What would you do? (the buggy neighbor problem)
 

Ok, I have these awful neighbors. Two guys rent the house. They don't own it, but know the owner well. The owner is NEVER around.

They have many fruit trees, and they just let it fall. It feeds rats, and then we get rat problems. Then kitties eat rat poison. BAD.

They have let their backyard go to HELL. At least it's not very sunny, so there's no rattler population (yet), but everything is overgrown. It houses many critters. Some stuff pokes through the fence.

I just pulled a massive plant. It was succulentish and VERY thorny. Freakin' OW kind of thorny. The bits and pieces filled a 5-gallon bucket from 1 plant. The nasty part? COVERED in aphids! So this is where my aphid issues are coming from. Nice.

One of the fence panels was askew, so I peeked through, and I saw at LEAST 30 square feet of this same thorny plant, and they were jungle-thick and waist high. I don't even want to know how many aphids are in that mess.

How would you handle this problem? They never answer the door, ever. They smoke and grow a LOT of weed, by the smell of the place. (at least they care about one kind of plant...) They are not particularly friendly. But their critters are overrunning my plants!

I was considering buying a bunch of lacewing larvae and food, and dumping some of the lacewings in my garden, but tossing the majority over the fence - they'd never notice. I'm growing my ladybug population, and I may start migrating them over the fence too. I'm also considering putting small water baths on top of the fence for the birds - not only would the birds bathe there, but then they'd eat buggies from either yard.

Short of having the place condemned, paying someone to drop napalm, or causing a round-up explosion (oooh, hey! IDEA!!! Monsanto could be good for something), I just don't know what to do.

Suggestions would be great!!!

In my town the board of health is very prompt responding to those types of complaints (weeds and vermin)

Good ole neighbor issues. :)
You probably need to speak with the owner of the property, rather than the renters. He should not be letting the backyard get that tall and nasty. In the meantime, check your city or town ordinance. Usually there is something on the books that covers vacant lots or unsightly lots. Then if you can't get anywhere with the owner, you'll have a plan B to fall back on.
I think the drawing the birds in is a great idea personally. You might also think about having a mowing strip or mulched strip between your garden and the neighbor fence. Set your bird baths up in that strip so you can enjoy them from your yard.
Good luck.

So sorry about the neighbors!
If things don't get cleaned up that well or the bugs still hang around, attacting birds does work. I've had less insect issues since I've started attacting them.
Over here I hang thistle(nyjer) seed feeders, and it only attracts little non-nuisance birds like goldfinches and Chickadees. Plus there is no seed mess left over. With you being on the other side of the country, I don't know if the same seed would work for you, but I'm sure you could ask around.
Remy

What an awful mess. Maybe you don't want to poke them too hard with a sharp stick - they could go out and buy round-up and really take out everything for a block! I would start with the owner and say you are calling the health dept. b/c of the critters, possible rattlesnakes - YIKES!!!, can't we work something out? Here the magic word is RAT - I think I saw a rat and they are here in a heartbeat to check things out. Piegirl

The backyard is surrounded by a solid wood 6' fence - they get to escape the "unsightly" rules. :(

Though Barbee has a good idea with creating a mulch strip between the fence and other stuff, my ENTIRE in-ground growing area is along that fence. The rest of the yard is paved. The area is 40' x 1' . I'd have to mulch my whole area and grow nothing.

The owner is just as bad. The one time we've seen him, he hammered on the landlady's door and screamed about the trash cans encroaching on his property. His front lawn was covered with logs from his tree-cutting some 14 months earlier, and his weeds were 4' high. The neighbors take up a monthly collection to pay the lawn guy to cut that lawn also. She got right back in his face about that. now they've had dumpsters in the front yard for a month, but the logs are gone. He fixed a fence problem in the back and cut down one tree that wasn't actually a problem. Didn't mow the back or anything.

Rattlers are a big problem in SoCal, but as long as you maintain your yard, they generally don't set up shop in the middle of a bunch of houses.

I don't want to cause too much of a problem, but the rat issue cost me $600 in vet bills, cost in traps and extermination fees for my landlady, and continues to cost me in terms of organic methods of bug-killing. I'll call the health department if I have to.

Oh, they feed the squirrels peanuts, too. The squirrels then dig up my SIP's to hide the peanuts.

Thanks, remy for the note on the feeders. I may try that.

I'm still tempted to throw round-up over the fence into that pit of thorny hell.

I like lots of the suggestions so far, and I can think of a few things I would do.

First, and let's just be blunt. The most obvious law-breaking going on is the growing and using of weed. If you know, then it seems to me, it would be apparent to others as well. Call the cops and tell them what you've observed. If these people are growing a LOT of weed, I think the cops would be likely to take notice.

If you like the owner, then you might give him a heads up that you're going to call, and give him the chance to get rid of his renters before you call.. or call the cops himself.

.... Failing this, more direct action - If it were me and I'd done everything else I could and they just wouldn't listen, I would do one of the following some time at night, or when they're not at home:

- Load up a sprayer with lots of weed/plant killer, bring a ladder over to the wall, and spray enough of the stuff into their backyard to kill most everything.

- BIG bag of salt.. dispersed across their backyard, or at least as far as you can get it by hand beyond the fence-line.

.. yeah, I know. Not nice..:?!?: but then again, if they give you no other choice.

When I saw where you live, I suspected your back yard may not be too big. OK, let's rethink this. I'm always for trying to get along with your neighbors, cause you gotta live by them LoLoL
Could you ask them if you could put a mulched strip on their side of the fence? Maybe a note on the door that you had a sticky weed poking through the fence and would they like you to help them get rid of those. Offer them use of the mower? Or mow the yard for them? I know that seems unfair to you, but you are reaping the benefits in the end. How does the front yard look? Do they take care of that? Do they own a mower?
Or, if you don't want to go that route, maybe just calling the Health Dept. and asking them what to do is your best course of action. Or, if you rent, ask your landlord to take care of the issue for you. I'm sure your landlord doesn't want rattlers around either!
BTW, any weeds that poke thru the fence on your side can be painted with a tad of Roundup and taken care of. They would just slowly die in about 2 weeks.

Thinking of constructive things to do...

First problem is that rats in Calif. looooooooove fruit trees. Does your community have a gleaning organization? We have one called Village Harvest that sends volunteers to pick fruit trees, then distributes some of the fruit to those in need, and makes jams and preserves from some of it. Or a local food closet or homeless shelter? Maybe if you approach the owner with solutions to a neighborhood problem, he'll be more likely to listen. Or have a neighborhood meeting about sharing excess food, and have people going door to door to ask if they can pick fruit trees. And if they do get consent to pick the trees, maybe they can make a point of trampling the weeds. Or maybe you and a few neighbors can informally offer to pick the fruit and distribute it wherever?

Aphids. If there are enough aphids, sooner or later (I know you hope "sooner"), the predators will come. Sometimes you can't tell the aphids have been predated unless you look closely with a hand lens -- lots of empty bodies, literally sucked dry. Bird baths and thistle feeders are a great idea! I've seen people using those thistle feeders in northern Calif.

Poor kitties! Can you keep them indoors for a while? I've seen screen houses for cats (sort of like aviaries or screened porches, attached to the house) that let cats enjoy the fresh air but keep them safe from rats, rat poison, cars, etc.