Problem with neighbours feeding wildlife

jusnoneed, rat poison is very dangerous! It doesn't stay where you put it, rather, dying rats are about and can be eaten by any pets or wildlife, poisoning them too!

Ignore it, it's only for a few weeks. Don't jeopardise the sale of your house!!!

You will have rats whether they're fed or not - they're everywhere. Far more important is helping animals such as the hedgehog - which is in sharp decline (in the 1950's there were 30 million in the UK; today there are less than 1 million!) At the moment, they will be desperately searching for food to put on weight to prepare for hibernation and need to be around 650g to safely go into hibernation and come out of it (many die and never do, because they are too light). Your neighbour is doing a fantastic thing (more of us need to do it) and probably getting a lot of pleasure out of it too, so I would say nothing. (And if anyone wants to learn how to help hedgehogs in your garden, you cold start by creating a Hedgehog Highway - see hedgehogstreet.org for advice. One hedgehog needs around 30 gardens to pass through. They need a constant source of water. Feeding is great - NOT bread and milk! Oh yes and never EVER use blue slug pellets which kill them). Good luck in your new home.

Perhaps she doesn’t like your dogs barking and jumping against her fence in the evenings. We all have our own needs and can be a bit blind to how they affect other people but very aware of how others are affecting us. Not saying this is you, particularly. You seem a nice, caring person. I do say “all of us”, and am including myself.

Live in a semi rural area. Children had devised to feed the wildlife in the strip of woodland behind houses. Within days rats had taken up residence below our shed. Dog food, bread out for animals and goodness, knows what. If it disappeared the kids thought it was good! Took us weeks to clear the rats. All wild animals carry disease most of whuch can cause harm to pets and humans. If I have picked up correctly your neighbour now has a cat, you need to mention the problem with the food to her for her cat's sake if nothing else.

Could you buy her a hedgehog feeding station as a going away present? The badger wouldn't be able to get at the food then.

We get rats in our garden ( we have open ground behind the garden ) but to keep them under control use a rat trap and poison. The trap is locked so children can't touch the poison and access is restricted to small animals so hedgehogs, birds etc can't enter. As greenfinch stated, rats are everywhere, you just have to keep them under control.

I must live on a major hedgehog highway the most we have had in one evening was eleven no idea how many more visited as I went to bed. I say let he keep feeding the hedgehogs they will be going into hibernation soon anyway. Also many people feed birds and one bad winter I had a large rat enjoying the bird feeder, rats are everywhere.

I have an elderly neighbour who was feeding the pigeons. She was putting bread on her shed roof . I had a letter from environmental health which suggested (from complaints from another elderly neighbour) that I was feeding them! Anyhoo, I popped round to see her and suggested she got some nice bird feeders to encourage different varieties. My DH helped put them up... All is good now. Maybe just check what food she is putting out and check it is nothing that will go too soggy and rot too much if not eaten. I have dogs and have to say I wouldn’t be perturbed having her as my neighbour. Its the two legged rats I’m more concerned about!

Badgers are responsible for much of any ground living wildlife deaths, second to them are terriers, not many dogs will tackle a hedgehog, terriers will. Cats are notorious hunters, rats and mice obviously but birds and young rabbits too

Absolutely Horton1828. It's the two legged ones to watch out for. I would love badgers and hedgehogs to visit me. Stay mute, you are moving. Leave your neighbour to her pleasure.

Please don't put poison down for the rats as other animals may die as well.

No no no don't put down rat poisoning. The rat is then eaten by a predator and then that animal is poisoned as well.....foxes, larger birds and even badgers will eat rats and generally keep rat populations down.

We have a neighbour that feeds and waters the birds and leave food out for other animals that might come into the garden. 2 Years ago we discovered that we had rats in our loft, to say that I freaked out was an understatement, I couldnt sleep at night, I felt dirty and I seriously wanted to sell up and move. It took us a fair while to get rid of them, and we had experts in that said they were probably being encouraged by the neighbour feeding them.

sazzl
You are aware of or there may be rats in your neighbours property but thinking ' I'm ok as I will be moving so not my problem ?.How would you feel if it was you moving into a property only to discover there were rats next door which could then enter your property.? Rats are a health hazard and were it me would report it to the local authority.Are you selling your property or renting .Either way I believe it compulsory whether selling or just vacating to report / make aware to those moving into it of hazards and rats are one of those.

I wouldn’t say a thing to her, let her enjoy feeding the wildlife

We have same problem with our elder;y neighbour. She will insist on feeding the baby foxes & of course they then stay around rather than go over to the woods opposite when they are big enough. Mum & Dad fox try to get them over there but the easy food is just too tempting.
The main problem is we have 4 cats so have a cat flap & the little foxes soon found out they could get rough it to the cat food. We moved the food to the conservatory but they still came in. I found 2 of them curled up with our cats on the sofa in there. Luckily they are now bigger & we haven't had them in recently but they poo all over our patio & garden & have caused havoc in both greenhouse & garage as they found a way in.
What neighbour doesn't seem to get is that they should be hunting & catching food & what happens when it is cold in the winter & she doesn't fancy going out to feed them- will they starve? We have tried to explain it to her but she just says they are sweet!!!

Say nothing. Least said, soonest mended my mum used to say. Nature is nature and often gruesome in the raw. The rat and his family members would have been around for a long time, you just haven't seen them before! Leave it up to the new people to decide whether or not it's acceptable.

It's probably better to feed the rats in the garden than leave them to come up the toilet into the house to find food. At least out in the open the fox can grab them!

Who was there first, the wildlife or your housing estate? If the built environment means there is not enough food for wildlife to source independently, who can blame them for wanting to eat an elderly lady's freebie hand-outs or would you prefer them to starve so you can live more comfortably.

People say rats are a health hazard, I'd say the biggest health hazard to this planet is human behaviour.

You don’t think she’d like to know she could be attracting rats to her house?!

I’d be upset if someone DIDNT tell me.

Yes she’s lost her partner, but she’s not a delicate flower.

You don’t need to tell her to stop, but why not mention that you’d seen rats to give her a heads up?

I’ve lived overseas where I had rats in and out along with lizards cockroaches and the odd snake so to have a hedgehog visit my garden would be bliss but I have to have a walled garden my house is on a main toad with a vehicled alleyway at the back Fences get knocked down or get holes poked in them by playful kids or bashed by footballs

Foxes normally are voracious rat eaters , small rodents are their favourite food. I would leave them to get on with it.
Most local authorities charge for rodent control so if you report rats then the homeowner will be paying. You already have a free rat control service .

I wouldn't say anything. I think it's lovely that your neighbour is protecting and encouraging wildlife. Rats are everywhere anyway, I doubt your neighbour leaving food out has caused many more rats to move to the neighbourhood. And I think that it would be really unkind to upset your neighbour when you're moving anyway. Let the person who is moving in sort if if they want to.