to stop my ancient neighbour feeding the birds as there are loads of pigeons shitting on my house and garden

[SaveScrabulous]

Ok not sure this is the right section but here goes.
My elderly neighbour puts bird feed out and it is causing a big problem with loads of pigeons hanging around on my house (and more importantly sh*ing everwhere)
It is also probably contributing to the presence of a rat - the feed gets knocked off the table onto the ground and I have seen said rat foraging around at the base of the bird table.

Is there anything I can do to stop this?
She is ancient and rather irrational and emotionally fragile. I really don't want to upset her but then again I'm sick of my house having pigeon poop on it and also concerned about the health risks of pigeon poo in our garden and a rat too (albeit the rat is not solely her fault).

Am I being unreasonable to ask her to stop feeding the bloooooody birds?!

[lazarou]

I don't think you can do anything. we have rats that run through our garden to get into the garden next door. They are massive! It was worse when we had the rabbit.

[FrannyandZooey]

if there is a rat you should get the council out to sort it (quite a health hazard). You could then ask the rat man to go to speak to your neighbour and explain the problem, perhaps. However if she is ancient and irrational you may just have to put up with it. sorry

[SaveScrabulous]

I can talk to her daughter though so it isn't insurmountable in terms of her ancientness and irrational mind.

I guess what I want to know is if you can actually do anything more than just ask someone to stop given it is a health hazard.

Sadly our council cut out free pest control services so you have to pay for a visit from them which is v annoying!

[FrannyandZooey]

No I don't see that you can do anything other than ask her to stop, and explain why.

[bubblagirl]

i dont see that asking her to stop feeding birds that it will help unless you are in close contact of pigeon poo its not such an danger and will not stop birds from sitting on your roof either

rats would more likely be after the rubbish and wouldnt be down to bird feed as they are lurking anyway

she is elderly and takes comfort in feeding her birds i dont like the word ancient or irrational as elderly and set in her ways would be better she is still human after all and were all going to get old and id like to be reffered to nicer than that

[SaveScrabulous]

Ok bubblagirl I see your point re ancient versus elderly but this lady really is very irrational - I would be saying that if she was 20 not in her eighties. Others agree with me who know her.

I do care about not upsetting her unduly. I do also care though about my house being covered in pigeon poo and it making the garden unpleasant for ds.

[wabetta]

I think you are being unreasonable.If feeding the birds makes her happy then why are you being rude about her unless you hate seeing people happy.
Would you be reacting in the same way if chaffinches or woodpeckers came into the garden? Even if you nieghbour stopped feeding them you cant stop the birds from defacating in your garden as they will go as and where they please.
As for the rats you are never more then 20 feet away from a rat(unless you are on an aeroplane or in a high rise flat) as they live in sewers.
If you follow basic hygine rules especicially before preparing food or eating then there should not be a problem.
Bird poo is a great fertilizer.
We share the earth with other wildlife and everything has a right to live and eat.

[SaveScrabulous]

In what way am I being rude to her?
And what on earth justifies you saying I hate seeing people happy??

I find that statement absolutely over the top.

[MumtoCharlotteMay]

No matter what her age I think any sensible person would know that surely feeding a large ammount of pigeons may cause problems for neighbours. I know I'd be fairly narked if I had to clean up pigeon poop all the time because my neighbour kept feeding the bloody things. I hate pigeons!

Can you not speak to your council and ask that they ask her to stop? Surely it's a health hazard? Do you have kids running around? Rats are on the increase so I'd definitley get that problem sorted asap.

Feeding birds is fine, so long as it doesn't affect anybody else. It is affecting you.

[bubblagirl]

yeah sorry i worked with elderly for years habit to defend i'm afraid

its a difficult one as she clearly enjoys feeding the birds and think she would be very sad to not do it i know how much joy my nan gets from feeding birds but understand the problem with the poo

not sure what to recommend really

[SorenLorensen]

I would contact your council/environmental health about the rat - they may well have a word with her about feeding the pigeons.

I think talking to her daughter might be a good idea too.

There may be some useful information in this though, obviously, it is specific to Richmond council.

I sympathise - I don't like pigeons either - in large numbers they make a hell of a mess.

[80sMum]

Feeding birds definitely does attract rats. We moved our bird feeder away from the house after we saw a rat on our patio feeding from the seeds that had fallen on the ground. A pest control man that I spoke to said that if you feed birds you have to accept that ypu're feeding rats too! See here and also here

[SaveScrabulous]

No worries Bubbla - I worked with old people for a while too so understand the defensiveness thing.

Yeh it is a difficult one as I don't intentionally want to make her unhappy. If there is a compromise that would be great but I don't know what it could be.

I might have a general 'oh aren't the pigeons a nightmare' conversation and see what happens first/ her reaction but sadly it probably won't make any difference no matter what I say.

Wabetta - I'm still surprised at your rather ridiculous statement.

[dividedselfridgesxmaswindow]

My dad - who is in his 60s - is very irrational and chuffing irritating, has a 'thing' about feeding the birds. There are rats in my parent's garden and yet this does nothing to deter him. Drives my mother and probably the neighbours utterly bonkers.

Our solution has been to limit his feeding regime and buy him a shiny new feeder with a table thing to catch some of the seed that falls. Solution 2 was to buy him some of those insect habitat things for bees and ladybirds and encourage that 'hobby' instead

I can't say it is 100 percent success all round but then one man's hapiness and all that...

[dividedselfridgesxmaswindow]

parents'

[SpongeBobJudgeyPants]

'Ancient neighbour'?

[StopStartStop]

Oh, yes. Be really horrible to the old person, who might not have anything in her life except feeding the birds. Express your true self.

[OwBist]

Zombie.

[ScroogeMcDuckling]

if the problem is still happening, buy a big car that likes pigeons and rats.

[UKB]

I don’t see why this man is getting cheeky remarks, I have the same problem as him which led me to this post in trying to find an answer to this. I have an elderly neighbour who is doing the same thing. I have birds on my roof twenty plus. Shitting everywhere I can’t even open the roof window for the attic room because of bird feathers dropping in. This is my property and I value it’s worth, if eradicating someone’s selfish deeds and happiness stops birds shitting all over my place then I’m happy with that.

[GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER]

I dare say she’s not intentionally feeding pigeons, but in our garden they hang around under the feeders, picking up dropped seed. If you have hanging feeders for small birds, you’re almost bound to get fat pigeons hoovering up scraps.

I expect gets a lot of pleasure from feeding the birds so IMO it’d be a bit mean to ask her to stop. In any case, I doubt very much that she can be forced to.

[Womanofcustard]

I think your neighbour can be stopped by EH if she is putting out loose food for birds that are causing a nuisance. Is she using secure feeders? You could buy one for her to start with. Check out Fort Nuts and similar products.
good luck!

[Lunaloud]

Get a giant fake owl from the range or somewhere similar and place it near your house.you can also get big bird kites that attach to your house, this will keep the birds away from your house. Our last house was absolutely covered in bird shit, we gave up trying to keep it clean, then I read about the fake birds of prey and it worked. There were a lot of trees and the pigeons looked like giant birds of prey themselves. The only houses they weren’t covered in shit were the ones that had fake birds of prey or other deterrents like shiny foil flying on the washing like or the spiral shiny windchimes.

I think it’s unfair to expect the woman to stop feeding birds in her own garden. I’d love to feed the birds in mine but my washing and car would be the first hit with the shit so I don’t. My neighbours have a bird feeder, that’s their choice.

[Lancrelady80]

We have exact same problem. Tried tin foil strips, hanging cds, fake owl. Bloody pigeons didn't bat an eyelid and garden still remains pigeon poo central :-(