Rodent Control

[NorthernRaider]

Ergh I try when possible to avoid this subject but time after time it crops up, and I often end up getting into trouble for it.
Brian and you other good folks I think hygiene is one of the most utterly important issues facing us after a disaster or societal collapse, Hygiene around the isolated or locked down home and retreat is going to be just as important in staying alive as avoiding getting shot.

After most large disasters it is disease that inevitably turns out to be the biggest killer.

You refer to rodents as being a major issue , Sir I suggest that in a scenario that has possibly got millions of ill, dead or dying people laying about, hungry stressed and possibly injured preppers are going to be very vulnerable to any microscopic bug.

( Now Big Paul is laughing his socks off because he knows what is coming next and how my opinion got me banned from another UK forum for expressing it)

I suggest that not only rats, mice, voles, squirrels etc are going to spread pathogens but also mant birds that eat carrion such as blackbirds, crows, starlings, magpies etc. not to mention feral dogs.
Now the contentious bit...... I also suggest that most pet dogs and cats must be kept OUTSIDE the retreat, and any feral or misplaced moggies should be destroyed. Its a fact that cats can and do catch and kill rats, mice, birds, etc, and its an equal fact that very often any disease the rodents of birds are carrying are passed onto the cats. Do you want a cat wandering around inside your home or retreat across kitchen worktops etc that may have feasted on a plague infected rodent, or has walked in the drying gory remains of a dead person or creature that died from Typhus or Cholera or Dystenty? I certainly dont.

Its going to be personal choice but even though I am a dog owner my mutt is staying outside for the duration, and any felines will be treated the same ways as rats, mice, pigeons, and any other carrion eaters. I dont believe there is any place for sentimentality with pets in a disaster.

NR now ducks and awaits the flak.