04-10-2010, 04:01 PM
I have shot them with a pellet gun. They are really tough little buggers. They are adapted to the tropics and have very little fur. They have no woolly undercoat. You can see right through to the skin. Being adapted to the tropics I doubt the fur would be much use in the cold.
Much is said about sustainable gardening on this website. Natural forms of fertilizer are a big deal. I am guessing that any animal, properly composted, would return some nutrients to the soil. If you look at it that way many things could have value. Most living organisms concentrate the required chemical building blocks of life in their bodies as they grow, and they work very hard to do so. Let them do the work and then recycle them when they come on your property.
I know that's easier said than done. Given the damage they do I'm sure you would be better off not having mongooses, rats, japanese beetles, etc in the first place than trying to recoup your losses. Nevertheless the principle is pleasing to contemplate. Bees for example can travel far and wide (much beyond your property), produce honey, and old brood can be fed to chickens. Supposedly bears go after bees more for the brood than for the honey. If only there was a way to catch large quantities of coqui frogs they could be composted if nothing else even if it didn't suppress their population. Native Americans buried a fish under their corn plants. I assume that this is because the fish were seasonally available in quantities too large to use. Would a mongoose not be an adequate substitute?
Much is said about sustainable gardening on this website. Natural forms of fertilizer are a big deal. I am guessing that any animal, properly composted, would return some nutrients to the soil. If you look at it that way many things could have value. Most living organisms concentrate the required chemical building blocks of life in their bodies as they grow, and they work very hard to do so. Let them do the work and then recycle them when they come on your property.
I know that's easier said than done. Given the damage they do I'm sure you would be better off not having mongooses, rats, japanese beetles, etc in the first place than trying to recoup your losses. Nevertheless the principle is pleasing to contemplate. Bees for example can travel far and wide (much beyond your property), produce honey, and old brood can be fed to chickens. Supposedly bears go after bees more for the brood than for the honey. If only there was a way to catch large quantities of coqui frogs they could be composted if nothing else even if it didn't suppress their population. Native Americans buried a fish under their corn plants. I assume that this is because the fish were seasonally available in quantities too large to use. Would a mongoose not be an adequate substitute?