Neighbour has a nice garden but she has multiple bird feeding stations. She told me last week she had seen a rat on the garden but assured me there was only one. I told her I hadn't seen anything but it would perhaps be a good idea to cut down on the bird food that's out as it was likely coming to feed.
Today she told me she had called out pest control because she had seen five babies. Again I said I hadn't seen anything but had noticed our dog stood on two legs looking into her garden so she might be seeing them.
She thinks they are coming under our garden gate because there is a gap there (because otherwise with how the garden runs you can't open the gate) and whilst she has a gap under her gate as well it is undoubtedly smaller and so has asked that I block the gap. I can and will block it temporarily if it makes her feel happier but I won't be able to block it permanently as she would like as the bloke who cuts my grass won't have access. Plus I'm not convinced the rats are coming under the easy access gate to run across my garden that is fundamentally a lawn path and patio with nowhere to hide, risking encountering the dog when they could go direct under her gate straight to the food.
For the sake of good neighbourly relations and because she will plague me about the gap, are there any visual measures besides blocking the gap, in the meantime that I can employ to at least show willing that I am trying to deter the rats until pest control come next week? I have told her she can send the pest control round if she wants him to check that they are coming in under my gate obviously.