Rats and the neighbours.

[Keepthechangefilthyanimal]

We live in a semi. About 5 years ago we had a massive problem with rats. Poison was put down and we managed to get them under control but it was difficult and my husband had to kill some and dispose of them or fully drown them in the neighbour’s pond. We had a long conversation with the neighbours about them scattering bird food on the ground as it was giving the rats a food source. They were living under their decking and using their pond for water.

About 2 years ago, I was at the back of our shed and found a massive dead rat. About the size of a small cat. DH disposed of it. Spoke with the neighbours, put poison down but no other rats were seen or found.

Last night, DH put the bins out and was speaking to the neighbour. She said you’ve got rats again under your shed, just as she was scattering bird seed everywhere. He snapped and said you aren’t helping feeding the birds. She said she’ll feed the birds if she wants. We’ve out poison down at our shed, just in case. Our shed is just on our back garden boundary fence with the neighbour.

Is there anything we can do? We do live rurally. We have mice in the attic and garage now and again but massive rats are completely different.

we managed to get them under control but it was difficult and my husband had to kill some and dispose of them or fully drown them in the neighbour’s pond

Bloody hell. Really?

Buy them a copy of Braindead for Christmas.

@ChardonnaysPetDragon

we managed to get them under control but it was difficult and my husband had to kill some and dispose of them or fully drown them in the neighbour’s pond

Bloody hell. Really?

Yes. Apparently when they are poisoned they look for a water source so the neighbour’s pond. DH held them down with a broom until they drowned. We found one in our water butt that had to be put out of its misery. Thank god my DH wasn’t worried, phased or scared.

Ring environmental health and ask for their advice
Bloody pita though

Good that your DH wasn’t “phased”, but I can’t imagine your neighbours being happy about him drowning and disposing of rats in their pond. Isn’t that trespassing?

@ChardonnaysPetDragon

Good that your DH wasn’t “phased”, but I can’t imagine your neighbours being happy about him drowning and disposing of rats in their pond. Isn’t that trespassing?

They weren’t disposed in the pond. They were disposed of elsewhere. We had permission to use their pond. They asked us for help. They didn’t know what to do.

We didn’t just run rampage over their garden.

Does she realise she's not feeding the birds, she's feeding the rats?

Isn’t this an environmental health issue? I’m sure I’ve read on other threads that you can complain about a neighbour feeding rats to your council.

That's not what your post says.

We get rats on the compost heap occasionally. They don’t bother me, and I don’t bother them. Haven’t seen any for a while though.

Are they coming in your house or damaging things? Or just going about their business?

Buy her a bird table?

Personally I’d send Tarzan back out with his broom.

@Hopesakiller

Buy her a bird table?

Rats can easily climb a bird table. A hanging bird feeder is the best option to feed birds without attracting rats.

We had rats living under our shed briefly.
This got rid of them & we’ve had no more since. You do need to put it in a bait box though so no other wildlife get killed.
Not sure what to suggest about the neighbours though unless EH can have a word with them.
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01MSQV4BY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?psc=1&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&ie=UTF8

Environmental health sent all our neighbours a letter. It was caused by one household scattering birdseed on the ground.

I’ve seen rats climb trees they can get to a bird feeder as I noticed it was going down like the clappers and not by birds. I’ve stopped putting bird seed down now. I rang the council and if property is privately owned they don’t get involved but do offer a mediation company. Your neighbour is an idiot

Your husband is committing an offence by drowning rats - causing unneccessary fear, distress or suffering. Not so long ago, a chap was successfully prosecuted for catching a squirrel in a live catch trap and then drowning it in a water butt. Rats? Squirrels? All living, sentient things which, if they must be killed at all, should be killed instantly and humanely. Poison is also a cause of a lingering, painful death - hours and hours of internal haemmorhaging and raging thirst anyone? Not to mention the risk of secondary poisoning to non target species. There is a reason why poisons may now only be used outdoors by people who have had training in the use of SGACR (second generation anti coagullant rodenticides)!

I agree contact environmental health and ask them to tell the neighbour to stop feeding the rats.

I also agree rat poison is inhumane as it causes suffering and a long painful death. It also can poison cats, hedgehogs, squirrels and so on.

The most humane rat control is to have a cat. Most rats will avoid a house with a cat living there, so the cat is a powerful deterrent. A few rats will try their luck, but if your cat is a good hunter they will kill them quickly and humanely. The way a cat kills is it pounces at the back of the neck putting its full weight into it, which snaps the rats neck and they are dead in an instant.

Your neighbours gave permission for you to drown rats in their pond because they were overrun and now the rats are back and they wonder why?

Call environmental health pest control. Poison causes misery to any animal nearby, hedgehogs, cats, dogs, birds, dont use it.

You could get a large kite kite or a plastic owl etc put it facing into neighbours garden so no birds come so pointless putting birdfeed out .

@PlanDeRaccordement

I agree contact environmental health and ask them to tell the neighbour to stop feeding the rats.

I also agree rat poison is inhumane as it causes suffering and a long painful death. It also can poison cats, hedgehogs, squirrels and so on.

The most humane rat control is to have a cat. Most rats will avoid a house with a cat living there, so the cat is a powerful deterrent. A few rats will try their luck, but if your cat is a good hunter they will kill them quickly and humanely. The way a cat kills is it pounces at the back of the neck putting its full weight into it, which snaps the rats neck and they are dead in an instant.

My cats are quite fond of rats and like to bring them into the house and drop them for me. Then they sit back and watch as I scramble around trying to catch them so I can safely release away from the house only for them to do it again a week later.

@itiswhatitisandalwayswillbe

Lol! I suppose your cats then were never taught to hunt and so practice the catch and release in front on their human mum so you can show them how to do it. Of course you can’t kill a rat/show them. So they’ll just keep catching and releasing them.

What does it matter if there are rats under your shed? They're outside, not in the house. There will always be rats outside. And the drowning is appalling.

When I have had issues with them, I try to limit the access the rats would have to food sources, while at the same time, making sure the animals I'm ment to be feeding also get their food, yes at times I'll need to do more regular trips to make sure they are fed and watered, but id prefer that and know they have had their food rather than just filling a tub and the rats steal it all.