'My neighbour has 200 pet pigeons that attract rats to my flat - it's rotten'

A man is asking for advice about what to do with a neighbour who houses 200 pet pigeons, as they are attracting flies and rats to the property.

In recent months, flies have been a huge issue as they swarm his home, leaving him unable to open his doors at times - but now he's seen evidence of rats as a result of the neighbours' unusual pet.

The man had been moving something outside when he saw two rats run past his feet, leaving him horrified at the 'rotten' situation.

Taking to Reddit, he said his letting agents have investigated and say the pigeons are not attracting the rats, but he feels they must be.

He said he had two rats run by his feet when outside (stock photo) (Getty Images)

The man, who remained anonymous, wrote: "The problem is that the house next door which is a rental, they keep a number of pigeons. I was told last year that he had 200.

"I found a rat hole tunnelled into my garden from under one of the lofts. The hole was filled with pigeon feathers and food. I was moving some old outdoor dog beds in my lean-to yesterday and two rats ran out past my feet. I found loads of rat excrement and the stink was rotten."

He added that he went to his neighbours to talk to them about it but they were not helpful, so he went to his letting agents.

He said: "They went from 'we will look into it', to 'We investigated this with your neighbours, and they don't have any evidence of any rodents in their garden. We think it could be a local problem, and we feel the neighbours can't be blamed just because they have birds'.

"Now I had a professional pest control guy out last month and he cited the lofts as the overwhelming likely cause of the pests. Never mind the fact the rat hole is literally coming from under the pigeon loft."

In response, the man received a wealth of advice online with many agreeing it must be an unpleasant situation.

One person wrote: "Contact Someone in department of agriculture? Anyone keeping birds needs to be registered maybe, for both disease control (bird flu) and animal welfare."

While another added: "200 pigeons would also probably put it in the territory of being a business, which again the council would need notification of."

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