Composting Rats!

[Capsid]

Urine is sterile so it contains no bugs anyway.

[Two_Sheds]

Urine is sterile so it contains no bugs anyway.

Human urine, but rat's urine can pass on Weil's disease. You should definitely wash your hands after gardening, just in case. I wouldn't be worried about the compost, but I would get rid of the rats

[Aberdeenplotter]

Urine is sterile so it contains no bugs anyway.

The urine of a healthy person may be sterile but what about the unhealthy. As a youngster, I spent a couple of years working in a public health laboratory and testing urine for bacteriological infections was one of the routine tests. I'm sure many of the ladies present will have suffered from cystitis and wait for it, urine infections. So please, do not pee on your compost heaps.

If you have an infestation of rats in your compost heap. Burn some dry material on top of it. Rats are terrified of fire, will vacate the site and will not return.

[Capsid]

Urinary infections are relatively rare and even then the bacteria won't survive for long on a compost heap. If you did have a urinary infection I doubt you'd be concerned with peeing on the compost heap!

The risk of Weil's disease is also very rare and really only a concern as an occupational hazard such as for sewage workers.

[Two_Sheds]

many of the ladies present will have suffered from cystitis ... please, do not pee on your compost heaps.

lol

I know how I get cystitis, and it's not from my compost heap

[chris]

Not turning your undies inside out often enough? .

[FionaH]

lol

I know how I get cystitis, and it's not from my compost heap

Coffee >>>>>>>>>>>>>>Screen

[eospete]

i suppose it depends what killed the rat in the first place.
whilst bacteria are destroyed by heat, other toxins, heavy metals etc may not be.
i would be concerned about the food chain involved in composting any dead animal.
p

[Claire72]

re dead rats encouraging other rats, dead rats are about the only material that rats will not eat! (Bit like crows not eating crows) Rats will however eat anything else, veg peelings, rotten fruit, chicken poo, grass.... you can't stop them eating, the only thing you can do is make the compost heap quite wet and regularly disturbed, that is what they dont like. I do agree though, that you need to discover where they are, and kill the little bu**ers

[Two_Sheds]

I always thought (and still do) that you shouldn't put meat of any kind on the compost.

bacteria are destroyed by heat

You can get your compost heap hot enough to rot down small dead animals and their bacteria, no problem. I do it: meat, fish, bones, all on the heap.

Most people think it needs to be raging hot all the time, but in fact it only needs to be really hot (thermophilic activity) for a few days. Time (away from their host) will also kill pathogens, you can leave a cold heap for 1-2 years and it'll be safe to use on your garden.

[Kaiya]

I think there's a disproportionate fear of bacteria and viruses... given how much trouble we have keeping yeast alive in a cushty warm water bath with sugar and nutrients (wine making ) expecting leptospirosis bacteria to thrive in a heap (not its normal environment) is optimistic. Plus, it's in the soil anyway as a free-living organism, carried by dogs and other animals including deer and found in water - you've probably already been in contact with it at some point. People at risk of infection are those that are unhygenic or swallow lots of dirty water as a hobby (water sports). Wash your veg, wash your hands.

Rat diet - rats could be viewed as small furry humans with bad habits. They love what we love - cooked meat, a chicken bone is a marvellous treat, they love cake and chocolate, fat and sugar. They do not like rotten or rotting meat any more than we do. So while the carcass from the Sunday roast is likely to attract rats like an all you can eat buffet, a rat would have to be starving to eat a dead rat. Also rats have a very sophisticated sense of suspicion over food - when they meet another rat they will sniff it's breath to see what it's eaten. If that rat is still alive, they assume that what that rat ate is not poison. So it's unlikely they'd eat another rat.

In addition, while of course you need to keep non-meat and meat in proportions that keep the heap working and not putrifing, and large depositions of nice meat will attrach vermin, having meat in the heap itself is not unhealthy or dangerous. Like everything, it's not that you do it, it's how you do it.

[Two_Sheds]

swallow lots of dirty water as a hobby (water sports).

do not, I repeat do not, be tempted to google that

[di]

I should imagine the average compost heap would have at least two or three dead rats. My only worry, but not a stay awake or don't use compost worry, is if they've been poisoned. But I should imagine a) it gets broken down and b) would be such a minute amount anyway.

When our chickens die they go on the compost.

[donnakebab]

Shouldn't have eaten my breakfast before reading this thread!