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Mice damage
#21
Our cat moved north with us and despite being 10 regularly parades past the back door with a mouse, vole or rabbit. She doesn't like offal so leaves that for us in a neat pile in the garage. Up here we have largely swapped rabbits for hares, which she hasn't yet found a way to keep up with. She even waits patiently for moles to pop their heads out but seems to find them not to her taste so leaves on the back door mat for us to enjoy.
Meanwhile the A7 has a shallow jar of rat poison and a rat trap with peanut butter under the seat which has caught the odd mouse, probably brought in by the cat and released to play with.
Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think!
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#22
(04-10-2023, 12:22 PM)Dave Mann Wrote: I forgot the rabbits, the reward was a bowl of fish. I forgot we later had a male Burmese cat who was a real killer literally anything was fair game including squirrels who thought they were safe taking to the trees he was faster.

Squirrels…..My nemesis. This year they have routed up tulip bulbs, decapitated magnolias, dug holes all over the lawn but worse of all ….taken every single apple of our eating tree (they don’t seem to like cookers).  I wish a cat was a simple answer but you need a special one to get a squirrel.  I’ve resorted to a catapult which does little but scare them for an hour or two…and it nearly took my thumb off when I misfired it the other day. Grrrr

Cheers

Howard
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#23
Never been a cat lover, always thought they were great destroyers of birds and wild life, this was recently confirmed by an RSPB study which confirmed there are some 11,000,000 domestic cats in the UK and they also estimate they destroy 27,000,000 birds and small mammals each and every year……..
And we wonder why our wild life is disappearing
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#24
So that's less than three birds per year per cat. We don't have a cat, nor do we seem to have any visiting cats in our garden, but we lose two to three birds a day - the culprits are sparrow hawks which invade the garden morning and evening and rarely miss a meal!
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#25
They’re natural predators Mike, unlike domestic cats
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#26
Dennis: I am always suspicious of 'studies' by groups with a specific angle to promote. It isn't at all surprising that the RSPB should 'estimate' (guess??) such a large round number, as it suits their position and arguments and makes a good headline. Anyone who listens to 'More or Less' on Radio 4 will attest, these types of estimates are rarely made on a sound basis.

I have a feeling (perhaps a study by the cat protection league), that the biggest impact on birds, small mammals and in fact all wildlife, is the use of pesticides and the changes in farming processes.

This is acknowledged by the RSPB here:
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildli...n-decline/

Where they say that the decline is caused by changes in agriculture and not a mention of cats.

I remember in the 70s summers a regular job was cleaning the numerous smeared insects from the windscreen which had splattered over it on even short journeys. Now, well I can't remember when I last had a fly hit the screen and splatter. It's these insects that keep small birds alive and if they aren't there, well.

As a beekeeper there are acknowledged scientific studies which show the impact of neonicitinoids of the ability of bees to navigate (they get lost and can't get back home). They were banned across Europe for use in flowering crops as a result. Now, well the farming lobby has made a case to allow their use in beet and voila they are legal again, but only here in the UK, in year 1 as a 'trial' and now expanding.

Meanwhile global warming is allowing the Asian Hornet to migrate ever closer. It has decimated bee populations in France and has now arrived in the UK and bees are completely defenceless against it.

Who needs bees anyway...

So, whilst I agree that even us cat owners try to retrieve the occasional bird that a cat actually manages to catch, they are the least our birds, small mammals and insects need worry about.
Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think!
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#27
A pal of mine uses an ultrasonic rodent repellent which plugs into a normal 13 amp socket…he hasn’t had a problem since he installed it.

Although I too am a cat lover, I have installed an ultrasonic cat repellent in the garden to stop them pooing in the flower beds and the lawn…it has worked a treat so far…
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#28
I find sticky cardboard pads work extremely well baited with chocolate, placed on the car floor.
Some people find pads cruel but mice/rats do a lot of damage.
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