Thanks to my neighbours I have rats
By violeta_va
@violeta_va (4831)
Australia
May 31, 2008 10:05am CST
Would you say something? Next door neighbours have turned their yard into a zoo. They have lots of animals (this is in the suburbs). I dont have an issue with that at all (they have 7-8 different kinds of animals including rabits and chicken and ducks). The problem is we noticed mice or rat dropings in the garage and the yard and they have been eating things in the garage. Today me and my son saw a rat coming from next door in our back yard. The thing is we have lived in the house for over 2 years now and this is the first time we have seen rats and they only started coming since they got the chickens about 2 months ago. I dont talk much to them (she is a single mom with 3 girls) and she is hardly ever home. We say hi and all that the kids come play in my house but we are not best friends. Should I say something? Would you? As we are going away for 3 months I fear the rats will destroy everything.
4 people like this
5 responses
@heleni0 (322)
•
31 May 08
I would politely asked to speak to her about the rats or leave a letter if she's not home. If she has children and animals then she should also be concerned about wild rats running around. Rats can cause a lot of damage and can be dangerous is someone gets bitten. If she is not cooperative then I would inform her that you will contact the local authorities if she doesn't do something about them.
We had a MASSIVE rat living under our stairs a couple of years ago. Here in the UK if you have a wild rat in your house or garden you have to inform your local council. Do you have any laws like that where you are?
@violeta_va (4831)
• Australia
1 Jun 08
No I dont think we have that sort of law here in Australia but if we did they would be very busy as here its warm enough for them to reproduce all year and they dont die because they freze like they do in Europe so you can imagine how much of a problem it can be
@JudithP (295)
• Canada
31 May 08
If your neighbour is not cleaning up after her animals they will definitely attract mice and rats. We once lived in an old farm house but someone else rented the barn. He too did not clean up after the animals. Come winter the house was filled with rats because of the cold weather. We ended up moving. You should check with the town or city bylaw officer. Most won't let you have farm animals on your property within the town limits. Rats are hard to get rid of once they move in and obviously she is leaving feed around and that is what is attracting them. They do destroy property and they carry disease. I would really make a point of calling someone in authority and let them handle it. The only other thing I can suggest is get yourself a cat.
@violeta_va (4831)
• Australia
31 May 08
Come to think of it you are right they only started coming when the cold weather started. The other neighbours dog was making funny noise yesterday (he is a huge dog) and was making sort of like coughing whining noise I said I hope we didnt poison the poor thing. I would defenetly do something about it before we go.
@richard331 (100)
• United States
1 Jun 08
I think the best option for you is to go next door and ask if you may have a cat (to kill the rats) If your not a pet person you should just call the pest cortrol company and let them
@fluffnflowers (1594)
• United States
31 May 08
Are they zoned agriculture? I know, where we are, unless you're zoned agriculture you can't have more than four animals and no chickens, ducks, warrens, etc. Animal control should be able to help you out, and your local health department should have something to say.
I'd probably do it anonymously, just in case she's the kind of person who would trash your house as soon as you left. Not saying it'd happen, but you never know and people get pretty wound up about their pets. Even if their situation is cleaned up, it might make sense to have an exterminator out before you leave, then your home owners insurance should cover any damage done. That's how it works with my insurance company, but you'd have to check out your policy to make sure.
Good luck. It sounds like kind of an awful situation, for the animals and the family.
@violeta_va (4831)
• Australia
31 May 08
I have no idea what zoned agriculture is but I swear to God my neighbourhood is turning into a farm minus the big yards and fresh air lol. As most of the animal cages (or whatever they are called) are next to my fence she will know it was us that called someone. We are puting poison everywhere but I am scared I would poison some of the neighbourhood cats and dogs if they eat the rats or mice. I would like to aproach her but I dont know what to say without been too rude. I know that she loves her kids and they love their pets plus its their father who buys most of them so its not like she has much to say if you know what I mean. So I dont want to cause too much trouble but we have so many things in the garage (we dont park in there).
@fatima07 (169)
• Philippines
17 Jun 08
We hate rats,,the rats here in the philippines are some kinda different they are messy,black in color and they destroy things in our house including my books, bags and they eat our food when we were left it in our table. I dont think that rats can be treated as pet but I would never choose rat as my pet.
