We've had a leaflet through the post about those barrels that you put food etc in and it turns them to compost. Im just wondering if anyone else has got one and are they any good?

Someone I know had one and then had to get rid of it because she had trouble with rats!

That could be said about any compost heap country wide.  Providing you don't put meat in them, which you shouldn't anyway, and don't site it too near the house you shouldn't have any problem.

Apparently, as long as they are the sealed type, there will be no problem.  Rats will eat anything........even soap!!

I don't think many compost heaps are sealed ;)

Sorry, just small air holes I mean not the totally open ones!  :)

My neigbour had one and I had rats living in a ditch behind the back fence.  The rat men said that after fortnightly visits for 18 months, they couldn't get rid of them because the green stuff (vitamin K) that they ate in the neighbours compost bin was the antidote to the poison that they had been putting down.  I've not thought of checking the info but the council made the neightbour get rid of his bin, saying that it was a health risk! :rolleyes:

I'd LOVE to recycle but it put me off.

We have a compost bin (cost a fiver off the local council) at the bottom corner of the garden. It's open at the bottom (concentrate...here some the science bit)so the icky stuff soaks straight into the ground and there's no space for rodents to get at the contents. Haven't seen a rat since we moved here.

No?  They are all inside it...... :) :)

I dared to peek in recently (as a rule, i stay away from that section of the garden as it is OH's territory, in lieu of the shed that we don't have ;) ) and only critters I could see was spiders....millions of the wee blighters Needless to say it'll be a long time before I venture back :rolleyes:

I HATE rats!  Apologies to those of you with 'pet' ones....I don't mean them!!  :)

They burrow, like rabbits, except their holes are smaller!   They used to make neat little burrows, or just trenches big enough for them to get through, under the back fence from the ditch outside.  When I went next door with the rat man, we found burrows underneath the compost bin.  It's warm, dark and with an endless supply of food.  It would suit me too if I was a rat!

Apparently, they can get through a hole just the size of your thumb!!....ugh!!

Rats I could cope with - spiders?? Nah. I aint getting one now!!