Next door attracting rats

[Sheridanflamingo]

Posting here for traffic. Last year we had mice and rats. As soon as i realised i went next door (terraced housing) to tell them and woman next door informed me 'yes we have had them since we moved in 3 years ago. Your never that far from them in London, I have some good potpourri because I can't stand the smell of them dying so I just ignore it'. This made me furious - she also has a young child and seems happy for him to live with the rats too. Eventually we got rid of them in our house - they were coming in from next door and now all points of entry blocked off etc. For the last 3 months the same people next door have grown 5 foot weeds in their front garden - it's like a mini field. It has been pointed out to me that this is a hiding place and attraction point for rats and mice. I can't tell them what to do with their own garden and i couldn't care less if they have rodents in their house but can i report to the council and ask that they are told to maintain their property to stop attracting mice and rats? I know what the rodents smell like we had it mildly in our house and when i went to speak to woman next door the smell of them in her kitchen was beyond overpowering - so i can only assume she is happy to have them in her house. I am NOT happy to have them in mine - I am furious, or will be if we get them again. Any advice? Anyone experienced similar neighbour issue?

Our council do have a pest control department and when we first saw the rats we called them out. They said 'have you spoken to the people at number 42? I think some other people on your road have'. Suggestive hint.

Yes that is what we are hoping with the baitboxes that they will have learnt our garden means death and will have encouraged them to go to the other house and stay there. We are doing an extension and blocking off the whole thing with concrete next year so the rats can multiply in their house only, until then im hoping we get through this winter without any coming in. They can live in a rat cult with their pot pourri as far as im concerned just dont want them near me 😭

Oh sorry 44! My house is 42. Incase rat fan lady is reading this

I don't think rodents ' learn' anything from poisoned food. They are attracted to the food, they eat the food, they die.
This will cut down the number of rats about.
Putting out food, with or without poison, will attract them to your garden, not repel them.

Yes most people don't realise but if they are in the area anyway and learn that certain areas harbour poison they avoid those areas - the pest control told us this. THis is why once one of them has eaten poison and the others observe it's dead they refrain themselves. A tip for anyone interested in pest control / manky neighbours. I'm convinced that's another thing that has prevented them coming in to our house - because there are an awful lot of them in the neighbouring house i imagine.

And p.s. It's not food i put out - it's poison. In a box. So when they go in the box for shelter the poison kills them.

Report the rats to the council again, hopefully environmental health will be able to do something. If some of your other neighbours could contact the council too, that would help.

Decking is a haven for rats and feeding the birds encourages them them to stay

If you know for sure she has rodents in her house and is not doing anything about it, with a young child, could you call SS?

@johnsnow that is disgusting aaaaaaargh why are people so filthy? I don't understand how people do this stuff knowing it will cause rats in their home, does that not bother some people?! Mesmerising and vile.

To put it bluntly. No they didn't. Mainly because the LL lived 200 miles away from said property so knew they'd never have to deal with a mice or rat problem on such a scale as Next Doors.

YY to the person mentioning bird feeders. I gave a stern glare to our bird neighbour recently putting up their fourth feeder.

Ugh, I can't help OP but I really sympathise. We lived with my MIL for a little while, and she used to put a lot of food out for the birds, but at GROUND LEVEL. The cottage was on farmland, so although I saw no rats there were constant mice and cluster flies in the house.

We managed to keep the mice away from our part of the house by setting traps and having NO food sources available, but they travelled around under the floorboards and rummaged about occasionally.

Eventually the numbers increased enough that we ended up with a regular mouse visitor - he became so blatant that even our rat terrier just stared at it as it sauntered around the room, and I nicknamed him Kevin.

Thank fuck we've moved out now, I was absolutely sick of them and their bloody droppings. One died under the floorboards once and we couldn't get to it - the stink was there for 3 weeks, it was grim.

I have no solution, but good luck. Try appealing to their better nature, if they have one - it is food that attracts the rodents, not ground cover. Well, not really.

Using electronic pest deterrents, the ultrasound and electrical wiring one inside your house, and battery ones in loft, sheds and possibly garden, will keep rodents from returning to your property

It didn't work for us, Dancing Ledge. We got the mains ultrasonic devices years ago, when we had a plague of mice, but it didn't deter the rats.

I'm afraid I really hate the idea of rat poison. It gives them an agonising death, they die slowly from internal bleeding. One of my dogs nearly died from internal bleeding, that the vet was convinced was caused by rat poison, presumably because he'd chomped on a poisoned rat carcase or killed a rat that had been ingested poison and thus ingested it himself.

The council's rat man (who embarrassingly turned out to be my friend's dad) told me that a lot of them are developing immunity to all commercially available poisons, too. He said that trapping and despatching was more humane, and that a pack of terriers was more humane still. Having seen my girl kill a couple in less time than it takes to say "rat", I can well believe that.

Unfortunately Councils got rid of pest control departments. Huge problem in London. Lots of rats near restaurants and takeaway food outlets. Your neighbour is well scummy. My mum's old house was in a very desirable part of London and you could watch them running up walls. It was horrifying. No one took any notice.

My husband pointed out green boxes along the outside walls of a KFC and said these were rat catching boxes. London is over run and the problem is being ignored.

Am going to submit a report to council again and yes social services as well now. Sorry to everyone who has had these problems - the rats can also cause serious health issues especially before you realise you have them if they have been in kitchen or bathroom. I'm grateful for the poison i have - i actually got a brand not yet available for sale in the UK so they are not immune to that. Anyone who has a problem with rat poison take it up with the people who cause urban infestations in homes with children.

If you did want to try going down the cat route you could always short term foster a couple of cats, or house semi-Ferals in your garden if it's big enough and fits a charity's requirements.

@sizelentil i am going to get semi-feral but don't think i could foster i wouldn't want to give it back! Had a cat for years before and he was totally a part of the family. Such a balls this rat stuff gggggrrrrrr