To just get rid of the rats?

[ArabeIIaFigg]

(I should preface this: I know I'm not being unreasonable - at least, I think so - but I'd appreciate some input!).

So we live near a body of water. As a result of the recent flooding, a family of displaced rats has taken up residence in our garage. They've already caused a fair amount of damage to the doors and even managed to get into my car and chew DD's car seat (it held scent memories of Smarties and chips). I've called The Exterminator and they're coming this week.

Our neighbours apparently also have rats and have been feeding them. Supposedly they believe that a well-fed rat won't eat fittings or fixtures. They have also mentioned that having creatures "dealt with" is cruel, and would never allow such a thing (this was said in the past when DH was seen disposing of a headless mouse). Mrs Neighbour has some hoarding issues and I'm worried about creating some sort of shitstorm over a dead rat. Am I being unreasonable to assume that their behaviour will guarantee a lifelong supply of rats in our house? They'll see the Anti-Pesto Pest Control van for sure, and I'm worried about the reaction. I don't want rats but I also don't really want a feud.

@Overdon

I’ve read on here before about Terrier teams being very efficient rodent killers.

I would be worried about them moving in the house when the weather gets colder.

I have a single Jack Russell who is very effective at pest control. Two or three could wipe out a nest in no time.

I kept pet rats for decades. A well fed rat will gnaw anything, for fun, to keep its ever growing teeth down, just to see what happens and many other rat-a-logical reasons.

Your neighbour is bobbins.

Get all the help you can, with her as well as the rats.

You need to get rid of the rats, as they are considered as vermin, and can spread disease. Any rat control persons will tell you this.I don't know a single person who would like a rat around the house or garden, never mind many many rats running around.
I would not be bothered about what the neighbour thought about the extermination of these rats.

I know a person who had a rat problem at one time, the rats got into a shed, and into another out building, and they chewed through some electrical cables and caused a whole lot of other damaged.

Rats will eat your house from the inside out. Fuck your neighbour, this has to be dealt with. I live on a smallholding with horses and sheep, I would be overrun if not for my terriers and my cat. Everything has a right to live but some of us can't live together. Rats should be in people's houses unless they are pets.

I'm a big softie and love animals but wild rats will just breed until you are overrun with them, sadly they need to go before they cause a severe health risk. I've had mice and rats and hated killing them but there isn't an alternative once they are nesting. I've heard they remember routes really well so moving them doesn't work either.

Report them to your local Environmental Health office ASAP. Rats chew everything because their teeth don’t stop growing, they carry horrid diseases and cause major property damage.

If they fuss about the exterminators say they were just taking a look at some damage to see if the rats had caused it, say the rats had caused it and ask them to stop feeding them or you'll have to have them dealt with and have them pay for the damage. When they stop feeding them they'll think they've gone to a farm in the countryside.

Get a pest controller who uses unmarked van and no logo on their clothes.
Make sure bait boxes are out of sight of your neighbour.

If neighbours ask why rats have disappeared, shrug vaguely and say you hadn’t noticed that they had / you thought they’d moved into her bit.

I get impatient with people feeding foxes but what sort of person in their right mind thinks it's acceptable to feed wild rats.

Your neighbour's an idiot. Feeding them will not stop them chewing stuff. Of course they're going to go on chewing stuff, they're rodents, it's what they do. If they didn't gnaw things their teeth would just keep growing.

They're prodigious breeders and they can pass on Weil's disease.

If she keeps feeding them you're going to be over run with them.

Is it even legal to feed them?

Do not hesitate to do everything you can to get rid of them.

No. Just no. Rats in the wild, on the river bank, staying on the river bank I’m fine with. Rats deciding to move into the home (including garages), need to be dealt with.

Is your neighbour's house attached to yours? Hope not, hoarding can present a fire risk and a house full of vermin eating through wires is another.

We live in an ordinary urban street and are surrounded by neighbours who feed the birds, leave out dishes of food and water for the hedgehogs and have now started encouraging squirrels. Our gardens are small and there’s an acknowledged rat problem in the area.
Neighbours are horrified at the idea of pest control - slug pellets are a no-no because the dead slug may be eaten by a hedgehog.
Our local pest control guy said the biggest cause of urban infestation is people feeding and leaving water out for wildlife. He also pointed out that wild animals and birds have survived very well for hundreds of years without human help!

I'd call your version of environmental health on the neighbours.

I found a rats nest in a compost bin I was emptying this afternoon. Ugh, scrbbed my hands minutes and then smothrred in gel, repeated 3 times. I've known 2 people who died of Weils disease and 1 seriously ill. I wouldn't take chances with rats. Babies were despatched and bait put down for the adults straight away

I feel your pain here! My neighbours have a compost heap right by their back door where rats have made a home. For the past year we have been dealing with it. We have two dogs who will kill Any they see 🤢
They think it’s part of nature 🙄 we have traps, poison and have spent a small fortune on redoing our kitchen after one got trapped under the floorboards and some how managed to chew through and got in my kitchen. So yes kill them!

Our local pest control guy said the biggest cause of urban infestation is people feeding and leaving water out for wildlife. He also pointed out that wild animals and birds have survived very well for hundreds of years with human help!

Yes, that was pretty much what I said on a thread on my local fb page about people feeding foxes.

Apparently, there are people in my area feeding foxes on things like pork chops and bits of steak and 'it's wonderful to see them in your garden' apparently.

When I pointed out that pork chops and steak is probably not ideal for foxes and they are perfectly capable of hunting more appropriate food in the shape of small creatures for themselves, some bright spark informed me that modern foxes, having become used to being fed by humans, have completely lost the ability to hunt for themselves.

I was going to point out that animals don't just lose their instincts like that and that cats have been domesticated for many hundreds of years yet somehow they still manage to hunt very successfully, but I just couldn't be bothered.

As it is the bloody foxes walk around the area as if they own the place and there's fox poo everywhere.