No one wants rats in their garden. Rats eat produce, can destroy plants, chew on fencing, siding and drainpipes, dig burrows and cause absolute havoc. Even worse, they can spread diseases, like leptospirosis, and they attack outdoor pets, like chickens and rabbits.
But getting rid of rats in your backyard isn’t easy. They are incredibly smart and adaptable animals that are quite good at hiding and avoiding capture. Rats also reproduce extremely rapidly, so if you don’t keep your local population in check, get ready for a boom of backyard rats.
However, though rats may be troublesome visitors in your garden or backyard, there are lots of ways to prevent them and safely get rid of existing populations. And you won’t need to resort to nasty pesticides or cruel traps to do so. Read on for the best ways to humanely treat rat infestations in the organic garden and how to prevent rats from ever coming back.
Jump to:
- A few facts on rats
- Signs of a rat infestation
- Treating rat problems safely
- Best 16 ways to prevent and remove rats from your garden
- 1. Put away your bird feeder
- 2. Secure chicken runs and other outdoor pets
- 3. Block access points
- 4. Protect your compost and trash
- 5. Remove water sources
- 6. Move things around
- 7. Add plants rats hate
- 8. Use some peppermint oil
- 9. Try out other rodent repellents
- 10. Apply hot pepper wax
- 11. Enlist your pet
- 12. Harvest often
- 13. Install ultrasonic repellent stakes
- 14. Keep your garden tidy
- 15. Use live traps
- 16. Call a professional
- Conclusion
A few facts on rats
While there are other rodents that might visit your garden, rats are likely to be the largest species you’ll encounter. Adult rats can grow up to 6 to 10” long but are even larger thanks to their 6 to 10” long tail. So it’s not uncommon to encounter massive 20” long rats!
Despite their comparatively large size, rats can squeeze through very tiny holes, about the size of a quarter. This means that they can easily wiggle into outdoor sheds, garages and chicken runs.
There are four common species of wild rats, although brown rats, also known as the common rat, street rat or sewer rat, is the species you’re most likely to find. Brown rats live up to 4 years and travel an average of 100 to 300 feet a night in search of food. To keep track of their territory rats urinate as they travel to mark their way.
Rats are mostly active at night and are usually quite shy of humans, so don’t be surprised if you see evidence of rats but never actually see the rats themselves. As omnivores, rats will eat just about anything from garden vegetables to wild bird seed to compost to small animals.
If you’ve ever dealt with rats in the past, you know how hard they can be to eradicate. This is because they are naturally afraid of new things, so they’ll tend to avoid traps. They can also swim and climb, and they’re excellent jumpers, capable of jumping over 36” vertically.
If you notice a rat in your garden, you likely have a lot more, because rats are incredibly prolific creatures. Female rats go into heat every 4 to 5 days and can get pregnant less than 48 hours after giving birth. Gestation periods are between 21 and 23 days.
A single rat litter usually contains between 5 and 12 pups. These pups reach sexual maturity within 3 months and a single female rat can have up to 7 litters a year. That means that just one rat can produce 84 pups in one year’s time and a single breeding pair can easily turn into 1000 rats within a few years.
For this reason, if you suspect you have a rat problem, you’ll want to act fast. It’s a lot easier to get rid of a few rats than it is to get rid of a few dozen rats, after all.
Signs of a rat infestation
Rats are some of the most intelligent animals around, so they make for formidable foes in the garden. Primarily nocturnal and shy of humans, you’re unlikely to see any resident rats in your space unless you have a very significant infestation. Instead, there are some common signs that you might encounter that suggest that rats have invaded your garden.
- Tunnels and runs. Rats dig tunnels for safety and follow established runs, or paths, as they navigate your garden. If you notice tunnels or obvious runs, this can be a good sign that you might be dealing with rats, but it’s not conclusive.
Other rodents, like chipmunks and voles, also dig tunnels, although rat tunnels are usually slightly larger. Rat tunnels are around 2 ½ to 3 ½” in diameter. You may find chewed on produce or seeds near tunnel entrances.
- Pellet-shaped droppings. Rat droppings are larger than mouse droppings; however, they look similar to chipmunk droppings so finding scat isn’t conclusive evidence either.
- Property damage. Like other rodents, rats love to chew. And they’ll chew on just about anything, including drainpipes, siding, wood trim, raised beds, you name it! Frequently, rats will target garden hoses in search of water, so keep a look out for small parallel teeth markings.
- Damage to vegetables and fruit. Disappearing fruit and vegetables can be signs of rats, especially if you find produce scraps near the entrances of potential rat tunnels. Rats will take nips out of tomatoes and strawberries, as well as lots of other garden plants.
- Produce damaged at night. Rats mostly go out at night, so if you have vegetables and fruit that’s being eaten overnight, rats are likely culprits. Other rodents and birds who target produce mostly do so in daylight.
- Animal attacks. Rats may look innocent, but they can be quite efficient predators. If you happen to keep rabbits or chickens outdoors and your animals have small bites, rats could be to blame.Wild rats will also frequently kill baby rabbits and young chicks and ducklings, so if you have lost livestock, it’s a potential sign of rats.
Treating rat problems safely
Nature is all interconnected, and that holds true in your backyard too. Rats are a nuisance in the garden, but they are also commonly prey to other larger animals, including hawks, owls, foxes and house pets. That’s why it’s essential to treat your rat problem safely to avoid harming other non-target species.
Rat poisons don’t just kill rats. If a rat ingests poison and then is hunted by a bobcat or fox, that bobcat or fox will be poisoned too. Additionally, many animals, like dogs, will scavenge dead rats, which is very problematic if that rat died from poisoning.
Most common rat poisons kill rats by interfering with blood clotting, which is not species specific. In fact, studies have found traces of anticoagulant rodenticides in over 70% of wildlife species tested. Each year, thousands of non-target species are killed by rodenticides and wildlife rehabbers struggle to treat the animals brought to them after accidental ingestion.
Beyond this, rat poisons are responsible for the severe poisoning of an average of 160 household pets annually in the U.S. alone. Additionally, the EPA estimates that, every year, over 10,000 small children are exposed to rat poison at home.
It's no secret that rodenticide poisoning is a massive problem the world over. It causes unnecessary suffering for the rats themselves and harms and kills other animals too. After ingestion of these products, it can take days for rats to die, which is both inhumane and also entirely avoidable.
Rather than resorting to these problematic products, there are many more humane ways of dealing with rat invasions. Organic pest control products, consistent garden maintenance, keeping a tidy space and having a basic understanding of how rats operate is all you need to formulate an effective pest control strategy.
Best 16 ways to prevent and remove rats from your garden
If you have a rat problem in your garden, you’ll need to tackle it quickly to ensure the infestation doesn’t get worse. Luckily, there are lots of ways to get rid of rats in your space or prevent them from ever moving into your garden in the first place. And there is no need to resort to painful traps or poisons to do it!
1. Put away your bird feeder
While feeding the wild birds is a lot of fun and is helpful to local birds and migrating species too, it can be an issue if you have rat problem.
Rats are omnivores that will happily feast on most foods, including bird seed, cracked corn and mealworms – essentially anything you’d put in an outdoor bird feeder. For that reason, if you have a current problem, you’ll probably want to put away your bird feeders until you get your rat infestation under control.
Securing your bird feeders is one good way to limit rats’ access to food, and the less food they can find in your space, the less they’ll want to hang around. Beyond stowing away any outdoor feeders, make sure you also lock up any bags of bird seed in rat proof containers. Putting feed bags in metal trashcans or buckets with secure lids will usually do the trick.
If, for some reason, you don’t want to put your bird feeders completely away, try to only place your bird feeders out during the daytime. As rats are mostly nocturnal, making sure food sources are secure at night is essential.
2. Secure chicken runs and other outdoor pets
Rats will happily munch on your wild bird feed, but they love chicken food too. If you happen to have a outdoor flock of chickens (or other livestock, like ducks and rabbits), be sure to carefully store all feed bags in rat proof metal containers.
If your chickens eat in a regular spot, try to feed them earlier in the day so that all loose grain is gobbled up before night fall and carefully store bowls and dishes overnight in metal containers. Open chicken feeders can be very bad for attracting rats, so look for rat-proof, no-spill chicken feeders if possible.
Kits are available online to help you construct your own rat-proof feeder with a basic plastic bucket.
Alternatively, you can make a DIY budget friendly chicken feeder with a bit of PVC pipe. All you need is a length of PVC pipe cut to size, a 90 degree PVC elbow and two PVC end caps.
To make your own feeder, simply slip the PVC elbow onto one side of your PVC pipe and then cap off each end of your pipe with the end cap fittings. Your feeder will be the shape of an upside-down candy cane. Then simply secure your feeder to your chicken coop with zip ties or metal strapping and take the caps off during the day to feed your chickens and refill your feeders.
Note: As wild rats can attack and kill small animals, if you have small animals (like bantam chickens) or baby animals, you’ll want to protect them until you get your rat infestation under control.
Placing vulnerable animals in rat proof metal cages, shoring up your coop with hardware cloth or bringing babies indoors at night are some options to ensure all your pets remains safe from rat attack.
3. Block access points
Rats can squeeze through spaces as small as a quarter, so they can easily slip into outdoor sheds, chicken coops and improperly secured feed barrels. To limit rats’ access to your space and outdoor grain, check walls, floors and containers carefully and block off any small holes you find.
Blocks can be as simple or involved as you need. A basic hardware cloth patch works well for most spaces, but expandable rodent-proof foam or steel wool shoved into holes can help a lot too.
Adding weather stripping, sealing up doors and other rodent proofing measures work well for helping to prevent rats and other rodents from taking over.
If you notice rat tunnels appearing in your garden, try blocking them off with stones or cinderblocks and continue to cover up any new holes that appear. Over time, some rats will naturally move away from your property as it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain their burrows.
4. Protect your compost and trash
Outdoor compost piles and trash bins are irresistible to wild rats. That’s why it is so important that you properly store both your compost and your trash to avoid drawing in rats and other troublesome pests.
Keeping your trash in covered metal bins is always a great idea. It can also help to only put your trash out when you know your garbage is about to be picked up.
And while compost has amazing benefits for your garden, you’ll want to be careful how you store it. Open compost piles are more likely to attract rats than closed systems so, if you can, look for closed compost bins or tumblers to keep rats away. Trench composting, where food scraps are dug directly into garden beds, can also provide a ready source of food for rats, so be sure to dig scraps at least 10 to 12” deep into your soil.
Meat and dairy are more likely to attract rats than other food items, so avoid composting these items or only compost using the Bokashi method. Unlike other composting systems, bokashi pickles, rather than ferments, food scraps. This process creates an acidic precompost that is unappealing to rats and won’t lure unwanted pests to your garden.
5. Remove water sources
When looking for a place to build their tunnels, rats look for locations with an available source of food and water. By removing access to both, you can effectively rid your yard of unwanted rats and prevent them from ever coming back.
Because rats are mostly active at night, try to dump out bird baths in the evening and turn off sprinkler systems. If you have chickens or other outdoor pets, safely store their water dishes and feeders until morning.
At times, rats will chew into garden hoses and drip irrigation so, if you can, wind up hoses when not in use and store them on hose hangers. If you notice chewed holes appearing in your drip irrigation line, consider burying your lines or encapsulating them in flexible steel conduit or another similar material.
6. Move things around
Rats are neophobic, which essentially means they don’t like change. When things are moved around in their environment, it makes rats nervous and they can take a while to adjust to any changes in their space.
This quality makes rats quite hard to catch in traps as they are wary of anything new in their surroundings. But you can use this trait to your benefit by frequently rearranging your garden space. Move lawn chairs around, relocate planted pots, adjust your outdoor grill, change up plantings, push your wheelbarrow around and anything else you can think of.
By regularly moving items around in your garden, you’ll create a space that rats don’t feel safe to explore in. If you do this regularly and consistently, many rats will move away from your property in search of a less varied environment.
7. Add plants rats hate
Like many other garden pests, rats don’t like fragrant herbs, like rosemary, thyme and chives. Planting these plants around your garden can create a very effective barrier against rats and other common pests. Try keeping some fragrant herbs in pots or create garden bed borders with them.
More than any other herb, rats are known to despise the scent of mint. Which is lucky, because mint is one of the easiest and most vigorous herbs to grow. To prevent rats in your garden, consider planting lots of mint plants around or even allow them to grow in your yard. When mowed frequently, mint plants create a nice, fragrant ground cover too.
Beyond aromatic herbs, there are lots of other plants that rats don’t like which can be used to your advantage in your backyard landscaping. Some of the best plants for natural rat control include:
- Peppermint and other mints
- Lavender
- Sage
- Rosemary
- Oregano
- Bergamot
- Elderberry
- Camphor laurel
- Quamash
- Marigolds
- Chrysanthemums
- Geraniums
- Garlic, chives and other alliums
- Daffodils
- Amaryllis
8. Use some peppermint oil
Because rats hate the smell of peppermint so much, spraying your yard with peppermint oil sprays is an effective and harmless way to repel rats. When applying these sprays, always be sure to follow the manufacturer's instructions but, in general, most sprays should be reapplied throughout the growing season after periods of rain or high humidity.
For smaller garden beds and container gardens, you can also just saturate cotton balls with peppermint essential oil. Scatter the cotton balls around the space you’d like to protect and be sure to replace the balls every 2 to 3 days or after heavy rain.
If you decide to go this route, just keep in mind that essential oils of any sort can be quite toxic to pets, especially cats. For this reason, if you have outdoors cats, you’ll want to avoid using essential oil sprays.
9. Try out other rodent repellents
Aside from peppermint oil, there are lots of other useful rodent repellent sprays available that can help control your rat problem.
Rat Magic is one option that uses essential oils, like cedarwood and clove oil, to repel rats naturally.
Predator urine sprays can also help with rat problems and some options are even scented with peppermint so they don’t smell unpleasant to human noses.
10. Apply hot pepper wax
Hot pepper wax is a spray that you can apply to plant leaves and fruit to give them a spicy zing. Once rats or other pests get a taste of the spice, they’ll usually leave your produce alone.
When spraying your plants, thoroughly drench them with the spray and make sure you cover them from top to bottom. Hot pepper wax is safe to spray directly on produce too, just give everything a good wash before consuming. For better results, remember to reapply the spray every 2 to 4 weeks to keep your plants good and spicy.
You can also make your own hot pepper spray by simply mixing 1 part cayenne powder or hot sauce with 16 parts water, then spray your plants well. Adding a few drops of Castile or Dawn dish soap to the mix can help the spray better adhere to your plants to increase its effectiveness.
11. Enlist your pet
Cats and dogs can be super useful for rat populations. Not only are they natural predators, but their scent alone is often enough to scare rats away.
If you allow your cats or dogs to control your rat population, it is even more important that you avoid using any rat poison in your space as poisons can be accidentally ingested by your pets. Rats also have the potential to spread diseases or inflict nasty bites, and some rats can grow too large for most pets to want to mess with.
Often, outdoor cats or dogs are not enough on their own to control rat problems, but they can help. Try combining this method with other strategies, like hot pepper sprays and companion planting with mint, to boost your rat control measures.
12. Harvest often
The most important aspect of rat control, is to remove anything in your backyard that may be drawing rats in. If you’ve already stored away your bird feeders and chicken feed, the next step is to make sure your garden itself isn’t contributing to the problem.
Throughout the growing season, your garden will be producing a ready source of fruit and vegetables, which is what you want. Unfortunately, rats want your produce too and allowing fruit to linger on the vine can provide a source of food for rat populations.
To help remove potential food sources for rats, try to harvest vegetables frequently and bring them safely indoors. Make a habit of gathering food early in the morning and then check again in the evening as the sun is setting. Of course, you won’t be able to harvest everything all at once but picking the ripest fruit from your garden will help.
13. Install ultrasonic repellent stakes
If repellent sprays aren’t your style, try out some repellent stakes instead. Super handy, pest repellent stakes emit an ultrasonic frequency which we can’t hear, but rats can. The sound is so irritating to rats, voles and other pests, that they’ll vacate your property, and fast.
Most stake options are solar-powered, which means they’ll keep running on their own and you won’t need to replace any batteries or recharge them. They are also capable of withstanding the elements and are a snap to install.
The only problem with repellent stakes is that, over time, some pests may get used to the sound and learn to ignore it. For that reason, these are best for short term solutions or when combined with other pest control methods. To increase their usefulness, you can try moving the stakes around your garden from time to time too.
14. Keep your garden tidy
Overgrown lawns, weedy beds and piles of loose brush are all potential sheltering areas for rats in your garden. That’s why lawn care is an important part of rat removal.
If you’re dealing with a rat infestation, it’s more important than ever to keep your grass cut short and your beds well weeded. Remove any old piles of debris and bag up or burn old plant debris. When rats can’t find any easy shelter to burrow into, they often move on to other locations.
15. Use live traps
Live traps can be very useful for catching rats in your yard, but you need to check them regularly for animal safety.
Try to put traps near known rat tunnel entrances or along runs where rats move back and forth. Locating live traps near potential food sources, like chicken coops or bird feeders, is a good idea too. While you can use different foods as baits for your traps, peanut butter and cat or dog food are some of the most enticing baits to try.
Once you’ve captured a rat, use gloves to handle your trap and check with your local wildlife office for any restrictions regarding capture and release. If it’s safe to do so, relocate any rats you capture to areas far away from human habitation where they won’t get into any mischief.
16. Call a professional
If your rat problem has gotten out of hand, it might be time to enlist the help of professionals. They can treat your problem quickly and advise you how to prevent rats from reoccurring in your space.
When looking for professional help, try to find exterminators that use natural methods, rather than poisons. Some exterminators use live traps, while others may opt to utilize dry ice or employ the help of working dogs, like rat terriers, to get rid of rats.
Make sure you do your research and look around. Even if you need to hire a professional, you still have control over your space and can choose to avoid using any chemical pesticides or poisons for the health and safety of your family, pets and local wildlife.
Conclusion
Rats are a nuisance in the garden, but that’s no reason to resort to chemicals or poisons to get rid of them. Instead, there are plenty of all natural and humane options for pest removal that won’t harm the rats themselves, or any other creature for that matter.
Whether you opt to use repellent sprays, sow mint around your garden or some other option, the important thing is that you act fast. A single rat can rapidly reproduce and create a much bigger problem in a short amount of time.
So keep your garden tidy, remove sources of shelter, food and water and add some deterrents to your backyard. The best way to rid yourself of pesky rats once and for all is to employ several different methods at once and to be consistent about it. With a little time and effort, your garden will be rat free and ready to enjoy.
References:
- Bin Break, Hussam. “How to Keep Rats out of a Vegetable Garden.” WikiHow. 14 July 2022. 25 May 2022.
- “Challenging the Approval of Dangerous Rat Poisons.” Earthjustice. 14 July 2022. 2022.
- Nielsen, Lorin. “Rat Proof Garden.” 14 July 2022. 18 May 2021.
- “Rat Facts and Information.” AAA Wildlife Control. 14 July 2022. 2022.
- “Twelve Plants that Repel Rats.” Your Indoor Herbs and Garden. 14 July 2022. 2022.
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