with out knowing exactly the nature of your spray bottle not sparying I can only say if when you squeeze the trigger and it stops there is a piece of plastic just under the nozzle it should be sitting loosely in the slots of the trigger
If when you squeeze the trigger and nothing is coming out unscrew the nozzle and see if there is any liquid in the tube and check it is not blocked -- also check the nozzle spray unit is not blocked by poking a needle into it and make sure the hole is clear -- also check under the lid and see if the rubber seal is pushed in properly and isnt faulty
if still no luck I would request another one

I only had a problem of the bottle at the top leaking no problem with it spraying as such.

It is heavy duty plastic and does come with an airtight lid as air has to be kept to a minimum inside however from the workshop I attended its best that it is not in the hot sun but more so in a cool dark place, hope this helps :)

While I'm certainly not an expert in your particular situation with rodents which sounds quite unique. Instead I would use what apartment dwellers use, which is a large flower pot filled with soil. The rodents are not going to be able to dig their way up through a pot. If you are concerned about them digging in, then try adding a large paver or some bricks to the top of the pot. Once the compost has broken down you should be able to successfully add the soil to your garden. I hope this helps!

Hi Heta,

I have had the same problem with rats enjoying my bokashi compost when it was dug into the soil and it did seem to attract them to dig up my veggies too. I think the fruity fermented smell attracts them, and even when humans can't smell it, their sensitive noses can. The rats kind of tunnelled in to dig up the compost in the plant beds. (At one point I wasn't using my bin so washed it out and put it outside my back door - the rats ate through the tap! Presumably they could still smell some juice in the tap.)

I don't think putting it into a pot is going to work - they may not be able to get in, but they will come because they can smell it and then eat whatever they can find nearby - ie your veggies - which is what happened to me. I tried it first with a large plastic pot half buried in soil, and they chewed through the base to get in, so if you are going to try, use a ceramic pot.

The only solution I found was to wait a lot longer for the compost to break down than the instructions say (several months more) - which became impractical because I didn't have somewhere to keep several months of compost or the soil-compost mix, that wasn't attracting the rats. So I buried it very deeply elsewhere in the garden, making sure it was completely covered by a lot of soil - which improves the soil at that spot, but sadly isn't giving your veggies the benefit of the lovely compost. (and I ran out of spots to bury it). Which is a real shame because if it weren't for the rats, it would be a great system, and the compost and liquid are fantastic for the plants and soil.

To be honest I ended up giving up on the composting and the veggie garden for a while because I was so discouraged that everything got eaten by the furry visitors. Eventually my landlord arranged for the rats to be baited and things improved. I am starting up again now at my own new house. I don't have rats here but there are a lot of possums - lets see if I am more successful here.

And another note - after the tap eating incident I had to replace the tap and I bleached the bin to be sure to be rid of any smell when I stored it for a while. There is probably good reason why the instructions say not to use bleach - the next batch didn't work well, but now its going OK again.

Good luck!
Megan

I use a worm farm/composter. I have fine mesh around the vents on the top tier to stop critters munching through the plastic. I have it raised on a stand as well which makes it hard for vermin to get to it. Compost seems to break down a lot quicker in worm composters than other types of composters.