Country File

[fsn]

due to irrational hatered of endangered carnivours 

Not irrational.


They joys of country life Phil.  

Is there anything you can (legally) do with a polecat? Can it be trapped and relocated (say to Birkenhead)? Surely it must be a menace?
 

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Relocate it to Birkenhead and the locals will eat it.

[Orcs]

Right.....The next polecat I see 'bimbling' across the road.....I'm going to flatten it with the Technomobile.

The story so far.......

At three o'clock this morning, I was woken by some VERY strange sounds outside...(didn't sound quite like a fox, 'calling'..but it was very weird)....So much so, that I thought I must have been dreaming.....Back to sleep.

This morning....Out to do my usual early checks on the 'outside beasts'....Feed the little barn cat....Check the two gees, in the big barn.....Hmmmm. :-
There are a lot of chicken feathers outside the chicken 'pen'....(Thinks...I'll tell Von, when she wakes up.)

Von gets up.....Two chickens missing....and a trail of feathers.
Now....There's absolutely NO WAY a fox could...a).....get into the pen....and b)....get out again.

Whether a polecat got in (I could accept that)......got mugged by a fox....then went back for another one...I don't know....But the evidence is fairly damning
This is WAR.

Cheers - Phil.

That's a real shame Phil, Two Hens in one night.  

Make what you will of this :-

It is an offence to set a trap that is likely to injure or kill a polecat that comes into contact with it. The offence is to set the trap,
It is legal to shoot polecats with appropriate firearms, and there appears to be no lawful reason why polecats (harmed or otherwise) caught in traps cannot be shot or kept in captivity. All in all, a confusing state of affairs.


So it looks like you can trap a polecat with a humane trap, then shoot it.  You can shoot it if you see it but you cannot kill or injure it while trapping it!

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Save the Polecat One

[Heedless Horseman]

Might a Big, Vicious (and frustrated!) Gander do the job?

Back to Rat extermination. Watched a vid, (Probably Asian), where some sort of smallish Python type snake was introduced into a small hole, (think electric socket). in an internal wall. Out pop 14 Black Rats into buckets... followed by a disappointed snake. GREAT!    But... wonder what they would have done if Kaa had caught his dinner... gone for a nice long sleep... and got bigger? lol. 

[Techno II]

Could have been a corn snake.

If the UK's climate was a fair bit better, I'd like to get some of those and release them. ...Though a)..Von wouldn't let me...and b) it would probably be illegal to do that deliberately.
Saw a big grass snake on the track over the road...a couple of years ago...and then there was the young adder in the barn, that I had to catch and then release three ? + years ago.
(I must find the pic of the wee chap on the forum, and check the date.)

@Mark....Yes, the rule about the traps seems a bit confusing.
It SOUNDS, as though I could use a 'live trap' to catch it, and then shoot it.....But couldn't use a big 'snap trap' to kill it.
I don't think the live traps we've got are quite big enough to hold one, anyway......and as the polecat(s)  haven't manage to get any more of the chickens, I won't bother.....I'd really rather not feel the need to kill one.

Cheers - Phil.

[Heedless Horseman]

Better you than me with Adders! Have seen one... but the horse saw it first!
Grandma once thought there was 'a stick' on the road, picked it up to throw... and didn't like snakes, thereafter!  

LOL! A Real, Big, Tough Farmer type... hard as nails... got pushed into letting a snake crawl over him on a 'Pub Blackpool Trip'!  He was 'bricking' but , full marks...VERY 'Sweaty'... but deserved the Beer! I 'could' have, but, the handler identified a 'more amusing Target'! TBTG!  lol.

[Techno II]

The poor little sod, that I encouraged into a big bucket, was FAR more scared of me, than I was of it.

I was far more scared when Von said......"DON'T let it bite you !"

Cheers - Phil.

[Heedless Horseman]

just a Curious thought. WHY are so many people terrified by Spiders?
UK... no dangerous species... apart from VERY occasional 'exotics'. (Though there seem to be 'colonies' becoming more viable with warmer temps!).
I would NOT like to live in Australia or other places where 'The Nasties' live!  
I am not 'keen' on them... but catch and release outside rather than 'splat', or 'flush'.
I HATE gossamers catching my face / hair and don't like cobwebs in general... but, sadly, there are webs all over the place now... they seem to be thriving... so what are they eating...apart from other spiders?
One 'rather big, little B****r'  was scuttling around on my desk, the other night. Failed to catch...might live in my PC!  

Wonder if is some genetically inherited ' fear'... 'Monkey eating Spiders'?
Just possibly, women might have a 'hard wired' aversion as a 'threat' to babies?
Is it being 'enhanced'  by Movies... 'Alien',' LOTR'?

MY 'reflex' is to kill... but, for some reason. 'conditioning'... and I don't know where THAT may have come from... ('Incy, Wincy Spider'?)... overrides... to catch and release... somewhere else!
Maybe, I just HATE Flies MORE! LOL !
It's the WHY... ??
Curious?

[Techno II]

just a Curious thought. WHY are so many people terrified by Spiders?

No idea, Keith.....At the evil empire there was one individual who was absolutely terrified of them.

He simply would NOT come into the photography studio, when he knew there was a tarantula 'skin' that someone had used in a vignette, for a Golden Demon entry. He also threw a copy of White Dwarf just past my head, because there was a photo of a the said GD entry, which he wasn't expecting to see....He genuinely freaked out.

Cheers - Phil.

(Von's got a phobia about moths, for some reason.)

[FierceKitty]

I knew an ageing German woman once who had gone to some pretty serious regressive psychotherapy to work out why she became helplessly afraid if a moth or similar insect buzzed near her ear. It eventually emerged that it was about traumatic memories of running to the bomb shelter as a pre-school child in the 1940s, with the sky full of menacing buzzing things trying to kill her.

[Heedless Horseman]

Phil... know a 'sizeable' Builder bloke... terrified of spiders... and did demolition work!

FK... possible, but always sceptical of psychotherapy... too much like 'Palm Readers'... finding a 'reaction', then 'building' on it. to 'convince'... so that the 'therapy' does work, because 'something' has been released. So Sorry for the Lady's trauma though. Have just watched a TV doc about the sinking of the 'Wilhelm Gustloff'. Probably impossible to conceive what such things can do. Seeing a man's recollection of his Mother falling back down the steps...
Know my Grandfather REALLY hated 'bangs' after WW1... but still could 'deal' with an incendiary in WW2. People are strange, sometimes.

[Steve J]

No dear of spiders whatsoever, in fact I find them fascinating. SWMBO on the other hands hates/is terrified of them! Rats I simply loathe and still get an involuntary shiver when I see one, even on the tv!

[DecemDave]

Well the welsh big cat is obviously frit of something as it has relocated to us in Sussex:

The Argus: Police reveal big cat reports including a lion in Sussex.
https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/19449309.police-reveal-big-cat-reports-including-lion-sussex 

Or maybe its just the heat? 

[Orcs]

I am not afraid of spiders, and will normally relocate them outside.

When I knocked the shed down I dis have a rather large spider (2-3 inches across) fall down my neck that was not very pleasant, and when it fell out I instinctively stamped on it, although I would not normally do such a thing.