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Badgers.....


Nick Jones

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On 3/20/2021 at 12:32 PM, PaulAA said:

After a brush with one of the buggers in the Cotswolds thirty-odd years ago ("ooh, what big teeth you have grandma!"), I'm with JohnD - heavy calibre weaponry is the only viable response.

The appearance of heavy calibre weaponry in Belfast may have unintended consequences!

2 hours ago, PaulAA said:

The eyes...

When I moved to Berlin in the early 90s, I lived on the outskirts of the city.  Beyond the city boundary, in fact, and about a kilometre's walk along a paved road through the forest from the nearest S Bahn station.  One Saturday night, returning from a night on the tiles in the wee small hours, I was plodding up the unlit forest road when the distant light from the S Bahn station half a kilometre behind me was picked out a pair of eyes.  Then another pair.  And another.  There were maybe a dozen pairs of stationary, glowing eyes ahead of me.

With an increasingly fragile sphincter, I considered my options - wait for death, run and be mauled, or climb a tree (certainly no shortage in the immediate vicinity). Then the ringleader ahead of me grunted (or sneezed) and I took my chance with a step to my right.  In unison, all the eyes shuffled to the left.  I tried another step and so did all the eyes.  Finally, we reached a position where we were more or less parallel to each other and simultaneously broke into a run in opposite directions.  After a while, I turned to see what had scared me witless, to see a family of wild boar legging it doen the road in the direction of the station, then suddenly vere off into the woods.

 

A couple of years ago walking the last stage of the Via Francigena on the outskirts of Rome, the path was completely churned up. "Boar" was the locals explanation followed by the warning not to mess with them. Because of the increasing quantities of uncollected rubbish in the City, I understand they are an increasing presence.

They will soon be like London urban foxes: useless for dealing with the numerous rats as they live on a diet of pizza, burgers and fried chicken.

Miles

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Cycling while full of beer and an over-casual London fox nearly brought me to grief...... Missed it and the parked car.... but not by much.

Youngest son came off his bike after colliding with a badger in the lanes. Night cycling has its hazards, even with LED searchlights. No damage to him or his bike on that occasion. No idea about the badger.  He was also brought down by a kamikaze cat in broad daylight. Fetched up at the end of a trail of shredded Lycra and skin at feet of a rather surprised gentleman who had been cutting his hedge.  He and his nurse wife patched the boy up and brought him home. Boy was more upset about the Lycra than the skin..... (I can grow more skin!). The cat survived, though not unmarked if the fur caught on the sprockets is any indicator.

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Paul, we killed all the Wild Boar in England  (Yum!) in the 13th century!    They have been re-introduced, which will not delight Nick!    I've never seen any in the UK, but spent a night in a French forest, on my way to CLM, one year.      I guessed there were boar about from the rooting they had done under the oak trees (again, pax, Nick!) so when I got up early to go for a pee, I wasn't very surprised when first Mr.Boar and then Mrs. plus seven piglets crossed the path ahead of me!

Ian, I'm afraid that Fb video "isn't available now".    The Kendal otters have been there since 2017 - there must have been otters in that river before, but not recently, so we must be getting rivers cleaner, and thank goodness, there are still otters about that can repopulate them.

Edited by JohnD
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Don’t mind wild boar on my plate. Less keen on them in my garden. There are apparently some in Dorset now after a mass breakout from a farm in Melplash. They recovered most of them, but not all. There have been sightings, and a couple of optimistic dogs injured.  The standing advice is “definitely don’t mess!”

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16 hours ago, JohnD said:

(Yum!)

Agreed, John - delicious indeed.  My wife's uncle (an accident-prone gamekeeper... possibly the most indestructible man on earth) produces boar sausage.

I incurred the MiL's deathray stare once, when I casually questioned whether said sausage was 100% boar.  Not an unreasonable question, given the extent of Uncle Gamekeeper's self-inflicted anatomical depletion.

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15 minutes ago, Nick Jones said:


Oh my.....:ohmy::pinch::sick:

 

 

I may have shared this account here previously, but this is the man who has managed to shoot himself in the eye, lop most of the fingers from one hand, poison himself, partially severed a leg with a chainsaw, shoot the toes off his foot and commit sundry other lesser amputations.  Yet he still lives.

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17 hours ago, Gt64fun said:

I am expecting to see the 'Mk1 Jones Badger Tosser' any day now!

Ian

We did have a half-hearted stab at a squirrel tossed a few years ago.  It might have flicked a small mouse.

Badger trebuchet...... :whistling:

Better be careful where that is pointed.... 15kg badger travelling at speed could do some damage!

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  • 1 year later...

Bloody moles. Been battling one (or maybe a small army of them) all summer. In times past I’ve put down traps and caught them fairly promptly. Not this time. After skirmishes in late spring where the trap failed, I’ve been putting up with the occasional mound. However, lately the little bugger has been on a mission to annoy me. 5 new mounds on the lawn in one night, two of them huge, plus two in the stream bed, causing a diversion tipped me over the edge. Three traps set yesterday. This morning two of them have been buried in molehills…. An “up yours pal” if ever I saw one. Going to have to up my game!

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19 minutes ago, Nick Jones said:

Bloody moles. Been battling one (or maybe a small army of them) all summer. In times past I’ve put down traps and caught them fairly promptly. Not this time. After skirmishes in late spring where the trap failed, I’ve been putting up with the occasional mound. However, lately the little bugger has been on a mission to annoy me. 5 new mounds on the lawn in one night, two of them huge, plus two in the stream bed, causing a diversion tipped me over the edge. Three traps set yesterday. This morning two of them have been buried in molehills…. An “up yours pal” if ever I saw one. Going to have to up my game!

Hello Nick

                 I have just as much success as you and the lawn now looks like the Somme in WW1.

I recon they must have Satnavs now the detect traps! (I also used to catch them easily in the past? or it could just be another sign of old age?)

I even use a bit of welding rod to find the tunnels!

I bought some of those vibrating things in desperation earlier and the bloody hill came up beside them (good job they were the cheap ones?) 

Anybody want 4 of them and they are solar powered!!!!!

Roger

I wish I couldstill buy proper mole smokes (Cyanide smoke that got the buggers!!)

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1 hour ago, Nick Jones said:

Thinking of trying to gas them with mower exhaust……

Hello Nick

                  Years ago we had a wasp nest in disused bedroom chimney with a grill over it for ventilation(still the same)

I digress again so at the time I had a works van Vauxhall HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! dreadfull things we blew them up on a regular basis!

Another digress I can remember coming back down a bit of the M6 from nuneaton to brum  before it was going anywhere else 3 abreast flat out at about 70ish (the good old days?)

still back to the gasing I had a lot of pipe as we serviced car washes as well so I run a hose from the exhaust up through the house and gassed the buggers(fuel cost did not matter as I was repairing petrol pumps(you get my meaning? I will not mention the 45 gallon drum we had in the back garden of the first house(it was a bit like taking paper clips?)

They were the Good old days!

Roger

 

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We also had a wasps nest in a bank near a hedge. Was aware of it (or at least the high wasp numbers in that area), then we woke up one morning to a large hole, which turned out to be the result of brother badger digging up the nest. Must have been a pretty big nest judging by the scattered wreckage, so I suppose it did us a favour.

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As a boy, I stayed with my aunt in a small Nidderdale village, where fly fishing for trout was a religion.   Young trout were raised in the mill dam, and we lads were allowed to fish for them, with bait rather than a fly.  The bait was wasp grubs, that we dug up after poisoning the adults with cyanide.  !!!

My mates and I kept the nest in a cardboard box, and had to open it and retreat while newly hatched wasps flew out.  But another emerged as I picked grubs and stung my left hand.   My mates told me to grip a rod while my hand swelled, else I would not be able to later.   No sympathy, these were Yorkshire lads, and we just went off  fishing again.

We had to promise to put back what we caught, but I have admit a few were released into the frying pan. Yum, and double yum!

John

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16 hours ago, Nick Jones said:

judging by the scattered wreckage

Similar also in this case. The structure of the nest was familiar to me having removed one from a bird box a few years ago.

We had realised that wasps were going in and out so bunged up the hole with a (recycled) champagne cork.

Ian

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