Thinking a bit more, I would think that in a serious longterm food shortage situation, a neighborhood food production cooperative would be the most likely to succeed. Combining efforts for growing and tending plants and animals would cause everyone to have a vested interest in maintaining and protecting the food sources. Even children could be useful for collecting insects like destructive beetles and tomato hornworms, and feeding them to the chickens.

I simply can't think of any other way to maintain a food supply that wouldn't be either a) collected all at once, or b) stolen by outsiders or passers-through.

Sue

Plague, yes.

But Hantavirus is spread by rodent feces, urine and saliva. Around here, deer mice are the known carrier. It takes significant precautions in handling, including respiratory protection, to adequately protect yourself from infection.

One saving grace. Hantavirus is neutralized by about five minutes exposure to direct sunlight, which is probably one reason it is not more of a scourge than it is.

Definitely be careful cleaning out the dark corners of your garage.

So what is in your preparations to harvest urban prey?

100 feet of spring steel wire, 200 yards of 120 lb test dacron fishing line, a red ryder bb gun, a couple of 1000+ fps pneumatic spring pellet rifles (177 and 22 cal) and 5,000 rounds of ammo, a few 22 lr guns, a few boxes of 22 cb short cap ammo (whisper loads), a few more boxes of 22 lr Rem Yellow Jacket hyper vel hollow point, a few more boxes of 22 lr Rem Viper hyper vel truncated solid, a wrist rocket with 1000+ rounds of various ammo (white marbles, 00 buck, 45 cal lead balls etc). A green laser pointer in the 50 mW range, a pair of live traps. A couple of 12 ga shotguns and several hundred rounds of various loads.

Yup and they are good BBQed. Easy to raise and produce good compost.