Did you know that it is a criminal offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to catch and release Grey Squirrels in England? This is something that I am asked to do on a regular basis, but I always explain to customers what the law will and won't allow. So no catch and release I am afraid.
Catching and releasing urban foxes is also illegal under the 2006 Animal Welfare Act. It would cause the Fox unecessary suffering during transportation, and they will be unfamiliar with where you release them, so that is an offence. There are no mitigating circumstances - regardless of risk assessments.
These Black Cat rat traps I got from 1Env are brilliant, very powerful and super sensitive, got ratty here just by touching the trigger area. Happy customer, dead rat.
Gorilla Rat Trap
Gorilla Rat Trap
This is a daddi-long-legs, also called a bird spider and is designed to stop Herring Gulls walking on a small flat roof. This one is 2.5m wide. The deterrent works providing no nesting has taken place, but if the Herring Gull has previously built a nest, then they will damage the device and nest anyway.
Sad! This little weasel was after the mole, just like me, but got itself caught in the trap.
How do you stop pigeons making a mess of your roof and solar panels? With netting of course.
Diamtomaceous Earth. This is a natural product made from the exoskeletons of microscopic marine life called, not suprisingly, diatoms. The cell walls of the diatom are made from transparent opaline silica, with striking and beautiful patterns, as you can see from the pictures.
The diatoms are abrasive, and will strip the protective outer waxy layer of protection on an insects body. The insect will then dehydrate and die. This product can be used in organic businesses, as well as domestic situations. Picture is from under a microscope, what fantastic shots.
This big old boy ran out of luck on a recent job. He was quite a size!
An adult Norway Rat is supposed to be around 450g - this one was nearly 550g.
Some gull exclusion from March 2023 - when it wasn't raining.
Another whopper to add to the collection. This one was caught with a Black Cat trap.
This was an interesting job. A self storage company thought they had honey bees inside the warehouse. On inspection they turned out to be hover flys - completely harmless. But why were there so many inside the building? One of their customers was storing something that they liked, although we never found out what it was...
This is what happens if you put spikes behind a chimney to prevent gulls from nesting. They drop loads of muck on top, and nest anyway. A net or cage behind the chimney is the only way to prevent them nesting.
When the fighting gets hand to hand it gets nasty. This chap was hiding behind a cooker in a customer’s kitchen. Battle commenced and after a brief tussle I emerged victorious.
A reasonably good looking fella too (I mean me not the rat).
THOU SHALL NOT PASS!
This rascal was in another kitchen, he brought all his kids with him too. He was a tad unlucky as he got caught the wrong way up in the trap.
Superior trapping skills or just luck? Probably a little of both. Anyway, here's two (very young) rats in one trap. They were feeding together and set the trap off, getting both of them.