AIBU to feel annoyed by my neighbour's complaints about rats?

[Becnextdoor]

Do not have many neighbours, only 4 on our street. I live next to this lady, detached houses but our garden is seperated with a hedge if that makes sense. She has lived in that house for 4 years and we used to get along in a good neighbour way - as she lived alone I would often do garden work for her and she came round for a family barbecue once a year, normal neighbour stuff.
We (me and my wife) have had pet chickens for about 7 years now, they are located near the connecting hedge, out of her sight, and she’s never had a problem with them, however the chickens have randomly just now started getting rats, and as a result some of them have gone in her garden, she has messaged to complain, and came round twice to complain, all in the same week, after the first complaint we told her we were dealing with it - as we were, however rat traps take time and don’t work instantly, however, she kept coming round and telling us it was our problem and we need to sort it, and getting progressively annoyed, even though we were managing with it. We payed for pest control to come today, and they even went and spoke to her about how it was getting sorted - as we were tired of her continuous complaints, I didn’t even get a ‘thank you’ or anything, and even after the pest control she is still complaining. She is about 40 years old and a lot of her money is “mummy’s money”, private school and parents brought her a nice house in a nice area, so especially with knowing that, we really think she’s just acting abit entitled now. We are probably going to fall out with our neighbour over this, are we in the wrong for being annoyed? edit: The rats only started coming the same week she got a new cat and dog, she’s also recently had an oil spill - which apparently can attract rats, I don’t know if that’s relevant but.

It you use something like a grandpa feeder and make sure there is no feed left out you're unlikely to have more rats than a chickenless garden. Also make sure that they can't dig under or squeeze through any bars round the chicken run, you may need to add some more wire round the run and examine it every days for attempts, to get in
Food includes food that people put out for the wild birds too, not just chickens. Feeding the wild birds in itself attracts rats and other neighbours probably do that
Where i live we get rats come.in from the surrounding countryside, there is a stream nearby and that is ideal.territory for rats..I won't feed the wild birds up near the house so that the rats that are about aren't tempted to come up.
Even in built up areas there are rats, my son's garden is bird food free but he gets them, same as my parents, house surrounded by lots of other houses. No bird feeding either. I cured that by putting a stone in front of the hole in the wall from which the rats came from next door.
We do have deer that sometimes come into gardens down our road and badgers...it happens when we encroach on their homes

Why would she thank you? 😂 The rats are only there because of your chickens in the first place!

I’m so sorry

I can see both sides as I had this problem when we had chickens and honestly I wish I had never thought about keeping them in the first place it was a total nightmare. They're really hard to get rid of.

You can get metal pedal bins that the chickens learn how to use but the rats can't get in. That should help a bit.

Why doesn't the neighbour try and get rid of any in her garden if she thinks it's so easy?! Get rid of them twice as fast that way and it'd keep them from doing any damage in her garden whilst you sort it your end.

Exactly this. Why would she thank you for dealing with the problem you created?

She is about 40 years old and a lot of her money is “mummy’s money”, private school and parents brought her a nice house in a nice area, so especially with knowing that, we really think she’s just acting abit entitled now.

This attempt to cast her as a pathetic snob or spoilt rich twit that the rest of mumsnet will naturally view as disdainfully as you do has backfired somewhat.

You’ve judged her whole character based off her family background, which she has no control over, which makes you a horrible inverted snob yourself.

Ironically you’ve come across as judging her for going to private school and having wealthy parents while being offended by her audacity to move to a ‘nice house in a nice area’ which presumably you yourself live in! So you’re elitist as well. Yeesh.

The rats only started coming the same week she got a new cat and dog,

what’s the connection?

Originally we got the food that makes the rats infertile, so they can finish living their life happily,

But you didn’t care that your neighbour would be living hers unhappily for years. Rats live for years. So you didn’t think she’d be getting more and more upset and pissed off at having to share her garden with vermin for that length of time? And that she might possibly complain more and take it further, like reporting you to the council? And you’d have been perfectly happy to share your garden with them for the same period?

Don’t believe this

Rats aren't particularly difficult to get rid of. One or two rats should be gone within 10 days of ingesting poison. However, a large infestation, with lots of children and friends will take longer. If the food source continues to exist, new rats will move in.
For the poster whose cat died - modern poisons are supposed to be formulated in order to not harm a secondary consumer. It is equally likely that your cat could have been poisoned by anti-freeze. Cats are attracted to it, they drink it, it is fatal to cats. The cat could have found anti-freeze anywhere, possibly at a neighbour's.
The neighbour should also be helping to deal with the rat problem. The rats do not personally belong to OP. They are wild animals which are trespassing on the neighbour's property. If she chooses to live in a rural location she needs to deal with the pleasures of rural life, including rats.
If I, or one of my neighbours sees a rat, we inform the other neighbours. Then we all set out to deal with the problem. Except the one who likes to sunbathe with the rats, which annoys me. I think we should all pull our weight.
However, OP should be pulling out all of the stops to deal with the issue. If you are a true country dweller you will know about farm shops, which have loads of stuff for rats. I have got about 6 rat boxes all just waiting for some furry visitors.

@HarshbutTrue2 yeah but like you say it takes time and I get the feeling the neighbour expects them gone in like a day lol. Which is not realistic.

Did you miss the part where OPs original plan was to let them live out their natural lives there though? That’s not realistic for the neighbour

Actually a rat’s life span is 6-12 months rarely living past 1-2 years. But they breed quickly and a lot.

If they live their natural lives there they’ll just breed more. I’ve seen lots of rats living in a built on area next to grass wasteland on a main road. Just down the road are shops and takeaway places. The rats actually disappeared after I saw them (poisoned?) but they were running onto the pavement.

Not too sure what your point is to be honest so not sure how to respond

My point was if you leave the rats to reproduce then that is what they will do but more. Over Covid our local park had an infestation of rats which got worse as nothing was done about them for a while. The ones you treat with birth control you’d have to treat their offspring with birth control too, or they’ll breed.

I was also giving an example of how fast and quickly rats breed and where they spread to. Usually if you see a rat it’s something to do with a young male finding food, so if you see a lot of them then there’s lots of them, gaining more confidence and less scared of people and less scared of predators.

This has no baring on what I was saying to someone else. Nobody but Op thought this was a good idea. Nobody is suggesting they don’t breed fast and spread

“I didn’t even get a ‘thank you’ or anything, and even after the pest control she is still complaining. She is about 40 years old and a lot of her money is “mummy’s money”, private school and parents brought her a nice house in a nice area, so especially with knowing that, we really think she’s just acting abit entitled now.”

Wow. This part of your post is terrible, and tells us exactly who is entitled in this scenario.

I have bantams. We have had rats in the past. We live in a village with barns and fields behind so they are inevitable. However, I don't put feeders out for the chickens anymore and it really helps. I throw a scoop of food out in the morning and if they're pestering later in the day maybe some more, cracked corn or suchlike. The crows come straight away and get what they don't snaffle up. So there's literally no food out at night for rodents. The chickens pootle about the garden all day finding bugs etc.

Agreed. It’s almost like you’re feeling superior to her, and her upset about the rats is inconveniencing you - despite it starting from your chickens! I’d be less judgy in future, if I were you.