Mice & Air Bricks

[Peter Ashby]

Not me, I kill mice as humanely as possible. I have no use for a trebuchet.

Peter

[Mary Fisher]

Nor me. We're 100% non combatant. But we do know a bit about them ... both trebuchets and mice :-)

My point was that you don't get anything from tv free.

Little Nippers for mice and rats. We're still using those we bought forty odd years ago - they were very cheap then but would have been an excellent investment at almost any price.

Mary

[sylva]

1958 small ground vermin order

I had a quick look, it lists coypu as being established in the wild, in fact I think they are not now.

Terms such as "indigenous", "native", "wild animals" and "animals which are established in the wild" seem to be used with no good definition. We normally use the word "feral" to describe animals that have either escaped or established themselves in the wild from domestic stock.

Interestingly only the black rat is listed as not to be released, presumably because it only arrived in medieval times, the rabbit and brown rat are not in the list, supposed resident/indigenous?

The barn owl surprises me also, as it is also in the list of birds which it is illegal to kill, injure or take eggs, yet the other listed creatures can be taken (with due regard to season).

AJH

[Peter Ramm]

I'm pretty sure there was a Big Nipper specifically for rats ;-)

[Mary Fisher]

We have one - but I admit that I haven't read it for some time :-)

Mary

[Rob Morley]

Rabbits probably arrived with the Normans - "bunny" is Anglo-Saxon for squirrel :-)

[Mary Fisher]

They were brought in deliberately, for meat.

Mary

[Rob Morley]

I know, but I though maybe there were a few here before then. Having said that, start with a few rabbits and it's not long before you have many rabbits :-)

[sylva]

Yes or maybe a bit before, we have several areas near here set aside as warrens.

I knew there was something strange about the derivation of the word bunny but assumed it was a corruption of coney. Rabbit was a young con(e)y in the middle ages.

The point being that there seems to be a cut off date in the legislation as to when an animal is considered indigenous and may be released back to the wild.

AJH

[Mary Fisher]

So by your own words there can't have been 'a few' before they were imported :-)

Mary

[Rob Morley]

It was something I thought I knew, but now I'm not so sure as I tried to find the original source of this information and couldn't. :-(

Magna Carta? :-)

[Mary Fisher]

At first I thought you meant rabbits, now I understand. Nice one!

Mary