On the one hand, this means that I haven't had to buy fuel for the old Wamsler range, but on the other hand, it means that pests which would normally be killed off or reduced in icy conditions, have not been.
For the cats and dogs, this means of course, fleas. They, and I, hate the pesky little blighter's. Normally, in a proper cold winter, one final treatment for all the animals and then a spray of the house and bedding eat the first frost, means that any residual larvae and eggs, either die off, or at least stay dormant in my home, which has no central heating (out of choice) The upstairs has no heating at all, especially as, every morning, during my cleaning routine with the dogs turfed outside for their morning toilet, my bedroom window is opened, and the spare bedroom window is opened, and icy cold fresh clean air, blows from front to back.
But no, this year, there's no icy cold air and so I have had to continue buying flea treatments .
I have to say that killing fleas on house pets is a 2 pronged assault.
You have to treat the pets, but at the same time, treat the home, because fleas only jump onto the pet for a feed, and for the rest of the time, they live, breed, lay eggs and have flea festivals in your carpets, cracks in floorboards, upholstery, the pet's bed, your bed if they sleep with you. So treating just the pet but not addressing the 95% which are not actually on your pet, is a waste of time and money, and I dislike wasting either.
Pet shop flea treatments really don't work, especially the spot on stuff containing 'Fipronil' which is the active ingredient in Frontline. Manufacturers are clever though. They manufactur the same product, but under different names. So if for example, you bought Frontline spot on, and discover that your pet still has fleas, so you go back to the pet shop and buy some Fiprotec spot on instead, and again, the pet has fleas, so you go again and buy some Effipro, and again, the pet still has fleas and you are £30 worse off than if you'd just gone to the vet for a flea check (most vets do this free of charge), then asked for a prescription for stronghold (does fleas, ticks, lice, mange and earmites) for around £10 a month, which is way cheaper than buying an ineffective pet shop flea treatments and separate wormer. Do your research into what treatments are avialable, read all the labels and check prices, make a decision then tell the vet which one you want. You don't have to go with whatever one he decides on any more than you have to buy whatever food the pet shop tells you to. It's your money and you make the decision. The vet can recommend a particular product, but it's up to you to decide whether you want to follow his recommendation or not.The prescription will cost you no more than a human private prescription costs. My vet charges me £7.50 for it and he is very good that he'll put a 6 month supply on it.Legally the vet has to see the animal at least every 6 months.(£3.75 for a repeat prescription)
Now the reason I said to ask the vet for a prescription is that vets make a profit on the medicines they sell. Basically you and I can buy at the same prices they pay (according to my last vet who always insisted that he couldn't get it for what I was paying online, which is an obvious lie, because nobody forces a retailer to use an expensive wholesaler when he could buy from the same places as I do).
So then you come home, and go online and compare prices from any of the very many online vet medicine places which exist. Some will let you scan the 'script and email them a copy.Some want you to sent it to them. I avoid those ones as I feel it needs to be sent registered mail (in case it gets lost in the post) and my nearest post office is 4 miles away. So basically a load of hassle.
What you will save is loads of money. For example. My large Spanish dog has some issues meaning he needs pain medication. He takes Tramadol. I get the prescription and take that to my local chemist since that is used by humans too. The vet's price for 20 Tramadol was £20. Getting the private prescription and buying from the chemist meant that I paid only £4 for the Tramadol. I saved £16 on them. Of course I paid £7.50 for the initial prescription, but even then, I saved £9.50. I went back for a repeat prescription , paid the £3.75 and asked for 100 to be put on the prescription. This is 50 days supply for the dog. At the chemist it cost me £20 instead of the £100 it would have cost had I bought them at the vets.
The dog also needed 'Canaural' for a bit of an ear infection he had. Again at the vets in was nearly £30 for a bottle. Since this is an animal only medicine, the local chemist can't do it, so I went online, scanned and emailed the 'script, and it was sent to me within days, and cost me £9.
Anyway, since I have 6 dogs indoors , which sit on my chair and sleep on my bed, plus at least 9 cats indoors, including the neighbours, and some half ferals who come in through the window for a feed occasionally, fleas are something I prefer not to have, or at least, keep on top of.
So while I have been saving money on coal (actually some eco anthracite) I have been spending it on flea products.
If you prefer not to get a flea prescription at the vet, and don't know which spot on treatment to get, I recommend a product called 'Clearspot' which is exactly the same as 'Advantage'. It's still effective on fleas, unlike Frontline (and the offshoots named Fiprotec, Effipro and anything else with 'fip' in the name). I have done the research and found the cheapest place to buy online is here.
The other problem pest has been rats. I have a year round baiting regime on my land. Any sensible smallholder, especially if they keep livestock, must have some method of controlling the rats and mice, since they will not only eat grain and feed, but they are incontinent so basically pee as they go. If they get into a feed bucket or bin, for the tea spoon of grain they eat, they have spoiled the rest, because you cannot feed what they have peed and poo'd on as it carries some nasty diseases which you or your livestock can get sick from.
After having tried various methods of rat control over the years, some useless, some I discarded as inhumane, some just not effective on an ongoing basis, I now use rat bait inside a proper bait box.
For those who are novices, here are some of the methods you could use.
Sticky traps: In theory, you place on a rat run, and the rat gets stuck on the very strong glue.
The downside is that you have to be experienced enough to recognise a rat run. Secondly, not only rats will get caught. The neighbour's cat, the friendly robin which comes to feed on the bird table, the hedgehog you feed at night, will all get stuck. And they struggle and get more distressed and more stuck. When you find them, it is impossible to get them off. Their skin, fur, feathers and even little bird legs will get torn off as you pull. Frankly they should be made illegal. Even if you get a rat. One single rat, you are now left to kill it. Please do not drown it.Besides, drowning it is illegal.No animal should have a drawn out, terror filled death.
I nearly drowned as a child and believe me, they will fight to breath and struggle to get loose from the trap. So that means a swift and violent death with a spade.
Please don't use sticky traps!
Humane traps: Basically, you place bait inside, and the rat goes in and cannot get out. Again you are then left with what to do with it. Either, somehow kill it, but how one can kill a wild rat, running about fast and afraid in the trap, is beyond my experience. As I said before, drowning is not an option. Or, you can take it far from your home and release it. Only, you have just release the rat into enemy rat territory. He will be attacked and possible killed by the rats onto whose territory you have just released him. It's a bit like inner city gangs; and if he doesn't get attacked and killed, he'll find his way home again.
Rat zapper. Like an electric chair for rats. You put batteries in it, add bait to it, place where rats are, and the rat goes in to feed, touches the live bits, and flash bang wallop, it's dead. The downside is, once again, that you are only killing one rat at a time. Believe me, rats breed faster than you could ever hope to keep up with them if you use any of the single catch methods.The rat zapper can also only be used indoors.
Ferreting: If you keep ferrets you might like to go ferreting. I used to own a tiny little jill named Lizbiff, she was no bigger than a stoat, but boy was she fierce. Put her nose to a hole and if there was no smell of rat, she'd wander off uninterested. But if she caught a sniff, her tail would thrash wildly and she'd struggle to be loose. Down the hole in a flash she would go, and, from deep underground, a series of thumps and squeaks would be heard, before, Lizbiff would eventually come out, backwards, dragging a dead rat, 3 times her size, out of the hole. Then she'd run up my leg and into my jacket pocket for payment, which was a small piece of cheese. Ratting with Lizbiff was fun for her and interesting for me, but again, one or two rats at a time, still isn't getting on top of a rat problem. Plus it's time consuming.You also risk a large rat injuring your ferret if it isn't experienced, or has only ever been a pet, and you risk losing your ferret down a hole, which, if it was mine, would mean hiring diggers to excavate the maze of tunnels, to find her. Plenty of gamekeepers and rabbiters would simply not bother because ferrets are easy to get and cheap to buy.All of my past ferrets and my current 3, are all rescue ones which had been found straying.
Shooting: You can sit out at night, waiting to take pot shots with an air rifle. Rather you than me. I'd rather be indoors with a cup of tea by the fire. Again, you get one at a time because if you hit one, the sound of the shot and the squeal of the rat, will warn the others which will then stay safely hidden. You also have the issue of getting a clean killing shot. If you can't, then don't shoot. As I said before, no animal deserves to die in pain and terror because you aren't a good shot and you got it in the gut and left it to crawl off and die over the next few days.
So that more or less leaves poison.
I left this until last because it was the last method I used when I was so concerned that poison was cruel. It took rats getting into the bantam runs and killing several of my prize bantams, then getting into the owl aviary and attacking my sweet old barn owl, biting her face and blinding her in both eyes, before I started to use poison. It was at the vets with the owl, and talking to the vet about not using poison that did it. He told me to stop being silly, that I should research poisons and how they work. That rats didn't die screaming in agony as I'd imagined, but their blood got thinner and they crept off into their nest because they felt cold and drowsy, went to sleep and never woke up again as they went into a coma and bled internally, knowing nothing about it.
So I came home, did research and started using bait boxes and a poison that has low secondary poisoning risks. The bait boxes mean that only target species (i.e. rats and mice) gain access to the stuff, and it means that they need around 4 feeds before it is lethal. That means that if a raptor or cat or fox or stoat gets them while they are above ground, they don't contain a dose which would kill the predator. By the time they have eaten several feeds, they are feeling cold and unwell and are generally back in their nest.For accidental poisonings, say if a rat has died above ground and a pet dog has played with it, vitamin K is the antidote and easily administered.
In the 10+ years I have been using my choice of rat bait, I have not had one case of accidental secondary poisoning.
The other positive thing about using bait is that it works 24/7 and will kill as many rats as go to feed. It's like an all night diner for rats. It works if you aren't there sitting in the cold with an air rifle, and unlike the other methods which kill only one at a time, this method kills as many as you have on your land.
But don't pat yourself on the back when you do your weekly bait box checks and discover that no bait is being eaten after a few weeks. Sure, you have eradicated all the rats, but you have just created new, empty rat territory. Within weeks, a few scout rats will suss the place out, and report back that this is ideal to squat. Controlling rats is an ongoing task.
Now don't get me wrong. I don't hate rats. Indeed, I have always had pet rats. My current ones are 2 male naked dumbo rats named Ronnie and Reggie and I love them a lot. In fact I'd say that keeping rats has helped me to keep the wild population under control as I learned how they behave.
For instance. Rats are neophobic. They distrust anything new. So when you first place the bait boxes, the bait will not be taken. If you keep moving them about to find the place where the rats will take the bait, they will never take the bait. Leave them in place for 2 weeks and don't touch them. If you have sited them properly (under sheds, along walls and fences, under the hedge where you saw a rat hole), eventually they will start using them. My keeping pet rats means I have a slight advantage since I place some of my rats droppings in and around the bait box. This tells the wild rats that a rat has been there, so they are more inclined to use them.
Anyway, in the last week I have used 2KG of rat bait and as fast as I'm filling the boxes and placing underneath the chicken house, it is being eaten. So I have just ordered another 10KG online, which will arrive on Monday and I'll carry on baiting.
For anyone who tells themselves that rats have the right to live too, and killing them is cruel, let me tell you that rats will kill little songbirds in the nest, and eat the eggs the songbird laid, and if the mother bird is sitting tight on a nest full of babies, and doesn't fly away when the rat comes creeping in the hedge at night, it'll kill and eat her too. They will chew the legs off sitting hens and ducks and kill your chicks. They will destroy your sheds in order to get in if there's feed stored, and they will cost you your hard earned money in spoiled feed.
If you have pet toys or kids toys in the garden and you have rats, you are risking your dogs getting Leptospirosis and your kids getting Weil's disease.
There's no need to be sentimental about rats, they are the ultimate survivalists. I quite admire them as a species. So get a control method on your land, but bear in mind that you need to be compassionate and do not make them suffer unduly however you control them.
So yes, I am saving on fuel, but spending on flea treatments and rat control.
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