Pest Control

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Do I handle the problem myself?

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Oh great Council of DFD, I present to you the following moral dilemma:

Most of you know about Michelle and I moving into a little house together. All is well in the Alius-Griffiths household, except for one thing. Shortly after moving in, we noticed that the couple of women who live two houses down feed all of the stray cats in the neighborhood. I could probably walk outside right now and there would be anywhere from 5-15 cats laying around the sidewalk outside of their place. Other than being obviously well fell fat fucks, the cats have clear signs of being sick, missing patches of fur, etc... We didn’t think too much of it, but our neighbor between our house and theirs warned us early on that his yard is essentially their litter box, and ours has followed suite. Our landlords spent some time and money fixing up the yard for us, and every day you can see where the cats have dug around in the mulch leaving bare patches to cover all of the shit they drop off in our yard. Annoying, but not the end of the world. Where I’m frustrated is that they’ve also brought fleas into our yard. We’ve kept Ava on a pretty strict flea medication regimen and haven’t had any problems until now.

The cats don’t just go in our front yard, but they climb over and crawl under the fence to get in our backyard as well, which is where I believe Ava has picked up the fleas from. She’s biting and scratching at herself constantly despite our efforts to keep her comfortable and has several open and now infected sores from trying to relieve the itchiness. A several hundred dollar vet visit today has landed her partially shaved, in a cone, and drugged up on top of a new flea medication. Vet bills aside, since that’s just part of owning a pet, I’m frustrated about not letting her be able to run around our backyard without worrying about her picking up more fleas since they become immune to the medications over time. We have no way of keeping the cats out.

Step one is obviously talk to the couple and inform them of the problem. I’m not expecting them to take action since these aren’t their pets and our other neighbor has warned us that when he’s approached them their attitude is very “cats gonna cat”. So if they aren’t receptive to taking responsibility for putting the cats that they are keeping in this area on flea medications, what would you do? Option one is the “humane” route of calling code enforcement and animal control. Let them determine their fate. Option two is to leave rat poison or something similar in my front yard so any stray animal that comes around eats it and dies. “But they’re domestic animals!!” No, they aren’t. At this point they are nothing more than pests and nuisances to not only us, but the rest of the neighborhood. While poisoning them is probably illegal, we also have rats and skunks in the neighborhood, so I could easily explain that I was just trying to get rid of those and didn’t know the cats would eat it.

Persuade me not to nuke these little pieces of shit.
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[user not found] wrote: Sun Sep 13, 2020 7:01 pm I'd do two things:

1) call animal control
2) get some motion activated sprinklers

I'd personally be VERY tempted to poison them (or shoot them with a pellet gun) but that's a world of shit if it goes sideways.
Sprinklers are a :notbad: idea..

I thought about a little bb or pellet gun, but figured the poison route would be less obvious since they spend time in everyone’s yards.
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Yeah we bought stuff to treat the yard with after the vet appointment too.
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Looked at stuff to keep the cats out of the yard, but has to be applied every 24 hours and fuck that noise.
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Tough question, but the cats need to get out of your backyard and stay out to protect your dog. The best way to get rid of them is at the source of their food.
My neighbor at the old house bought the world's biggest bird feeder and ever vermin known to the area fed off of it, including the intended (cute little birds). After a month the bird shit all over my cars and front porch were unbearable. I showed him the result of the feeder (walked him over for show and tell), and explained how the feedings are bringing new birds and they are over fed to create the mess. He had trouble visualizing it but doing the neighborly thing he took it down permanently.

Maybe all it will take is to show the feeding culprit your dog in a cone and all fucked up and they might stop knowing that there is fleas all over the place including their yard.
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Tarspin wrote: Sun Sep 13, 2020 9:03 pm Tough question, but the cats need to get out of your backyard and stay out to protect your dog. The best way to get rid of them is at the source of their food.
My neighbor at the old house bought the world's biggest bird feeder and ever vermin known to the area fed off of it, including the intended (cute little birds). After a month the bird shit all over my cars and front porch were unbearable. I showed him the result of the feeder (walked him over for show and tell), and explained how the feedings are bringing new birds and they are over fed to create the mess. He had trouble visualizing it but doing the neighborly thing he took it down permanently.

Maybe all it will take is to show the feeding culprit your dog in a cone and all fucked up and they might stop knowing that there is fleas all over the place including their yard.
:notbad: Maybe we’ll bring the pup over when we go talk to them.
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As much as I love cats, crazy cat people feeding strays is a huge neighborhood problem. Jessi's late mother was one of these people, and as she got older and couldn't take care of her hour properly, things got pretty fucking gross. Jessi had to end up ripping out all the carpet.

Cats roam, it's what they do when they're indoors/outdoors, but it's up to the owners to handle their pets, and FFS, don't feed strays.
There are tons of no-kill shelters, or foster one or two and find them a home. There's options.

I'll talk to some vet techs, and see what they say.
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Let Ava kill the cats. Dogs gon’ dog :iono:
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razr390 wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 9:59 am Let Ava kill the cats. Dogs gon’ dog :iono:
:notbad: ImShe did a good job of scaring them off from behind our security door for a few days, but they quickly learned that she wasn’t actually going to come out and after them. I’d love to let her chase them off, but her dumbass would chase them into the street and get hit my a car lol.

Also considering a doggie door leading to the backyard so she can chase them out of there, plus she’d have the freedom of going outside during the day to pee and whatnot.
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Melon wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 9:59 am As much as I love cats, crazy cat people feeding strays is a huge neighborhood problem. Jessi's late mother was one of these people, and as she got older and couldn't take care of her hour properly, things got pretty fucking gross. Jessi had to end up ripping out all the carpet.

Cats roam, it's what they do when they're indoors/outdoors, but it's up to the owners to handle their pets, and FFS, don't feed strays.
There are tons of no-kill shelters, or foster one or two and find them a home. There's options.

I'll talk to some vet techs, and see what they say.
Thanks bud!
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Tarspin wrote: Sun Sep 13, 2020 9:03 pm Tough question, but the cats need to get out of your backyard and stay out to protect your dog. The best way to get rid of them is at the source of their food.
My neighbor at the old house bought the world's biggest bird feeder and ever vermin known to the area fed off of it, including the intended (cute little birds). After a month the bird shit all over my cars and front porch were unbearable. I showed him the result of the feeder (walked him over for show and tell), and explained how the feedings are bringing new birds and they are over fed to create the mess. He had trouble visualizing it but doing the neighborly thing he took it down permanently.

Maybe all it will take is to show the feeding culprit your dog in a cone and all fucked up and they might stop knowing that there is fleas all over the place including their yard.
This is my favorite idea... they obviously like animals, so maybe showing them what happened to your :doge: would have more impact then just confronting them with words. If they care that much about these :pussy: , they should take them to a vet and get them treated/taken care of.

Beyond that, I would probably advise against killing them and just call animal control and report the people if they aren't receptive.
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SAWCE wrote: Sun Sep 13, 2020 7:18 pm
[user not found] wrote: Sun Sep 13, 2020 7:01 pm I'd do two things:

1) call animal control
2) get some motion activated sprinklers

I'd personally be VERY tempted to poison them (or shoot them with a pellet gun) but that's a world of shit if it goes sideways.
Sprinklers are a :notbad: idea..

I thought about a little bb or pellet gun, but figured the poison route would be less obvious since they spend time in everyone’s yards.
The poison route leaves evidence.....the dead :pussy: filled with poison. Skip this route. I had a dog once.....chow mix with a high prey drive. Put her in the back yard and your cat problems would have been over. Snapped necks everywhere.
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SAWCE wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 10:13 am
razr390 wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 9:59 am Let Ava kill the cats. Dogs gon’ dog :iono:
:notbad: ImShe did a good job of scaring them off from behind our security door for a few days, but they quickly learned that she wasn’t actually going to come out and after them. I’d love to let her chase them off, but her dumbass would chase them into the street and get hit my a car lol.

Also considering a doggie door leading to the backyard so she can chase them out of there, plus she’d have the freedom of going outside during the day to pee and whatnot.
How do you NOT have dog door?
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Desertbreh wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:11 am
SAWCE wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 10:13 am

:notbad: ImShe did a good job of scaring them off from behind our security door for a few days, but they quickly learned that she wasn’t actually going to come out and after them. I’d love to let her chase them off, but her dumbass would chase them into the street and get hit my a car lol.

Also considering a doggie door leading to the backyard so she can chase them out of there, plus she’d have the freedom of going outside during the day to pee and whatnot.
How do you NOT have dog door?
Been lower on the priority list as we settled into the house. I still need to fix up the backyard and get grass back there. Dead grass and weeds now, with foxtails, so we have to be careful with Ava and check her paws after she’s been out there to make sure she doesn’t have any lodged in there. Landlords finally got the shed they had ordered up in the backyard last week, so backyard landscaping projects are finally going to happen. Gonna here the same crew they used to clear out the front yard to clear the back yard and level everything off, and then I’ll do either sod or that GoTrax stuff.

For now Michelle has someone come walk Ava for 30 minutes during the day while we’re at work, which also kept the dog door lower on the list. Will consult with landlords about putting a dog door in the current door, or buying my own door and throwing the one that’s on right now in the shed and reinstall it whenever we do move on in a few years.
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Desertbreh wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:09 am
SAWCE wrote: Sun Sep 13, 2020 7:18 pm

Sprinklers are a :notbad: idea..

I thought about a little bb or pellet gun, but figured the poison route would be less obvious since they spend time in everyone’s yards.
The poison route leaves evidence.....the dead :pussy: filled with poison. Skip this route. I had a dog once.....chow mix with a high prey drive. Put her in the back yard and your cat problems would have been over. Snapped necks everywhere.
While they might do some investigating if the entire pack of cats drops dead at once, if one or two start dropping here and there, I doubt these people are going to take them in to see what happened. Like I said, they’re all visibly in various states of sickness..
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As an animal person, especially a cat person, I'd advise not to go about the killing/poisoning route. My wife was a vet tech for 15 years, and while we love our asshole cats, we have a different approach to strays and ferals. My wife worked for a couple of rescue facilities that were TNRs (trap, neuter, release) and she saw her fair share of some that were just too sick to rehabilitate so they were put down. Our area finally adopted a no-kill rule for shelters, but you've gotta understand that not every one of them is going to get adopted and will ultimately live their lives in a cage. It's not really appealing.

As far as your neighbors feeding the strays, this is a double problem. 1) It's a psychological problem where they feel empathy for the cats, and you will likely not change their thought process on how they treat them. Them stopping their feeding will not stop because they will see their lack of helping as hurting the cats they feed.
2) Removing the cats from the equation is also iffy. If it's a feral colony, or a bunch of cats that tend to stay grouped together, then removing one at a time will likely not have much effect. You'd almost need to remove them all completely, or as quick as possible. Cats, especially ferals, have a social hierarchy where as if you remove one from the group, another will take its place. It's the reason that TNR programs exist. You almost can't eliminate the colony completely unless you get rid of the whole thing, so the best and most efficient thing to do is to trap one or two, neuter them, and then release them back. Then you get another, and another... Until you eventually control that population so it doesn't spread like wildfires.

If it was me, I'd let animal control handle it. Some areas do have programs that take them in upon capture and vaccinate them and help with general health concerns. Some may put them into shelters after, some might release back to their respective areas. You just need to make some calls to find out what they do. If they put them down, then it is what it is. I'm all for cats, but not wild cats that do nothing but hood rat shit with their government checks. But Tarspin is correct that their food source is the main source of the problem. But personally I do not think you'll be able to convince these other people that their feeding of the strays needs to stop because in their eyes you're asking them to abandon them and let them die. My wife will chime in and I'll let you know what she says. Either me or :melon:
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SAWCE wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:33 am
Desertbreh wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:11 am

How do you NOT have dog door?
Been lower on the priority list as we settled into the house. I still need to fix up the backyard and get grass back there. Dead grass and weeds now, with foxtails, so we have to be careful with Ava and check her paws after she’s been out there to make sure she doesn’t have any lodged in there. Landlords finally got the shed they had ordered up in the backyard last week, so backyard landscaping projects are finally going to happen. Gonna here the same crew they used to clear out the front yard to clear the back yard and level everything off, and then I’ll do either sod or that GoTrax stuff.

For now Michelle has someone come walk Ava for 30 minutes during the day while we’re at work, which also kept the dog door lower on the list. Will consult with landlords about putting a dog door in the current door, or buying my own door and throwing the one that’s on right now in the shed and reinstall it whenever we do move on in a few years.
Ah ha.
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Called Humane Society, they don’t pick up stray or feral cats, but said I can humanely trap them and make an appointment to bring them in if I want to.

Code enforcement is up next. See if that gets anything done.
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[user not found] wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 12:17 pm
Acid666 wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 12:00 pm As an animal person, especially a cat person, I'd advise not to go about the killing/poisoning route. My wife was a vet tech for 15 years, and while we love our asshole cats, we have a different approach to strays and ferals. My wife worked for a couple of rescue facilities that were TNRs (trap, neuter, release) and she saw her fair share of some that were just too sick to rehabilitate so they were put down. Our area finally adopted a no-kill rule for shelters, but you've gotta understand that not every one of them is going to get adopted and will ultimately live their lives in a cage. It's not really appealing.

As far as your neighbors feeding the strays, this is a double problem. 1) It's a psychological problem where they feel empathy for the cats, and you will likely not change their thought process on how they treat them. Them stopping their feeding will not stop because they will see their lack of helping as hurting the cats they feed.
2) Removing the cats from the equation is also iffy. If it's a feral colony, or a bunch of cats that tend to stay grouped together, then removing one at a time will likely not have much effect. You'd almost need to remove them all completely, or as quick as possible. Cats, especially ferals, have a social hierarchy where as if you remove one from the group, another will take its place. It's the reason that TNR programs exist. You almost can't eliminate the colony completely unless you get rid of the whole thing, so the best and most efficient thing to do is to trap one or two, neuter them, and then release them back. Then you get another, and another... Until you eventually control that population so it doesn't spread like wildfires.

If it was me, I'd let animal control handle it. Some areas do have programs that take them in upon capture and vaccinate them and help with general health concerns. Some may put them into shelters after, some might release back to their respective areas. You just need to make some calls to find out what they do. If they put them down, then it is what it is. I'm all for cats, but not wild cats that do nothing but hood rat shit with their government checks. But Tarspin is correct that their food source is the main source of the problem. But personally I do not think you'll be able to convince these other people that their feeding of the strays needs to stop because in their eyes you're asking them to abandon them and let them die. My wife will chime in and I'll let you know what she says. Either me or :melon:
This is all interesting shit and explains so much of what we see on our Nextdoor App. The feeders even post when one of "their cats" doesn't show up.

Our township does TNR and it does seem that there are fewer and fewer around, but I know it's been a years long process.
Yes, people that feed one or two strays, no biggie. But people that encourage mass groups of wild cats are typically on another level. Usually they're hoarders. It's why when you watch the tv show Hoarders, you'll find that they have shit tons of animals running around. They say that the animals are cared for, but it's rare that it's true. Keeping a large number of animals up to speed with health can be costly, and most people of that mentality won't spend the cash since they'd rather hoard. Same for flea treatments.... They aren't going to spend that kind of money on that.

We have a bunch of cats, and we keep up with most of their stuff, vaccines we usually do every two years since they're all indoor cats, but we keep a couple on senior plans yearly. Feeders of strays tend to think they're helping, but all they're doing is keeping them centralized to one area and bringing all of their problems along with them. Hence Sawce's issue.

Here's a couple of key points I found that basically reiterate what I posted.
TNR Benefits

Benefits for feral cats. Neutered cats tend to gain weight and have fewer health problems -- such as breast, testicular, and uterine cancer. Spaying also reduces the risks that go along with pregnancy. Fewer females in heat also means fewer toms attracted to an area, and so fewer risky cat fights.
Benefits for people. Spaying and neutering feral cats offers population control. Behaviors like fighting and marking are also reduced, while benefits such as rodent control continue. Ultimately, less cat suffering also means less human suffering in the face of dying or injured cats.


The Problem With Relocation and Eradication

Some people advocate relocating or “putting down” feral cats instead. Relocation may sound like a humane solution, but it is ultimately ineffective due to the “vacuum effect.” Feral cats gather where there are resources: food, water, and shelter. When an existing colony is relocated (or eradicated), before long a new flock of feral cats will discover the same resources and move in to “fill the vacuum.”

Relocation is unappealing for other reasons. Because cats are very territorial, a relocated cat may try to find its way home, suffering accident or death on the way. The relocation area may already have an established colony or it may lack food, water, or shelter. Unless a colony’s life is in danger, most experts agree that relocation is almost always a bad solution.
Basically, my advice is still to call animal control and see what they can do about the problem. Treat your yard for the time being, talk to your vet about an aggressive flea prevention option, possibly look at giving your dog baths more often to help rid the fleas during the time frame where animal control is doing their thing. That is if they can do anything. It sucks to have a backyard and not be able to really use it. So I feel ya on the frustration
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troyguitar wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 1:10 pm Image
:lolol: if one is willing to help trap the others I’ll adopt it and get it healthy and comfortable in my house.
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Acid666 wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 1:14 pm
[user not found] wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 12:17 pm

This is all interesting shit and explains so much of what we see on our Nextdoor App. The feeders even post when one of "their cats" doesn't show up.

Our township does TNR and it does seem that there are fewer and fewer around, but I know it's been a years long process.
Yes, people that feed one or two strays, no biggie. But people that encourage mass groups of wild cats are typically on another level. Usually they're hoarders. It's why when you watch the tv show Hoarders, you'll find that they have shit tons of animals running around. They say that the animals are cared for, but it's rare that it's true. Keeping a large number of animals up to speed with health can be costly, and most people of that mentality won't spend the cash since they'd rather hoard. Same for flea treatments.... They aren't going to spend that kind of money on that.

We have a bunch of cats, and we keep up with most of their stuff, vaccines we usually do every two years since they're all indoor cats, but we keep a couple on senior plans yearly. Feeders of strays tend to think they're helping, but all they're doing is keeping them centralized to one area and bringing all of their problems along with them. Hence Sawce's issue.

Here's a couple of key points I found that basically reiterate what I posted.
TNR Benefits

Benefits for feral cats. Neutered cats tend to gain weight and have fewer health problems -- such as breast, testicular, and uterine cancer. Spaying also reduces the risks that go along with pregnancy. Fewer females in heat also means fewer toms attracted to an area, and so fewer risky cat fights.
Benefits for people. Spaying and neutering feral cats offers population control. Behaviors like fighting and marking are also reduced, while benefits such as rodent control continue. Ultimately, less cat suffering also means less human suffering in the face of dying or injured cats.


The Problem With Relocation and Eradication

Some people advocate relocating or “putting down” feral cats instead. Relocation may sound like a humane solution, but it is ultimately ineffective due to the “vacuum effect.” Feral cats gather where there are resources: food, water, and shelter. When an existing colony is relocated (or eradicated), before long a new flock of feral cats will discover the same resources and move in to “fill the vacuum.”

Relocation is unappealing for other reasons. Because cats are very territorial, a relocated cat may try to find its way home, suffering accident or death on the way. The relocation area may already have an established colony or it may lack food, water, or shelter. Unless a colony’s life is in danger, most experts agree that relocation is almost always a bad solution.
Basically, my advice is still to call animal control and see what they can do about the problem. Treat your yard for the time being, talk to your vet about an aggressive flea prevention option, possibly look at giving your dog baths more often to help rid the fleas during the time frame where animal control is doing their thing. That is if they can do anything. It sucks to have a backyard and not be able to really use it. So I feel ya on the frustration
Yeah this all makes sense. From what I’ve seen of their yard and into their house through windows there is definitely some hoarding going on.

When I spoke to the humane society just now, they said they aren’t doing TNR right now due to Covid. I’d have to trap each one myself, wait until they have an appointment and then bring it in. If it’s a candidate for adoption, they’ll neuter/spay it and then adopt it out. If not, they aren’t doing neuters or spays for the public currently and that applies to stray/feral cats and dogs brought in, so it would just be given back to me with the expectation that I release it back where I found it... If I didn’t have to make the appointments and could just bring them in as I trap them, I’d be willing to go this route, but with the current protocol, nah. I’m not keeping a trapped cat for a few days just to show up and have them tell me to take it right back home. Sucks.

We’ll see if code enforcement does anything.
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