Alphachi wrote:
>>But what a number of people  have found helpful is to apply 'ferret
>>poop tea' to an area with unwanted critters.
Zen Replied:
>With rats its the smell.  With people you just have to tell them that its
>there.  Just think about it.  "Ewww, Yech"
 
Well, American rats must be wimpier than Canadian rats <grin> because ferret
smell / ferret poop does nothing to deter our rats.
 
We have rats in our backyard and currently there are some living in our
"storage" area outside.  The storage area is used a ferret room in the
summer; in the winter it collects the bags of garbage that were over the
garbage day limit.  Most of those bags contain dirty ferret litter, ruined
ferret bedding and potty paper.  The rats are living very happily amongst
all of this and chew open the garbage bags to root through them and find
stray bits of cat food.
 
As for mice, well ... in our last home we had a mouse problem.  The mice
were living in the sub floor and would come up through the air vents, sneak
into the ferret cages and sit *on top of* sleeping ferrets while they ate
out of the feeders and food bowls.  Ocassionally, I'd catch one drinking out
of the water bottle.
 
I do have a concern about the rats ... does anyone know if ferrets can catch
lepto from them?  I know cats are vaccinated aginst this and ferrets are
not, but I was talking with a British ferret keeper some time ago who
mentioned they believed ferrets were susceptible to lepto and it had been a
problem over there.  Anyone know for real?
 
Sheena and the   |  proud LOMIG member  8-)
Wherret Ferrets!   |  "to be sane in a world of madness
Come see us at:   |    is in itself a kind of madness"
           http://www2.portal.ca/~wherret/
[Posted in FML issue 2233]