[John J]

I recently went into a local hardware store and was reminded of my first visit soon after it opened a few years ago, with the usual advertising fanfare. I had gone in to see if their garden equipment section had anything new or innovative to offer. They had, a whole shelf of mole traps and sonic mole scarers! An obvious case of someone not having done their homework. Needless to say that on my most recent visit they were still there.
Do other forum members have any examples of irresponsible behaviour or amusing (or even downright ridiculous) instances that they have experienced that they are willing to share?

[MikeHardman]

Around 2003, I think it was, we had a grey squirrel problem in the garden.
We bought a sonic squirrel repellent and placed it near the patio door - so we could gauge its effect (the squirrels had come into the house through that patio door).
To our amusement, soon afterwards, we found a handful of squirrels sat on the grass looking at the sonic-thingy, and one could imagine them exchanging quizzical glances with each other. To all intents and purposes, they could have been having an afternoon listening to the opera at Glyndebourne, they were that repelled!

[JTh]

This is probably not amusing, but more a comment on the use of so-called Blackligt traps to kill mosquitos. Some of our neighbours do that, and it is not amusing to hear the noise from a lot of harmless insects being cremated by the traps. There are several studies showing that they are useless, I cite: 'A frequently cited study, Frick, T. B. and D. W. Tallamy. 1996. Density and diversity of nontarget insects killed by suburban electric insect traps. Entomological News. 107(2): 77-82, found that blacklight traps do a poor job of attracting biting flies like adult female mosquitoes and biting gnats, and, in fact, attracted and killed many more beneficial insect species. The traps were therefore considered to be environmentally harmful because of damage to the natural fauna.

[MikeHardman]

Quite so.
Entomologists have long used UV lamps for attracting moths (etc.).

When specifying the lighting for my villa in Cyprus, I chose LEDs. That was for various reasons, one being their low emissions in the UV spectrum - resulting in them attracting relatively few biters and benign flying insects. That is, you can reduce the problem by reducing the attractiveness of your home to the biters/blighters in the first place.

[John J]

I agree with you about the insect traps, Jorun. A much more low-tech but equally nasty version has become popular here over the last few years, the Glue Trap. These sticky, yellow squares of plastic are everywhere. Again, not only do they catch the harmful insects but also the beneficial ones. I have seen lizards stuck to them and once an almost complete set of bird's wing feathers. Some small bird must have become stuck to it and torn out all its wing feathers to escape.

[Umbrian]

  Glue traps are widely used in Italy for catching mice and are regarded as a "friendly" way to do it!

[JTh]

Frindly? Surely not for the mice.

[David Bracey]

There is nothing friendly about glue traps. We have used them to kill the odd "field mouse" when they come into the house in the autumn.  Unfortunately the mice have a slow, lingering death which I help on their way with the back of a spade, the problem then is how to get rid of the glue and the remains of the mouse on the back of the spade.!

[John J]

If you want a less messy method of keeping mice out of the house, David, you need one of these. Actually he may not be the best example as he spends all day on the sun lounger. He even comes to find us to complain when the sun moves around and shines on him so that we can put the seat back into the shade! Come to think of it, maybe he has an excuse, perhaps he works the night shift?

[pamela]

What a cat!  He's beautiful.  I am afraid my black cat chomps her way through a few lizards as well as the occasional vole type creature (they have long pointed noses). We have tree rats in the pines from time to time but she never seems to despatch those! 

[John J]

I'm afraid that's the downside of having cats, Pamela. Currently we have 4 (3 males and 1 female, although they have all had the op.) and they do take their toll of not only mice but also lizards, grasshoppers, the occasional small snake, tree/carob rats. Contrary to expectations they seldom catch birds although they have been known to take a swipe at dive-bombing swallows that get too annoying when they have young in their nests. Over the years and all the cats we've had the females always seem to be the best hunters, why is that? Are they genetically programmed to catch food for their offspring while the males are just lazy layabouts who soon learn that food will literally be handed to them on a plate at certain intervals?

[David Bracey]

I have an idea that domestic cats are banned in Australia since they do so much damage to the native fauna. True or false?  David

[Umbrian]

The photograph catches what was an amusing incident for us but not for the large lizard concerned. Needless to say we managed to rescue it after subjecting it to a rather prolonged photographic session! It became the subject of a short story written for our grandchildren who we like to keep informed about life here in Italy!

[JTh]

David, I don't think cats in general are banned in Australia, but the Savannah cat (a hybrid between a domestic cat and a serval—a medium-sized, large-eared wild African cat, Leptailurus serval), which was banned from being imported inot Australia by the Minister of Environment in 2008.

I suppose this Cat is not what you  had in mind:
'A Victorian state MP is lobbying to have musician Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, banned from Australia.'

[John J]

Just to prove that our other 2 males are equally idle this is how I found them this morning on opening the front door. Coincidentally the table they are on used to be our front door until my wife decided to recycle it by giving it the mosaic treatment!