Threadjacking!

[Tiplodocus]

We used humane mousetraps in The Great Mouse War of 2000. Peanut butter in one end. They are so light you hardly know they are caught. Take them at least a mile away to release them. We ended up catching about a dozen of them.

In a fantastic bit of irony, I released one only to see an owl swoop down and snatch it up.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

My granda, used to just use the spring loaded traps, then hang the mutilated rodent corpse from the clothesline as a warning to any others. Different times.

I should also mention he was a farmer and his nearest neighbour was ~half a mile away.

[Funt Solo]

Actually trying to be helpful now: we had a mouse problem (and a rat problem) in a mobile home a few years ago - rats had chewed their way into the bathroom through the dryer-vent pipe, and scuttly beasties were nesting underneath the floorboards, in the roof-space and in the walls.

The main problem, though, was the kitchen - because the mice were pooping everywhere and they carry disease here. We tried kill-traps, but that got *really* messy with the edge cases. I'll spare you the details. We switched to catch-'ems, and then ... the mice went to heaven (which, we can all agree, is at least a mile away).

[JayzusB.Christ]

Thanks! I used to use the humane traps when I lived on the boat and they were quite effective. The problem now is that I don't have anywhere to put them - the mice are between my ceiling and the roof slates.

[JohnW]

From Prog 307.
Whatever happened to the days when 2000AD advertised the basics of coarse fishing?
No wonder the youth of today has gone to the dogs.

[JayzusB.Christ]

From Prog 307.
Whatever happened to the days when 2000AD advertised the basics of coarse fishing?
No wonder the youth of today has gone to the dogs.

To be fair, the youth of the 90s were getting shitfaced with the fake IDs Tharg used to advertise back then.

[JohnW]

Kids of the 90s didn't know they were born. I had to get shitfaced without any ID at all.

[JayzusB.Christ]

With you all the way.

'Two flagons of Linden Village, please.'
'What school are you in?'
'St Ciaran's.'
'You're not old enough, then.'

I wasn't the smartest underage drinker in the world.

[JohnW]

The advice of Ivan Marks, Britain's top angling writer, could have saved you from a life of dissolution.

[JohnW]

Given that my first attempt at posting this apparently failed, I'd better rectify matters.
People need to know.

[Funt Solo]

Inspired by this story: "Boris Johnson erased from Grant Shapps spaceport picture"

If you look up Shapps in the dictionary it says "a man who cheats or tricks someone by gaining their trust and persuading them to believe something that is not true ... but he's not very good at it."

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he thought there were too many great big white phalluses in that picture.

[Barrington Boots]

Friday marked the 20th anniversary of Trogdor the Burninator. This makes me feel old!

[JohnW]

I have caffeinated sparrows.
They congregate in a bush that overhangs the little concrete yard behind my kitchen. The yard is only big enough for the wheelie bins and it's littered with leaves from the bush above and by the dregs from my morning pot of coffee. The coffee sludge is chucked out there and left to dry. Sometime in the future it gets swept up along with the dead leaves, and the snail shells, and the rest of the organic rubbish, and put in the bin.
I've only started noticing the sparrows this past year because of their numbers and the noise they make. It occurs to me that they're there for the coffee. When I see them pecking away in the little yard, it may not be seeds they're after, but coffee grounds. That might explain their liveliness. I have caffeinated sparrows.
No wonder they're all chirrupping loudly at the same time and flying in rapid little flurries – going nowhere but going fast.
These sparrows are buzzed.
I can hear them now, cheeping at each other like they've got a million ideas for a tech start-up.

[The Legendary Shark]

There used to be a gang of sparrows that hung out in a tree outside my old flat and they had only two speeds, asleep and AAAAAH! I love 'em.