horrific discovery in my compost bin....

[ScarletA]

Yesterday I went out to the composter with a bunch of kitchen waste and lifted the lid. On top of everything lay the mutilated corpse of a mouse. I stared at it for ages thinking how on earth did it get there and die like that (brains chewed out), knowing it couldn't have been the cat (unless she can lift the lid of the composter). Then I heard a rustle. A very LOUD rustle coming from underneath the kitchen scraps and dead clematis cuttings. The kind of LOUD rustle that had to be made by something rather LARGE.

Could this possibly be a .... rat? Or worse still, rats?? I never ever put in anything cooked or of animal origin in my compost bin but there was a large hole nibbled in a rotten avocado I'd chucked and rats are omnivorous... Rats also killed my pet mice when I was a child (and they were temporarily housed in a neighbours shed) by eating their brains out.

What can or should I do? Is this just nature red in tooth and claw and will they do no harm (apart from eat the avocados) to my compost? We have a voracious mouse hunter for a cat - should I leave the lid off the composter and put her in it? And will the compost suffer if it gets all cold?

Practicalities aside, all I am thinking really is EEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKK!

hmmm yes, I now have lots of rat poison induced poo in mine now. Was planning on leaving it a year or so in hope it would be ok to use......

HMC, this was asked a few weeks ago (not by you, was it?) I found a link which said it was safe. No time to find it again I am afraid.

HMC - I think it would be fine. I mean I am not keen on the amount of cat poo in my veg patch either, and know the risks of toxoplasmosis, but I wouldn't think it would effect the veg from the patch, just make me be extra careful when digging it.

OP back here - jeez, thanks ladies for all your input. Stirred up a rats nest with this thread (pun intended).

The best advice I saw was bliblio I think - leaving the lid off and dousing it with cold water. I actually did this before reading her post - just so that the cat could have a sniff round (she was not keen, there being rather a large amount of orange peel in there) and I left the lid off until this morning. It has rained and sleeted and snowed so must be pretty unpleasant in there now.

Slightly worried about weil's disease though. Don't have a veg patch so I suppose unless I will be eating my daffs using the compost will be OK? [asks hopefully]

And I'm with some of you on the rat thing - my brother had a pet rat when we were kids and of all the rodent pets we had (hamsters, guinea pigs, gerbils, mice etc) the rat was by far the best. She was mostly free range and would come to you if you scratched the floor with your fingers. She would also sit at the kitchen table and share our dinners. Delilah was very clean and very sweet and we all cried when she died at the grand old age of 3.

Was never particularly keen on her tail though.

With the majority on the kick bin before opening line.
Has anyone had a rat eat eradirat?, "ours" won't touch it, and the biggest one living in the side of the nearest (and it's near) ditch is as big as our cat [urgh]
Kerrysmum, please don't tip your grass clippings into the nearest field - semi fermented grass clippings will kill horses and sheep.

ok no rats, but we DID have a wasps nest in it last summer. exterminator came and pumped it full of strange white stuff which did for the wasps but now have no idea whether the reesulting compost (which, by some miracle, has actually for the first time in my life actually turned into compost rather than filthy slime) is usable or full of strange wasp poisons that will kill my plants? not sure how well dead wasps compost either come to think of it...

Jack Russells may do the trick but do not in any way depend on a 13 year old springer spaniel who will develop a new lease of life as he comes bounding up to your kitchen door. With a live one. In his nice soft mouth.

We had rodents in ours for a while....it is re-sited at our allotment now!!