Neighbours leaving food on plate

[RoxyMoosic]

Mildly annoying and rather perplexing.

Our (new-ish) neighbours have taken to leaving a (paper?) plate of food on their garden wall. It looks like human food, but I’ve never actually got close enough to see if it is perhaps some sort of bird food.

Anyway, it’s attracting birds and I got woken up early this morning by a gang of squawking seagulls. I don’t mind bird feeders obviously but I’m not keen on having any more seagulls than necessary lingering over the area. They have relived themselves on my car already .

Purely for context, they are foreign (the neighbours that is). I don’t know if this has any relevance to this habit.

It just seems really strange, I can’t think of any explanation for this behaviour. I don’t know if I would actually take any action.

Ewww that'll attract all sorts of animals

Every day? It's a common custom.amongst S Asians to leave a plate of human food out for a death ceremony or other similar ceremony. But not daily.

Tell them you've seen large rats eating from the plate as well as the gulls.

Loads of us have bird tables, which rats as well as squirrels can access. We just don't see our rats in daytime, but they are there.

We have had mice before which is another thing I hadn’t considered .

It’s not a bird table as such. Literally just a plate full of food.

Oh there's a little amenity green at the top of my road, and one lady insists on tipping leftover food there for the foxes and other wildlife.

It's mostly piles of shepherds pie, rice, spaghetti bolognese etc and it's got to the point where I no longer walk my dogs there because they always want to try their luck 🤣

Some ladies throw leftover cooked foods onto the grass in the kids park in front of our house.

I saw one doing it once and asked her to pick it up and bin it as the food attracted rats and put the kids health at risk. Her own grandchildren play in the park ffs!

She did pick it up (including the tinfoil dish some was in) and binned it.

I still see food there now and then.

Fuck knows what they think they're doing.

One of my old neighbours used to put left over pizza in the bushes. I still have no idea why but we got a lot of foxes when they came to notice it. I’d have a word now with them

When you say it left on a garden wall, is this a wall/fence shared between your houses or a wall solely within their own garden?

If its a shared wall, I'd certainly be going around. Even if not, I'd still go and speak to them. Welcome them to the area etc but also ask them to leave their plate of food elsewhere within he confines of their own garden, because its attracting vermin, squirrels, giant shitting (pterodactyl) seagulls etc.

Down our local park, a lot of non-foreign people do the same thing. Not saying it's the right or clever thing to do. Saying that being foreign isn't a "context".

They need to stop doing that. All kind of animals especially rats will come and then you’ll have a bigger problem.

It’s their garden wall that faces a public footpath. So not shared. But nearby to my house.

I think ‘foreign’ does count as a context because I wondered if it was a cultural thing.

Just ask them if there's a reason why they do it and mention that the seagulls are annoying you.

If they're new neighbours, tell them there have been rat issues in the past?

I used to live near someone who fed the seagulls, very annoying birds.

Isn't it amazing, the range of ways in which neighbours cause each other hassle?! Things you would never think of!
Get a pet owl or hawk if it continues.

That is definitely irritating because seagulls are a nuisance even when you aren’t offering them a smorgasbord.

However I will admit that since moving to the US I’ve taken to feeding all sorts of things that I probably shouldn’t. I started with a regular seed feeder to feed the amazing birds that live here (recently I’ve had the little fellows below; they’re called indigo buntings!). Then I had to add a hummingbird feeder because hummingbirds are just fantastic little things. Now I also chop up vegetables for the family of groundhogs and occasionally leave some tidbits for the raccoons. And then of course there’s the deer…

So maybe they’re just glad to be somewhere with wildlife to feed? Maybe you can influence them to share their bounty with something other than seagulls though. 😂

My neighbour (who is foreign but actually so am I 🤔) often leaves a dinner plate with a whole chicken carcass on the street 🤦‍♀️

Apparently it's for her cat but she doesn't get that's rats will come for it too!

My neighbours used to leave a ton of half eaten food leftovers every night ‘for the foxes’.. that was a fun time

I've seen food plates carefully arranged and left outside front door with incense alongside which I assumed was some kind of religious offering left out daily so can understand you trying to highlight maybe a cultural habit.

Also lots of food and rubbish left in one local park by some unsociable people

Have a quiet polite calm word first. Ask why? If no reasonable explanation ask them to stop as it’s attracting vermin
don’t assume they are “foreign” - they may have been born here or arrived years ago and that’s just a red herring. Assume they’re ignorant of the risks or just good old stupid 🤷🏼‍♀️
if no luck, report anonymously to environmental health and council. Do it anonymously so if you sell your house in future you won’t have to declare it
our new neighbours once had pest control out for rats. Guys came round to ours and politely knocked on door, told us rats were gavotting around in droves in the woods behind our houses, and we should stop putting bird seed and nuts out for a long while . Birds weren’t impressed. Neighbours rate got hungry and left 🤷🏼‍♀️🤣🤣🤣🤣

rats ..not rates 🙄

There are signs around the lake in my local park asking people not to tip food there, because it encourage rats.

In my local Facebook group, you wouldn't believe how many people are saying "Well rats need food too" 🙄😖

Ugh rats… I have a phobia of them, I’d be terrified. Maybe use this angle as it may help the conversation just go easier, telling them there was a previous problem with rat infestation and you had to call authorities. That way you’re ‘sounding nicer’ I think than your seagulls are damn annoying (which you shouldn’t have to, just a suggestion in case they’re nice and understanding, which I think has more chances than not wanting even more seagulls)

Sorry that was dreadfully written, didn’t sleep well !

”foreign”… would you be posting this if you thought they were ‘british’…