What causes pest infestations?
A common assumption is that only dirty or neglected homes attract pests like rats and mice. This is not accurate. Any property can become a target if it offers what these animals need: food, warmth and somewhere to shelter.
Gardens, sheds, gaps under decking and even well maintained homes can provide ideal conditions. Pests are opportunistic. They will settle wherever they find resources, regardless of how clean or tidy the property appears.
Problems often arise when a neighbouring property becomes a source of infestation. If pests are breeding next door, they can quickly spread to surrounding homes. This creates a difficult situation, particularly if your neighbour is unwilling to address the problem or denies it exists.
An overgrown or rubbish-filled garden next door is one of the most common sources, as piles of waste and dense growth give rats and mice somewhere to nest.
When informal conversations fail, you may need to involve your local council. Environmental health departments have powers to investigate pest problems and can require property owners to take action.
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Rats pose genuine health risks. They can transmit diseases to humans, including Weil's disease and various forms of food poisoning such as Salmonella. Their urine, droppings and the parasites they carry can contaminate food preparation areas and water sources.
Inside a house, rats typically nest under floorboards, in loft spaces, within wall cavities and in cellars. They are drawn to these areas because they provide warmth and protection from predators. Rats are also skilled climbers and can access upper floors through pipe runs and cavity walls.
Outdoors, rats commonly live in gardens despite their association with sewers. They burrow beneath sheds, nest in compost heaps and take shelter under decking or in thick vegetation. A garden that provides cover and a food source can sustain a breeding population for months without the homeowner realising the extent of the problem.
Signs of rat activity include droppings that are dark and pellet shaped, gnaw marks on wood or plastic, greasy smear marks along walls and skirting boards, and scratching sounds at night. You may also notice holes appearing in lawns or around building foundations.
Your situation may be slightly different. ask a question below ↓ and our editorial team will reply with our advice.
Preventing pest problems
Good housekeeping helps reduce the risk of rodent infestation, though it cannot guarantee prevention. Pests can still arrive due to nearby infestations, structural vulnerabilities or factors outside your control. That said, removing easy food sources and shelter makes your property less attractive to them.
Indoors, store food in sealed containers and clean up spillages promptly. Pay attention to areas behind appliances and under units where crumbs can accumulate unnoticed. Keep bin lids secure and take rubbish out regularly rather than letting it build up.
In the garden, maintain vegetation and cut back overgrown areas. Thick shrubs, tall grass and piles of debris provide cover for rats and mice. Keep lawns trimmed and clear accumulated materials from around sheds and fences.
Be mindful of how you feed wildlife. Putting out food for birds, hedgehogs or squirrels can unintentionally attract rats and mice. If you do feed garden wildlife, use feeders that limit spillage and clean up any fallen food before nightfall. Ground feeding is particularly likely to draw rodents.
Compost bins can also attract pests if they contain cooked food, meat or dairy products. Stick to vegetable peelings, garden waste and cardboard. Turn the compost regularly and consider using a bin with a solid base to prevent rats burrowing in from below.
Check your property for potential entry points. Rats can squeeze through gaps as small as 25mm, and mice through spaces of around 6mm. Seal holes around pipes, vents and cables using wire wool and filler. Fit bristle strips to the bottom of doors if there are gaps, and repair any damaged air bricks with mesh covers.
What to do if you have an infestation
If you spot signs of rats or mice, act quickly. Small problems can escalate rapidly because rodents breed fast. Under favourable conditions with multiple generations breeding, a single pair of rats can lead to a population of over a thousand within a year.
You can attempt to deal with minor infestations yourself using traps or rodenticides available from hardware shops. If you use poison, follow the instructions carefully and place bait in secure stations to prevent access by children, pets and non target wildlife. Always wear gloves when handling traps or dead rodents. DIY methods work best for small, contained problems, but they require careful monitoring and may take several weeks to show results.
For larger or persistent infestations, professional pest control is usually more effective. Professionals can identify entry points, assess the scale of the problem and use stronger treatments. Some local councils offer pest control services, though availability and charges vary widely. Some councils have stopped offering free services altogether, so contact your council's environmental health department to check what applies in your area. Private pest control companies are another option and may offer faster response times.
If you are a tenant, report the problem to your landlord. They have a responsibility to ensure the property is fit for habitation, which includes addressing pest infestations. If your landlord fails to act, your council can intervene.
When the infestation originates from a neighbouring property, the situation becomes more complicated. Start by speaking to your neighbour if possible. They may be unaware of the problem or already taking steps to resolve it. If they refuse to cooperate or the problem continues, contact your local council. Environmental health officers can inspect properties and issue notices requiring owners to deal with pest problems.
Keep a record of what you have observed, including dates, locations and photographs if possible. This information will support any formal complaint you make.
For guidance on council responsibilities and your rights regarding pests, search for environmental health or pest control on your local council website.
And then they left. Said they would be back the next week to see how things were, it has been 4 or 5 weeks, and we have had no one back out at all. No one to check our loft, and things are just getting worse. The mice are no longer contained to the living room it is now the bathroom, my daughter's bedroom, the kitchen.
As for the rats they are no longer contained to just my loft, they are now getting into my daughter's bedroom.
We have called our housing association loads of times and all we get is "we'll call the exterminator and get them to come out again." And once again, we get nothing. We have called the council where we live, and they have contacted the environmental health because our neighbour with the messy gardens are private owners/renters and still nothing has been done about it.
My daughter isn't getting any sleep, and it is making her anxiety even worse than it normally is.
It doesn't feel as if anyone is taking us seriously or wants to know. it's frustrating and tiring.
I know that feeling. My neighbors are from hell. I have had nothing but problems. Recently, I have had an infestestation of sand flies. I have always had a clean house. However, only in the last week I have had this issue. My daughter and me have been bitten badly. I know my neighbours have found a crack and have planted them to go through my house. It's so distressing and my heart goes out to you all. I have three kittens beautiful and do not have fleas or anything. So definitely be suspicious. Note everything down. The time and dates and record it . Pets do not leave dead animals in the hallway mice or rats. By the time cats catch the rodents they spit it out and leave it then run home. If they do catch it it's usually alive then dies. It's definitely spite. So I have brought an amazing hoover. Cross wave. If your house and outside your house is clean how can you possibly be responsible. No way are you. My neighbours places are unclean and my place is cleaned. I've recorded and reported it. If you got pets show the vet bills. Proves your pets are cleaned. Especially, with cats. Good pets are trained well are clean. So get all the products , keep the receipts show the council . If your home and outside your house is clean how can you possibly, be deliberately bringing in pests . Don't worry guys. Get the good products, eliminate the issue record it then show the Council. Hopefully, my new hoover should do the trick. I spent two days cleaning and cleaning. Finally, got rid of them. Then as I am about to leave they come back. Doesn't make sense. So do what you can plan your action and get the sods back. Good luck to you all.Stay strong
From Jazz
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Thanks
I contacted the environmental health department at the Council Offices. An environmental officer was sent to see us and she found the problem was due to holes in the cavity of an outside toilet our neighbours property which is a Kebab takeaway premisses. Our properties are semi-detached. The environmental health officer baited our roof space / loft and had the entry holes filled. Even though I have seen rats in the back lane we had no more rats in the loft.
2020
Over the subsequent years the Kebab takeaway has had several people running the business. In 2020 a new manager took over running the business and knocked down the outside toilet. The cavities where left open for a while which worried me knowing the rat problem that we had previously. I approached the manager and told him of my concerns but he didn't appear to take much notice. The area was boxed in with a plastic construction and a chipboard housing and a precarious corrugated plastic roof.
2021
In early 2021 my wife and I noticed a bad smell in our hallway and we could not work out where it was coming from.
In early March 2021 the smell had got really bad so I stripped out the cupboard under the stairs to find that a rat, or rats had been using the cupboard as a toilet. They had gained access through the a redundant gas pipe hole in the floorboard.
I contacted Council Environmental Health Department. An officer came around on the following Friday morning. He had a look around our property and could not find any problems or entry points for the rats. He said he had better have a look in the Kebab Takeaway next door.
After a short while he came back and said that he had to report his findings immediately. He said, “It's rats restaurant in there. There's fat everywhere with whisker marks.” He couldn't wait to get out quick enough as being a Friday he wanted to report it while there was somebody still in the office.
It took approximately a week before an officer came out from the Council Offices to have a look at the problem. The officer said that she could not see a problem in the takeaway and it was all up together in there.
In mid March I found that our loft area was infested with rats. I contacted the Council Environmental Health Department again. The Environmental Officer asked me where the rats were coming in. I said they were coming using the same entry as the rats several years ago. They were coming from the takeaway premisses next door. I had put a CCTV camera in the loft so I could see them coming in and going out.
The cooking extractor from the takeaway runs across a low, sloping roof at the rear of there property and drips fat down the roof and into their garden. I mentioned this to the Environmental Officer, wondering why she hadn't noticed it. I also mentioned several holes in the brickwork at
I’ve been having the summer from Hell . The bakery attract big rats , because they don’t handle their bins correct. We se rats every where , even on top of the roof . That are big heavy and scary . This bakery got no hygiene whatsoever many times I witnessed they leaving fresh trays of bread to cool down on top lead of the Rubish bin . And is sick to watch people buying their bread .
Because of lack to keep their bins closed clean . Is getting more and more Rats even on my balcony and my neighbour the rats just run from a balcony to other . There’s any chance to contact someone who would something about it ?
There is now a rat infestation beside the bin. I see tame rats wandering around my front garden and theirs I have lived in my house for 20 and never seen this.She has now gone away and has left me and neighbours in same house to deal with this awful mess. We have asked her nicely if we can remove the bin. She has refused and is completely stubborn and selfish.
I have contacted the council I am hoping they will be with us tomorrow. I want to know if we can remove the bin without her agreeing as it is a health hazard? I am hoping when the council will agree it has to be removed.
Can anyone assist with this? I am so distressed with everything else that's going on right now.
Many thanks
I am a disabled pensioner with a compromised immune system. What can be done about this? It's pointless getting pest control out to my house as they are coming from next doors garden, besides I can't afford to pay for this.
Please advice on best action to take.
Thanks
Unable to spend any Quality in my home due to the manufacturing of meth/crack.
There is NO AIR QUALITY and the city water is at times non drinkable.
Manufacturing and distribution.
INTERLANEN COURT us a sick and infested with drugs!
She has now served us with an injunction, which we successfully had disqualified, but are now in the process of court proceedings which she has submitted a claim for us harassing her.
Wherever we go for help, the only person who gets any help is her?
I know there coming from next door as we never had any problems before
Our back garden has direct contact with four council properties.
We bought the house two years ago and due to the large amount of trees and bushes bordering our property, we could not see our boundary wall.
This spring/summer we have decided to clear the trees and bushes, claim back the garden up to the boundary wall, which has gained us at least 2 meters of garden.
Between our boundary wall and the council properties is a kind of no-mans land before the fences start for the council properties.
When we cleared the trees enough to see over the wall, which is only about a meter high, we could see that the no-mans land was full of junk.
Easily identifiable items such as old decking, kitchen units, children's out door toys such as bikes, were piled up on top of bricks, soil - all sorts.
This is all piled up against our wall up to the top of it! So I am sure you can imagine how much rubbish is there.
We took photographs and emailed them to our local (Green Party!) council who said there was nothing they could do about it as we are private home owners and they cannot clear it on our behalf, unless we knew who was responsible.
We think that it is pretty clear who is responsible for the mess and though we may be private home owners, we do pay our Council Tax - surely that must count for something when council tenants have been dumping their waste over their garden fence.
Since then, we have found out who it is. We asked the owners of the houses if they knew anything about it and one put their hands up straight away and admitted it was them and that they had simply been to lazy to take it to the local tip!
Talking with them, they don't seem to think that it is a problem as it isn't 'rubbish-rubbish', whatever that means and they have said that they'll cover it all with soil to bury it so it can't be seen and they don't have to deal with it!
It is used as a toilet by most of the local cats (we'll return to those later) and we're sure foxes as it stinks, especially in this heat we've been having. While we haven't seen any rats, we have seen mice.
Now that we have uncovered the wall at our boundary, it isn't particularly well built and a bit unsightly, so we would like to take it down and put new fences up.
As mentioned, the dump is up against this wall, so if we remove it put the fence up, we will have to deal with it - how is that fair? A question the local (Green Party!) council have not answered.
We phoned the council help line to do with fly tipping and they gave us the email address for Estate Services and that is who we emailed the photos to. As they said they couldn't do anything about it, we asked them to provide us with details of someone who could and we have had no response on that.
Earlier I mentioned the cats use the dump as a toilet? Well, they also use our garden. Every week we pick up bag fulls of cat crap - w
I really need some help as to what action can be taken.
I am an owner of the unit and the offending neighbour also owns her unit.
A vegan an refusing to use poisons as her garden is organic and home to masses of wildlife, she responded to a complain from the council, assuring them that given time, and food withdrawal from bird tables, numbers would decrease, which they have now to only 15. However, she is still being pressured by the council and getting a follow-up call out in January. As owner and strongly against cruelty to ALL species, I think she has a right to continue with he methods until all rats have gone Does he have a case? I must add she has NO rats in her house ad there has ben no damage.
I am confused, can anybody advise me on what to do?
All 3 downstairs residents keep our homes tidy and clean and the last thing we expect when exiting our home is to be swamped by maggots. When ringing merlin on Sunday we got told that it wasn't an emergency. To just put down salt as salt kills them. We did but that only killed the maggots visible and hasn't stopped the problem. So we now have problem number 2 salt coming in to the property bring dragged in by our feet and slipping on salt when walking on the communal area. Merlin came round today Tuesday
To say the maggots aren't coming from the drains and someone must of brought a bag that leaked through. They didn't clean or deal with the problem so what can we do? As it's not pleasant having maggots just upside your door trying to get into your home! So we can't even open our windows just in case.
All 3 downstairs residents keep our homes tidy and clean and the last thing we expect when exiting our home is to be swamped by maggots. When ringing merlin on Sunday we got told that it wasn't an emergency. To just put down salt as salt kills them. We did but that only killed the maggots visible and hasn't stopped the problem. So we now have problem number 2 salt coming in to the property bring dragged in by our feet and slipping on salt when walking on the communal area. Merlin came round today Tuesday
To say the maggots aren't coming from the drains and someone must of brought a bag that leaked through. They didn't clean or deal with the problem so what can we do? As it's not pleasant having maggots just upside your door trying to get into your home! So we can't even open our windows just in case.
I have called the council who don't deal with rats any more and I have called the local police who don't want to know. What should I do as iam an elderly person and why should I have to walk through such filth at my age.
Where have the good old values gone and where has all the council tax money increase gone when services are being cut all the time
Can anyone help please
Npw o have someone buyong the property and yet to explain your only allowed access no one else .and to keep garage door shut people don't like to be told bit this is the rules on my land has got thos bad situation goong on
We have been told if she doesnt comply the council can serve her a notice to cease, and failing that she could be prosecuted under the prevention of damage by pest act 1949.
I wish to add that i have kept all written correspondance between ourselves and next door in case we need it.
Her letters are nothing short of derogatory and making unsubstantiated accusations towards us, we are not bullies, we simply want to preserve our home from pests and damage where avoidable and treatable.
Her attitude seems to put the rights of rodents above her neighbours, that we should put up with it as its part of life!
Sorry it's long winded, but i'd rather give a general insight into what is going on.
Back in november 2014 we noticed rats accessing our neighbours property through a hole in the exisitng property wall next to an extention that had been built on the back of the house, we informed them of this when we saw them the next day, approximately 6 weeks later we informed them again as we had heard rats in our loft.
We was assured they had purchased humane rat traps and their intention was to lure the rats out and catch them humanely and let them go.
Approximately 4 weeks later the traps were still not in place, and we were still witnessing rats entering and exiting the property via this hole, by this time the rats had now bred and become a few more, we also witnessed the taking of nesting materials into the hole, so rather cheekily and with hindsight maybe not the best idea we slid a piece of wire over the hole from our side of the fence purely to see what happened when the rats couldnt get back in, we saw approximately 7 rats around this hole at around dusk time. The next day the neighbour removed the wire, we then recieved a letter stating she had removed the wire as all this did was trap rats in the cavity and above the ceiling. She then outlined that she planned on using these humane traps and understably rats being neophobic need time to acclimatise to new things this was on the 18th January, but as we were witnessing increasing rodent activity we contacted our environmental health dept to ask their advice, they stated that in the interim feeding wildlife needed to stop and suggested that i inform the neighbour of their suggestion taking into consideration she has numerous feeders and also ground feeds, so bearing in mind she had written to us previously and we didnt want confrontation we notified her of the suggestion in a letter.
On the 22 Jan i received a response, in fact a 3 page essay saying that she could not agree with the methods suggested to dealing with the rodent issue, and then proceeded to quoting totally irrelevant information regarding the eradication of wildlife. There was also a statement made that was taken maybe out of context regarding natives and non natives of britain, that i personally took offence to and wrote my own correspondance to. I received a response, that basically said it was taken out of context, explained and then basically told that was the last she wanted to hear as she considered the matter closed and dealt with.
On the 4th of Feb, i had a visit from the E.H.O from the council, and he witnessed the feeding and also the rodent activity, and said for us to arrange a pest control visit for our loft, and pending the outcome of the visit he would take appropriate action, pest control came on the the 6th and put bait in our loft as soon as he opened the hatch he said you have definitely got rats by the smell, and said in all likelyhood the rats are coming in via neighbours wall. Subsequently that meant that the environemental healt
I live in a semi detached house, there are rats coming from next door into our loft we cant see where they're entering so possibly the soffits. We have baited and got manual traps but its a joke there's no sign of the problem stopping. I have been in touch with the council and the asbo team are dealing with it but this has been going on for at least 6 months.
I need help as where to go next because the council aren't doing anything, the house next door is filthy.
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