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A list of things you might have looked over

Barbara said:
l don't use slug pellets either but l couldn't understand why my seedlings were disappearing overnight despite barriers, copper tape, me drowning slugs in salty water and any number of other slug deterrents. Then l realised it was the mice who round here eat anything they can find. (cardboard boxes, paint labels - how will l know what colour is in the tins? They loved the horticultural fleece and even got into the cupboard and chewed my toilet rolls!) The cat is quite a good mouser but there are too many of them for him to have much influence but now l realise why he was leaving the bodies in the greenhouse for me. This year l need mouse deterrents aswell.
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Owls are probably your best cure, or some more cats.
 
We also have ferrets, not for rabbiting but we let them have free run in the large shed where we store the animal food. Never seen any sign of mice or rats in there. And yes, if one cat cant keep up, get two :)
 
Vinegar,or a knowledge of making vinegar. For those pickled eggs Ha ha!
 
Barbara said:
l don't use slug pellets either but l couldn't understand why my seedlings were disappearing overnight despite barriers, copper tape, me drowning slugs in salty water and any number of other slug deterrents. Then l realised it was the mice who round here eat anything they can find. (cardboard boxes, paint labels - how will l know what colour is in the tins? They loved the horticultural fleece and even got into the cupboard and chewed my toilet rolls!) The cat is quite a good mouser but there are too many of them for him to have much influence but now l realise why he was leaving the bodies in the greenhouse for me. This year l need mouse deterrents aswell.
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I remember reading many years ago, when I was still living in England, that gamekeepers had been waging a war on Hawks & other raptors in an effort to protect pheasant eggs & chicks. This though resulted in an increase in rats & mice, the rats turned out to be more of a pest in regards to the eggs & chicks than the raptors were! You just can't mess with nature without upsetting the balance.
Keith.
 
ystranc said:
Owls are probably your best cure, or some more cats.
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Keith said:
I remember reading many years ago, when I was still living in England, that gamekeepers had been waging a war on Hawks & other raptors in an effort to protect pheasant eggs & chicks. This though resulted in an increase in rats & mice, the rats turned out to be more of a pest in regards to the eggs & chicks than the raptors were! You just can't mess with nature without upsetting the balance.
Keith.
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We have resident barn and tawny owls who l know catch some mice and voles as the barn owls leave them lying around the outbuilding where the nest is. Keith, you are right about nature's balance and l don't intend wiping all the mice out. l just wish all the critters (mice, slugs, rabbits) would leave me SOME plants and not eat all of them. Maybe just a few well placed traps until my seedlings are big enough will solve the problem.
You just have to look at the introduction of rabbits to Australia to see what a problem you can create if things get out of hand.
 
Hedgehogs and toads in a garden will dent the slug population but it's also important to remove damaged or rotting vegetation from the area where the seedlings are. Damaged or dead vegetation is slugs second favourite food, their favourite being dead slug. If you don't believe me just go out and kill one or two, then go back 15-20 minutes later and it's like a slimy little feeding frenzy around the corpse.
The best method I've ever seen was a chicken moat. It involves a double fence around the vegetable garden with a three or four foot wide gap between them confining the chickens (away from your veg). Insects, gastropods and small rodents don't stand much of a chance of getting past a horde of greedy chickens.
 
Keith said:
That is the whole idea & reason for gun control isn't it? To make sure that citizens can't fight back?


Keith.
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I thought it was more that someone thought that it would be a good idea to at least know how many legally held firearms there are and to put some onus on owners to ensure a. They were fit to own them and b. To look after them and ensure they remain legally not illegally held!

38
 
38thfoot said:
I thought it was more that someone thought that it would be a good idea to at least know how many legally held firearms there are and to put some onus on owners to ensure a. They were fit to own them and b. To look after them and ensure they remain legally not illegally held!

38
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Well......no, it all started with queen Elizabeth the first, firearms were not allowed in range of the monarch to prevent attempts on her life, after that firearms were pretty much left alone until the end of the Great War when the powers that be feared an armed uprising and so introduced further controls. (Until that point in time anyone who could afford one could carry one). All subsequent firearms legislation has come about in reaction to a criminal act or mass shooting involving firearms, now since Baron Swansea stood up in the House of Lords and said that "you can't legislate for nutters" it is a fact that most of the legislation subsequent to 1919 has been passed in order to circumscribe legal ownership, not to prevent mass shootings or crime.
 
Well yes, it was initially to prevent armed uprising which is similar though nor exactly the same. It's just the beginning of our decent back into serfdom.
 
After the Great War,there were many returning soldiers,trained killers essentially. They went to war from poverty quite often,and returned to it.Folks think of the 1930s when you talk about economic depression,but there was a terrible recession and mass unemployment in Britain during the 1920s.After the 1917 Russian Revolution, the UK gvt really feared a workers uprising here.

Back then,as ystranc says,you could get a gun anywhere. You could buy a cheap revolver and ammo from an ironmonger!This simple sale was banned on the grounds that too many returning soldiers were committing suicide!

OTOH,it was not til the late 60s you had to have a ticket for a shotgun!
 
Barbara said:
We have resident barn and tawny owls who l know catch some mice and voles as the barn owls leave them lying around the outbuilding where the nest is. Keith, you are right about nature's balance and l don't intend wiping all the mice out. l just wish all the critters (mice, slugs, rabbits) would leave me SOME plants and not eat all of them. Maybe just a few well placed traps until my seedlings are big enough will solve the problem.
You just have to look at the introduction of rabbits to Australia to see what a problem you can create if things get out of hand.
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Mice can be a real problem, we need more predatory animals the keep the numbers down. Fine here, we have hawks, & snakes.
Keith.
 
On the subject of both the dog and weapons after SHTF.

Dog whistle- i think it has merit too, but in a diffrent way to others.I think someone mentioned it may attract every dog in range, i think thats a good idea.You maybe able to use these if you can corral them in to staying in your area as a deterant and an alarm against unwanted guests( throw them scraps to keep them fed and the strongest survive).

Weapons- Some of you hear are lucky enough to have the rifles or shotguns and the licences that are needed to own these, you also seem worried that once SHTF they maybe someone knocking your door to take them off you.I think this is very unlikly as the riots few years back shown when the SHTF for real it will be fast and viscous, no one will have time to come a knocking and the police and army will be to busy looking after there own to think of turning up to work.
 
Barbara said:
We have resident barn and tawny owls who l know catch some mice and voles as the barn owls leave them lying around the outbuilding where the nest is. Keith, you are right about nature's balance and l don't intend wiping all the mice out. l just wish all the critters (mice, slugs, rabbits) would leave me SOME plants and not eat all of them. Maybe just a few well placed traps until my seedlings are big enough will solve the problem.
You just have to look at the introduction of rabbits to Australia to see what a problem you can create if things get out of hand.
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The best weapon against slugs is a trowel. I chop them in two. One summer I went out every night and chopped as many as I could find, I got at least 70 a night for over a month. It slowed them down a bit :D
 
i was reading other day if you put a barrier around your planting ot raised beds of copper coins the slugs wont pass over these and thus leave veggies alone.
 
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