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This is going to appear as a mightily stupid question but I'm going to ask it anyway but first I need to fill you in on the background:-
Back at the end of October last year, I had occasion to see rats around our garden. One scuttled away on a couple of occasions when I opened the old stable door (there's no horses there and stable is a fancy name for a lean-to shed which was once a stable - it ain't that grand). I also found one looking at me when I opened the top of my composter and then, quite unexpectedly one morning when I was sat having my brekkie, a little ratty fellow jumped onto the stone window ledge and smiled in at me.
All sightings took place over a 2 week period so I called the local council ratman. He came out and said that in view of all the wet weather last year, the sewers were flooded and so the rats had moved above ground and that we probably had them in the huge log pile in the old stable. He said there was a country-wide rat problem. He also said that compost heaps are naturally like McDonald's takeaways for rats and so that's nothing surprising. He came armed with a big bucket full of bright blue grain rat poison which I suppose would be a warfarin type poison but I told him he couldn't put it down anywhere where my lovely spanny dog could get it. I allowed him to lay some in the stable and he also scattered some on the top of the compost heap. This had me worried from the outset. The poison disappeared from the stable with remarkable speed but as we have not seen any rats around since, it obviously did the job. But, here's the question:-
WHAT THE HECK DO I DO WITH MY COMPOST NOW? I am no chemist but I was wondering if, as the compost bin is directly onto the ground, the poison will leech out into the ground and therefore the compost can still be used on the garden? Half of my blonde brain says, 'don't be daft - it's poison' and the other half says it should be OK to use on the garden. There's no way I would let it near my veg. My vegetable garden plot is totally organic and I want it to stay that way. I am furious with myself for allowing the ratman to scatter the poison.
Does anyone know if it can still be used? If I need to I will gladly get rid of last year's bin full of compost and start all over again.
While we are at it, does anyone have any tips for getting rid of rats? Just in case they make another appearance.
Thanks. I hope I get a response or 2.
Back at the end of October last year, I had occasion to see rats around our garden. One scuttled away on a couple of occasions when I opened the old stable door (there's no horses there and stable is a fancy name for a lean-to shed which was once a stable - it ain't that grand). I also found one looking at me when I opened the top of my composter and then, quite unexpectedly one morning when I was sat having my brekkie, a little ratty fellow jumped onto the stone window ledge and smiled in at me.
All sightings took place over a 2 week period so I called the local council ratman. He came out and said that in view of all the wet weather last year, the sewers were flooded and so the rats had moved above ground and that we probably had them in the huge log pile in the old stable. He said there was a country-wide rat problem. He also said that compost heaps are naturally like McDonald's takeaways for rats and so that's nothing surprising. He came armed with a big bucket full of bright blue grain rat poison which I suppose would be a warfarin type poison but I told him he couldn't put it down anywhere where my lovely spanny dog could get it. I allowed him to lay some in the stable and he also scattered some on the top of the compost heap. This had me worried from the outset. The poison disappeared from the stable with remarkable speed but as we have not seen any rats around since, it obviously did the job. But, here's the question:-WHAT THE HECK DO I DO WITH MY COMPOST NOW? I am no chemist but I was wondering if, as the compost bin is directly onto the ground, the poison will leech out into the ground and therefore the compost can still be used on the garden? Half of my blonde brain says, 'don't be daft - it's poison' and the other half says it should be OK to use on the garden. There's no way I would let it near my veg. My vegetable garden plot is totally organic and I want it to stay that way. I am furious with myself for allowing the ratman to scatter the poison.
Does anyone know if it can still be used? If I need to I will gladly get rid of last year's bin full of compost and start all over again.
While we are at it, does anyone have any tips for getting rid of rats? Just in case they make another appearance.
Thanks. I hope I get a response or 2.
