny.

I not only forget where I hid them, sometimes I forget how many I have hidden so we don't know when to stop looking!

Put them out tomorrow morning. And you don't need to have them hidden before your son wakes up. Unless you have foolishly told him that he can hunt BEFORE breakfast.

Definitely can’t leave chocolate out overnight and then eat it

20 chocolate eggs? For one 3 year old. And we wonder why kids are fat...

We put the chocolate eggs inside plastic eggs. I go and scatter them in the garden whilst DP distracts our four year old with something in the house. I tell him Mummy is just going to get something from the garage and come back in with a plant pot or something. We tell DC there are ten eggs and off he goes with his basket.

We have small plastic eggs, that I put foil wrapped chocolates in. I left those out last night and they were fine. Apart from the one we can't find.......

For everyone saying 'you do know it's going to be X degrees tomorrow', it totally depends where you live?! Max temp forecast here is 13 degrees...

Mice love chocolate!

A rogue mouse came into our house the other night and ate through 4 eggs we'd hidden in the wardrobes! I kid you not!! Little holes nibbled through the cardboard and foil. I never knew they liked chocolate so much and still can't work out why it trotted in our house through the open back door, up the stairs and into the wardrobe!