If I were to think like that, then I just wouldn't touch anything.
I do wear gloves mostly, but there is something nice about touching the soil. Cat mess totally turns my stomach and puts me into paranoid mode. Growing up with cats, it's likely I already harbour toxoplasma gondii.
I had a great book title 'Humanure', and in that they talk about the joys of night soils. And suggest planting a green manure in the composted night soil, that you further compost, if you really want to be safe. Human waste I think they wrote was safe after a year of rotting. So perhaps the best thing to do is just let compost sit for a good while.
Going further off-topic, I read an article about house hygiene, where it mentioned that houses that had the flow of outside in, were healthier. It all seems counter intuitive, but dog households are healthier. So I try not to worry too much.
Avoid scratching eyes and picking your nose in the garden!
I have invested in a turning compost after I discovered a mouse nest some weeks back in perfect dry conditions with shredded paper for the babies I've never added kitchen waste of any kind.
They were cute babies but had to go, so I wet the compost thoroughly and left alone for mummy to collect. After that i dismantled immediately and plan to triple my revolving bin once test results are confirmed. It's quite heavy to turn initially (full bin) but after two weeks is swinging as freely as a 70s pop icon
otherwise you could try a hotbin, should be same safety
A neighbour said his garden compost heap - open and made with pallets - provided a very good home for a rat and family. I guess there is some warmth and shelter, even if no food.
I have a turning drum. It's very robust, durable and mouse free . It even has wheels so you could move it to suit yourneeds, empty probably since its incredibly heavy at full.
turn it once a day or twice if you like to make sure, and let it do its magic , I'll definitely be getting more to optimise
old bins were rotten anyways so they got cleared out
I have just moved my compost bin to get at the bindweed that was growing up through the rotting compost and as I forked through it I heard a lot of squeaking and found about eight or so little pink baby rats. They were about 2-3 inches long and looked about a day or two old. I don't know but they didn't seem to have any eyes, certainly not open and were moving like very newborn kittens, all wobbly. I didn't have the heart to kill them so we put them in a little box with some of the compost on top of them and left them for the their mother to sort them out. Either that or they'll die from cold or I might have hit a couple of them with my spade so I might have even killed a couple of them. I would rather let them live, vermin or not I keep thinking of the Mum coming back and finding her nest all broken apart and her babies scattered. I am feeling very guilty.
I have just moved my compost bin to get at the bindweed that was growing up through the rotting compost and as I forked through it I heard a lot of squeaking and found about eight or so little pink baby rats. They were about 2-3 inches long and looked about a day or two old. I don't know but they didn't seem to have any eyes, certainly not open and were moving like very newborn kittens, all wobbly. I didn't have the heart to kill them so we put them in a little box with some of the compost on top of them and left them for the their mother to sort them out. Either that or they'll die from cold or I might have hit a couple of them with my spade so I might have even killed a couple of them. I would rather let them live, vermin or not I keep thinking of the Mum coming back and finding her nest all broken apart and her babies scattered. I am feeling very guilty.
They might be cute looking an innocent now, but they'll cause havoc when they're older and breeding themselves and getting in to your walls and ceilings. We had rats last summer when our old neighbours kept having a BBQ outside and leaving half eaten food lying out over night. We also had some at an old house we lived at, under the compost bin, I imagine it was because we were in the vicinity of the town center and not too far from a few takeaways, restaurants and bars. I do have a history of moving in next to people who don't maintain their gardens, which always seems to offer the rats a nice place to live.
Best idea is to kill them. Depending on whether you have pets or not, poison is generally the most effective way. Although if you've noticed them then someone else nearby probably has and it's likely that they're taking their own action against them. I used traps in the loft and roof space, but next door must have put poison down because they clearly started dying beneath our floorboards and stinking the living room out.
They'll go for poison because it seems like a free meal. It can take them a while to go near traps because they're unfamiliar and sometimes you can contaminate them with your smell and they'll just avoid it all together after that. Some people prefer humane traps, but at that point all you're doing is making them someone else's problem if you drive them off a few miles and release them. You also have to go out of your way, and deal with a live rat.
For anyone wondering, if you see what you think is a big mouse then it's a rat. Mice are only small and are all roughly the same size. Rats come in all shapes and sizes.
The compost mixing tool is a multi-tasker: in addition to blending and aerating your compost and deterring vermin, I find that using mine gives all my major muscle groups a workout!
Posts
If I were to think like that, then I just wouldn't touch anything.
I do wear gloves mostly, but there is something nice about touching the soil. Cat mess totally turns my stomach and puts me into paranoid mode. Growing up with cats, it's likely I already harbour toxoplasma gondii.
I had a great book title 'Humanure', and in that they talk about the joys of night soils. And suggest planting a green manure in the composted night soil, that you further compost, if you really want to be safe. Human waste I think they wrote was safe after a year of rotting. So perhaps the best thing to do is just let compost sit for a good while.
Going further off-topic, I read an article about house hygiene, where it mentioned that houses that had the flow of outside in, were healthier. It all seems counter intuitive, but dog households are healthier. So I try not to worry too much.
Avoid scratching eyes and picking your nose in the garden!
But even bought compost could be bad news:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-24151700
I have invested in a turning compost after I discovered a mouse nest some weeks back in perfect dry conditions with shredded paper for the babies
I've never added kitchen waste of any kind.
They were cute babies but had to go, so I wet the compost thoroughly and left alone for mummy to collect. After that i dismantled immediately and plan to triple my revolving bin once test results are confirmed. It's quite heavy to turn initially (full bin) but after two weeks is swinging as freely as a 70s pop icon
otherwise you could try a hotbin, should be same safety
Poor old ratty - he gets a rotten deal.....
A neighbour said his garden compost heap - open and made with pallets - provided a very good home for a rat and family. I guess there is some warmth and shelter, even if no food.
I have a turning drum. It's very robust, durable and mouse free
. It even has wheels so you could move it to suit yourneeds, empty probably since its incredibly heavy at full.
turn it once a day or twice if you like to make sure, and let it do its magic , I'll definitely be getting more to optimise
old bins were rotten anyways so they got cleared out
MY compost id just a load of old rubbish !
I have just moved my compost bin to get at the bindweed that was growing up through the rotting compost and as I forked through it I heard a lot of squeaking and found about eight or so little pink baby rats. They were about 2-3 inches long and looked about a day or two old. I don't know but they didn't seem to have any eyes, certainly not open and were moving like very newborn kittens, all wobbly. I didn't have the heart to kill them so we put them in a little box with some of the compost on top of them and left them for the their mother to sort them out. Either that or they'll die from cold or I might have hit a couple of them with my spade so I might have even killed a couple of them. I would rather let them live, vermin or not I keep thinking of the Mum coming back and finding her nest all broken apart and her babies scattered. I am feeling very guilty.
They might be cute looking an innocent now, but they'll cause havoc when they're older and breeding themselves and getting in to your walls and ceilings. We had rats last summer when our old neighbours kept having a BBQ outside and leaving half eaten food lying out over night. We also had some at an old house we lived at, under the compost bin, I imagine it was because we were in the vicinity of the town center and not too far from a few takeaways, restaurants and bars. I do have a history of moving in next to people who don't maintain their gardens, which always seems to offer the rats a nice place to live.
Best idea is to kill them. Depending on whether you have pets or not, poison is generally the most effective way. Although if you've noticed them then someone else nearby probably has and it's likely that they're taking their own action against them. I used traps in the loft and roof space, but next door must have put poison down because they clearly started dying beneath our floorboards and stinking the living room out.
They'll go for poison because it seems like a free meal. It can take them a while to go near traps because they're unfamiliar and sometimes you can contaminate them with your smell and they'll just avoid it all together after that. Some people prefer humane traps, but at that point all you're doing is making them someone else's problem if you drive them off a few miles and release them. You also have to go out of your way, and deal with a live rat.
For anyone wondering, if you see what you think is a big mouse then it's a rat. Mice are only small and are all roughly the same size. Rats come in all shapes and sizes.
The compost mixing tool is a multi-tasker: in addition to blending and aerating your compost and deterring vermin, I find that using mine gives all my major muscle groups a workout!