To message DP neighbour on FB

[theverved]

My DP are in their 80s. They recently discovered they had rats nesting under their shed. They had someone come and sort it out and were advised that the neighbours bird feeders were attracting the rats

my DF spoke to his neighbours who agreed to take the feeders down. Fast forward 1 week and the feeders are back up. DF asked their neighbour about this and was basically told that by the neighbour that they have no issues with rats in their garden and as their children enjoy watching the birds they’d be leaving the feeders up.

DM is beside herself with worry and stress about the rats.

I have their neighbour as a friend in Facebook so last night I messaged them and told them once again what my parents had been advised and asked them to take feeders down. No reply as yet.

Told my DS and she has gone mad at me. Said it was out of order to contact neighbours and said I could have caused trouble for DP. Said it is not my business to sort.

I contacted them as I was worried that my DP may not have advocated for themselves as well as I could.

Was it unreasonable to reach out?

Get your parents a cat, best way.

Thank you for all the replies. I think it’s safe to say the overall view is I was being unreasonable!

I’ve messaged them in a follow up message apologising for contacting them, explaining I was in somewhat of a panic following a conversation with my DM. I assured them that I won’t contact them again.

A few lessons learned I suppose

And thank you to whoever suggested using sand to fill the gaps. I have suggested to parents go try that

Yes you were unreasonable to message them.

Cats Protection have plenty of mousers looking for a new home or get a terrier 😉

The best thing your parents can do though (and easist) is move things around in their garden, rats absolutely hate any kind of disturbance.

If you had contacted me like that I would have told you to fck off to the other side of fck and once there to f*ck off again. Like someone else said, if your parents are that paranoid, bloody removed and clear the shed. For many people, bird feeders that attract birds into their garden is a joy. You have zero right to ask them, nay demand they take them down.

The OP can offer them and be refused but its a compromise to prevent food landing on the ground and still be proactive in a nicer way.

The NDN may be offended or just refuse but its a way to offer a compromise

YABU.

Tell your parents to get a cat.

Do you not live near your parents? Is there no one else that can help them out with this??

We have rats in the garden and it's not a big deal. We have a bird table too but any seed on the ground gets eaten in the morning and the rats are out in the evening, so I'm told.