Re: Vermin

Krys Francis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, nuele 
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes
> >Krys Francis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> >aargh, voles, don't start me on voles! >:-(
> 
> You have a problem with them?

A few years ago, I had a little nursery garden with maybe thirty apple
tree seedlings, and I went around the countryside and looked for old and
rare apple varieties, had them identified by a pomologist. The year
after, I went to take some twigs from the trees on my list, "operated
upon" the seedlings and did what we call "oculation", i.e. put an "eye"
of the good variety under the bark of the seedling (sorry I don't know
the exact technical terms in English). Then I had about thirty little
treasures in my little garden for maybe three years, and then one spring
I found the voles had come and chewed off nearly all their roots. I was
able to rescue maybe four or five... 
(... after that I started to plant everything in buckets, for the joy
and pleasure of all the archaeologists that will dig here in a few
hundred years from now ;-)


> The 'black' or 'ship' rats are supposed to be pretty rare these days.
> Though like the Norway rats they can still produce large litters every
> 21 days when there is a good food source. You're lucky to have them near
> you. I haven't seen any for years, I always liked them, they're 
> relatively innocuous, though still carry diseases. I'd much sooner have
> them than the Norway rats. 

Yes indeed, no one seems to mind them really, at least not more than
mice.

> Do you have all of the colours? Black is the 
> most numerous of the colours (called Rattus rattus rattus), then there's
> brown with cream underneath (Rattus rattus frugiverus) & the least 
> numerous, brown with grey underneath (Rattus rattus alexandrinus).

hm, as I said, I rarely ever see them. From the leftovers I found in my
garden I think they are the black ones, although not as black as a mole,
there is a little bit of grey in it, but still black. I never knew there
were brown black rats ;-) but you could still tell whether it is a brown
brown or a brown black rat by the lenght of the tail, couldn't you?

Nuele (D)

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