Ahhh so I went once and now you say I "go" lamping! Ha, classic!!

Dawn: am I a mind reader? How would I possibly know that you have only ever been once?

Read the posts? Or maybe dont tell me what I do when I havent said it.

So, if I wrote a post saying that I had a rat problem, and they were stealing over 15 eggs a day and taking chicks... and that I was getting the pest controller in to eradicate them... you (with the exception of Dawn? ) would disagree with me and say I should be nice to all the sentient life forms?

i wouldnt

Or a wasps nest or Bees nest in the garden that happened to sting the dogs, but hey they are animals too!! Just LOVE!!

That might have been me-i lamp foxes.

Yes actually I would! I'd say trap them and set them free. My dad made a trap for them when I was a kid - it worked - they all ended up in this 'cage'.

We suspected we had mice in my first house and the only traps I put down was the ones that catch them humanely. (There never was any in the end).

I've had a wasps nest (and a birds nest!) in my loft every year for the last 3 years, and as much as I hate wasps I won't kill them. And as much as the birds annoy the hell out of me in the morning I haven't moved them on either (get chicks every year).

I'm no buddah/saint but whenever possible I try NOT to kill anything (apart from things like dust mites!)

I only remember that you said you went lamping. I really cannot remember the minutiae!!

I am not telling you anything, I have no idea whether you go lamping, or not, on a regular basis. All I know is that you stated that you went lamping.

You said it ... so don't tell ME that you haven't done something when you said you had

Bees are in a serious decline, so you most definitely should not harm them. Without bees to pollinate plants, there would be no life on earth, so you must be mad if you consider them to be a threat! Leave them alone and they will not harm you. You can approach a bees nest - we have a nest of wild bees, not honey bees, but the little tiny bumble ones, they nest in holes in the ground, rabbit holes, old foxes earths and badger setts - and they will not harm you unless you did something really gross like tried to dig them out.

Wasps actually have had a very bad press over time ... they do in fact do an awful lot of good. The queen wasp will gather at least 100 blow flies to sustain her through the winter months, and during the summer when wasps are active they do an awful lot of good in terms of pest control. Unlike bees though, as we all know they are far more aggressive and therefore if you have a wasp nest in your garden or in your roof space you are well advised to get rid of it. But if at all possible, leave well alone and you will be OK. If you have a wasps nest in your garden in a place where it will pose a danger to your dogs, then stick a hosepipe down the entrance hole with the water running overnight and that will persuade them to move on (this is assuming of course that you are not in a drought area or have a water meter!). We get at least one wasps nest every year in the garden, and we just leave them alone unless - as they were one year - in a place where we need regular access to.