Dealing with rats can be difficult and stressful, especially if you do not know what scent will keep rats away or how to get rid of rats. Sometimes, you can have a rat problem without realizing it until there are many nesting in cluttered garages or other areas of your home. Rats are nocturnal and are active only during night or the dawn and dusk hours.
It can be challenging to know where they are nesting within your home and access them with a limited time to observe them. However, there are plenty of ways to help you identify whether or not you have a rat problem and how to keep rats away.
How To Keep Rats Away
There are several ways to deal with rats in your home. For a small rat problem, you may need just a few rat traps or scented sprays. However, if the rat problem you are experiencing is significant and you have many rats living in your home, you may need more than one way to combat them.
Whether you have a small problem or a large-scale issue, these solutions can help you keep rats away permanently and reclaim your home. Deciding which option works best for you starts with observing the area you suspect to have rats. When you have seen rats or know that they are hiding somewhere in your home, you can use some of these methods to keep rats out of your home for good.
- Seal All Wall Gaps
- Store Food Properly
- Keep The Yard Clean And Garbage Bins Closed
- Set Up Traps And Bait
- Use Homemade Deterrents
- Adopt A Rat Predator
- Check Your Neighborhood
- Call The Pros
1. Seal All Gaps On The Walls
Preventing rats from nesting within your walls is essential. Getting them out of the walls in your home will be much harder than getting them out of other nesting areas. Sealing all wall gaps and access to walls will help keep them away.
2. Store Food and Leftovers in Thick Containers
If food is strewn about and easy for rats to find, they will come more frequently to your home. Store all food in thick containers that are pest-proof.
3. Keep the Yard Clean and Garbage Bins Closed
Make sure your yard is clear of hiding places and nesting areas for rats. This may mean moving decorations and investigating garbage bins. Maintain sealed garbage and recycling bins to ensure rats are not comfortable in your yard.
4. Set Up Traps and Baits
You can trap rats overnight by using glue traps or catch-and-release alternatives. Bait boxes and bait stations will also work. All of these alternatives will catch the rats in your home and keep them in one place until you can come and collect them. You may release them in the wild – away from homes – or call pest control services or an exterminator.
5. Use Homemade Deterrents
What smell do rats hate? Rats hate strong smells, and they hate peppermint oil the most. While a pleasant smell for some humans, peppermint oil is a harsh scent for rats. Rats will actively avoid areas that smell like peppermint oil and leave as soon as possible.
Use your peppermint oil by letting several drops soak into cotton balls or rags and leave them in areas that the rats in your home are frequenting. This scent will keep rats away the best. If you know where the rats are nesting, you may be able to force all of them out by placing peppermint oil-infused rags or cotton balls directly into their nests. Peppermint is what can keep rats away at night, as well.
6. Adopt a Rat Predator
Adopting a cat or other animal in your home who hunts rats can keep them at bay and away from your home or yard.
7. Check Your Neighborhood
Spotting signs of rats around your neighborhood can help you be preventive about rats getting into your home. Additionally, you can report this information to your city and ask them to remove the rest.
8. Call the Pros
When in doubt, call in professionals who can assist in rat removal. These professionals will know the best ways to remove them.
Why Are Rats In My Home?
Sometimes, rats may make homes in the cleanest homes. Other times, however, they are drawn to a messy garage or a disorganized yard. There may be something comfortable to them about your home. You can prevent rats from getting comfortable by keeping garbage bins sealed and keeping your yard and home clean.
Why Are Rodents Like Rats Dangerous?
Rodents are not only destructive, but they can carry many diseases. These creatures can be carriers for diseases as intense as the plague without being affected by it but can transfer these diseases to humans easily.
Rats are known to make burrows in the wild, but they are willing to tear up any old shirts, newspapers, or cardboard laying around to create a nest. These shredded materials mean that you can have rats living in your attic, basement, or garage without noticing.
The most significant sign to look out for is shredded-up garbage lying around that seems out of place. Watch that you know the difference between rats and mice as there are some distinct differences. Dealing with one can be easier than dealing with the other.
How to Keep Rats Away From Your Garden
You can keep rats away from your garden by employing several methods for cleanliness and hygiene. Rats typically do not like some kinds of environments but these four following ways can keep rats away.
Keep Your Garden Clean
Because rats like to hide, having a neat and trim garden will give them nowhere to lurk.
Call in the Birds
Adding a water source, like a fountain that’s out of reach of rats, is a great way to attract birds of prey, who will eat rats.
Use Dry Ice
Dry ice is a fascinating way to keep rats away since it creates carbon dioxide. This gas can put rats to sleep and suffocate them. Always use gloves to dispose of the pest’s bodies.
Set Traps
One of the fastest ways to get rid of rats is to set plenty of traps. Hide them, but bait them with food that will draw them in.
Keeping Rats Away Is Challenging but Possible
It may not be easy to keep rats away. However, with patience and time, you can have a rat-free home in just a few days. By observing an area during nighttime hours, you can verify whether or not you have rats in your home. After determining that you have rats, our suggestions on how to keep rats away can save you plenty of time and money on extermination services and products that won’t work as well.
While rats are notoriously clean animals and groom themselves more than cats typically do, they have no place nesting in various parts of your home. Keep a watchful eye on your attic, basement, and garage to make sure your home isn’t subject to a rat infestation. Worst comes to worst, you can call a rat pest control service and have your problem dealt with professionally and quickly.
