You’ve seen the warning signs. The strange ovular brown-black droppings, gnawing, and chewing marks. With nesting material like shredded paper and a foul odor. Making strange scampering or squeaking sounds. No matter what you would like to tell yourself otherwise, the writing is clear on the wall. You have a rat infestation at hand. Now, the question is how to get rid of rats at home.
These pesky rodents are a health hazard that multiplies fast. So much so that a single breeding pair can result in 2,000 rats in a year! Despite their natures, rats are social creatures that live in groups, and the packs grow quite fast since rats can reproduce as young as five weeks of age. They have litter ranging from six to twenty baby rats. Plus, they are quick, smart, and sneaky. That’s all the more why you may be perplexed about how to get rid of rats.
Well, your search ends here. We have some DIY ideas on how to get rid of rats. It is necessary for you to understand how to control rats at home. Try them out and see what works for you:
Set Rat Traps
Rat traps are one of the simplest DIY ideas on how to get rid of rats. You might have seen the commonest one – snap trap – in your earliest memories of Tom and Jerry. Yet, the reality is nothing akin to slapstick. This macabre contraption is often an answer to how to get rid of rats. It contains a thick metal wire attached to a block of wood. When the rat takes the bait, the metal part snaps onto the rat’s head, thereby killing it instantly.
Since poisons take some time to start working, you won’t locate dead animals close to the bait. Instead, the rats scurry away to perish in obscure locations. Think of the smell of rotting rats behind cabinets and on walls! That body will not only smell awful enough to make people ill, but it may also attract maggots.
Fortunately, you have a variety of more humane options available now. You have the classic live-animal trap comprising a mesh cage with bait at the end. When the rat tries to dislodge the bait, it sets off the spring catch mechanism, that traps the rat. You can then release it out in the wild and reuse the trap. You also have glue traps, which albeit controversial, can get the job done. You can release the rat using vegetable oil but it gets really messy. Such methods are also applicable to how to get rid of rats.
Regardless of the rat trap you use, it is the placement that matters. You have to identify the key traffic areas and set these up so that you can capture the rats and get rid of them. After how to get rid of rats in house, you may be thinking about how to keep rats away from home.
Use Natural Deterrents
Another nifty trick for how to get rid of rats involves the use of natural deterrents. Start by locating the areas frequented by the rats. Once you’ve done this homework, you can try any of the following remedies:
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Sprinkling cayenne powder, chili flakes, cinnamon, or black pepper powder
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Spraying peppermint or clove oil or placing a cotton ball soaked in clove oil
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Placing half an onion or a few cloves of garlic
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Placing a bowl of liquid ammonia
You can also pot indoor plants that repel rats. Such plants include herbaceous perennial plants like mint and sage. Even flowering plants like amaryllis, chrysanthemums, and daffodils do the work as do essential oil plants like bergamot, geraniums, and wintergreen. This is how to get rid of rats without killing them and how to avoid rats at home naturally.
Create a Bait Station
Rats are intelligent and curious creatures. As such, creating bait stations could be one of the smartest DIY ideas on how to get rid of rats. Building a bait station from scratch is easy and does not call for a special set of skills or expertise. In fact, the materials required for making a bait station would be readily available even at your home!
This is not how to keep rats away from your house though. Say, if you have a severe infestation problem, you can blow air into a large balloon and place it at the mouth of a deep bucket having the same diameter as the balloon. Put some seeds, nuts, and grains in the surrounding regions. Rats drawn to the bait will end up bursting the balloon and fall straight into the bucket. You can also create a bait station using PVC pipes or plastic boxes. These how to get rid of rats methods all depend on your expertise and common sense.
Maintain Your Home
If you wish to get rid of rats for good, you will have to stay on your toes at all times. You will have more work cut out for you if you live in large independent houses. Or villas that are surrounded by gardens and greenery. That’s not to say that those living in apartments are immune to a rat infestation! Even people in such areas must know how to get rid of rats.
Make it a habit to inspect your home (and its surroundings) regularly to check for signs of infestation. Seal any holes and entryways through which rats can gain entry into your home. Even if the gap appears to be too small or tight, rats are stubborn and experts at maneuvering their way in search of food and shelter.
How to get rid of rats?
Remember, the clock starts ticking from the moment you first notice a rat or signs of a rat infestation. And when time is of the essence, use the DIY ideas to get rid of the rats at home that were shared above to stay in control of the situation.
Yet, if it comes to it, there is no harm in bringing in professionals to carry out pest control. Sure, their methods of how to get rid of rats may not be humane. But they will definitely keep the rat population in control. Before they become a pressing problem, speak to the experts at HomeLane to know more about how to best safeguard your home from such uninvited guests. Even so, it is better to know how to avoid rats in home. This ensures the most humane approach that you can take.
FAQs
1. How do I get rid of rats permanently?
Rats are intelligent animals. Thus, you must do a comprehensive inspection to find all potential access points. Finding out how they enter and exit the house is always the main goal. On how to get rid of rats, the other steps to be taken include:
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Sealing and securing all possible entry points after looking for signs of entry;
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Keeping all food sources inaccessible
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Using potent rodenticides as bait;
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Setting up several traps.
2. What smell keeps rats away?
Even though it is necessary for everyone to know how to get rid of rats, prevention is better than treatment. Thus, it is important to know how to keep rats away as well. Along with these deterrents, stronger preventive actions should be taken such as keeping the home clean, caulking wall cracks, and putting food in airtight containers. Although these deterrents shouldn’t be a home’s main means of rodent control, they can help keep the pests away for a while. There are various natural mouse repellents that you may use to keep these pests at bay. If you’re wondering how to avoid rats in the house, here are a few natural odors that mice detest:
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Peppermint Oil;
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Cinnamon;
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Vinegar;
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Citronellal;
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Ammonia;
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Bleach.
3. What is the best home remedy to get rid of rats?
There are still rats outside your home. It won’t matter if you get rid of the ones inside. The problem will recur, particularly as winter approaches and rats enter homes in search of refuge and food. In light of this, the following are our top suggestions for how to get rid of rats in and around your home:
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Keep your garden tidy,
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Get birds’ help,
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Use dry ice,
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Set traps
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Use poisons and bait outside.
4. What’s the fastest way to get rid of rats?
Thinking of how to get rid of rats in house fast? As mentioned before, snap traps are an effective and secure way how to get rid of rats. Other types of traps won’t give a quick kill. They may even inflict significant agony on the rats, while poisons may take up to a week to kill them. When the snap trap is activated, a swift and powerful hit is delivered to the head. This is how to kill rats in the house, causing no suffering to the animal. However, do bear in mind that when other pets or young children are around, these traps can be deadly.
