Are you looking for ways to get rid of rats in the house? Then this article is definitely for you.
Rats are unwanted visitors. In addition to being unappealing to look at, they carry diseases and bacterial infections and pose a health risk to the people you love. So, it is imperative to get rid of them as soon and safely as possible.
Although rats are primarily nocturnal, common signs that they have entered your home include droppings, rub marks, scratching noises, nests, holes, and footprints.
An early sign of rat activity can be the sound of their paws moving, especially if you have wooden floors or when they are running around your loft.
Rats can also be incredibly destructive, chewing through walls, insulation, and electrical wires.
They can even destroy crops and property. So when rats appear in your home, it’s hard to stay calm.
If you want your house back, the only option is to find methods to get rid of rats once and for all.
Luckily, don’t worry; you can take a few steps to get rid of rats in the house, and it’s possible to do it safely and effectively.
So, let’s dive!
An Overview of Rats
To avoid the property and health risks that rats can pose to your home, you will need to know how to get rid of rats in the house and understand what you are dealing with.
Most people know what rats look like, but let’s look closer at where they live, how they choose their habitat, and what they eat.
Rats are medium-sized toothy rodents that have lived near people since humans founded the first city.
They are native to Asia and Australia, and they are spreading worldwide with increasing urbanization.
Each continent has its rats and rodents indigenous to them, but different species have spread through trade and migration and adapted to life worldwide.
The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) states that there are over 60 species of rats.
Rats can range from tiny (about 5 inches long) to scary versions about the size of a large house cat and can weigh five pounds or more.
According to The Magazine, “female rats can mate up to 500 times in just six hours, and brown rats can give birth to up to 2,000 babies in a year, with up to 22 young per litter.”
Considering rats have a gestation period of less than a month, it’s easy to see how populations can quickly spiral out of control.
As rat populations build in or around your home, you will also notice increased droppings and damage.
Common traits include extremely strong teeth that can chew through almost anything available, including wood and even concrete in some cases, and the ability to squeeze through extremely small spaces.
Methods to How to Get Rid of Rats in the House
Knowing which poisons kill rats instantly and which are the best traps to get rid of rats is only the first step in how to get rid of rats in the house.
Even a dead rat can cause problems in your home, as its body will attract other pests.
The smell can also linger terribly in the air, making it difficult to stay comfortable in your house.
Likewise, you can’t necessarily leave out baited traps and expect them to do the job.
Rats are incredibly cautious creatures that don’t trust new things in their environment.
They are extremely intelligent and capable of social learning, which manifests in many ways.
Once you figure out how to get rid of rats in the house, you’ll also need to figure out how they got into your home in the first place.
Even the largest rats can enter your home through a quarter-sized hole, so small cracks and voids in the foundation can be invasion points.
If you don’t take the proper steps to rule out future rat infestations, you could fight off another rat infestation before you know it.
But before you start closing entry points and setting traps, you need to have a plan for the whole extermination process.
In addition to killing rats and preventing them from returning to your home, you need to be prepared for the dead bodies and the smell they leave behind.
Dead Rat Smell
The smell of a dead rat is unhealthy and can carry bacteria and allergens through the air in your home.
When nature finds its way, the rat completely decomposes in about a month, and the smell will disappear soon after.
However, waiting is not the way to solve the problem. You must take steps to deal with the smell of the dead rats, both for your comfort and safety.
Immediately getting rid of the carcasses of dead rats is the best way to avoid the noxious smell and health risks of dead rats in your home.
When the carcass cannot be easily removed, you must choose between one of these two solutions.
The easiest option is to use specially made chemicals, such as Rat Sorb, which you can place in empty spaces in your home to eliminate dead rat odors in wall cavities.
If that fails, you may need to hire a professional to remove sections of the wall, dispose of the dead bodies, disinfect the area, and then rebuild the wall.
Homemade Rat Poison
Homemade rat poisons made from baking soda are the popular choice.
People combine little amounts of baking soda with sugar and cocoa powder so rats can nibble on it and eat the baking soda.
Conversely, baking soda reacts with the chemicals in the rat’s stomach, producing a gas that causes the intestines to rupture.
It’s a simple, inexpensive solution that uses things you probably already have in your home and can achieve surprisingly good results while posing little or no risk to children and pets.
However, to be lethal, rats must consume a relatively large amount of baking soda.
Additionally, their body’s adaptability makes them more tolerant of the concoction.
If they don’t quickly eat enough homemade baking soda rat poison to die, this solution may become completely ineffective.
However, you can also create homemade rat repellents with essential and aromatic oils like peppermint, clove, mint leaves, garlic, etc.
Nobody is ready to live with the destructive nature of rats. Certainly, these tips can help you figure out how to get rid of rats in the house:
1. Extreme Solutions Like Fumigation
When you have rats in your apartment, the first thing to do is tell your landlord.
The landlord will have more power to collaborate with other tenants and rid the building of extreme solutions, such as fumigation.
After all, rats have no respect for private property, and if a tenant has to deal with rats, chances are others will, too.
Rats can easily settle on walls and move through air ducts. The building owner can work with professional rat exterminators to find and destroy nests throughout the complex and then seal entry points to the property to prevent future intrusions.
However, it is not entirely dependent on homeowner solutions. You can use other tips to protect your apartment from rats, even if a bigger problem hasn’t been solved.
2. Inspect the House
Before getting rid of rats, you should thoroughly inspect your home to find out where they are coming from.
Inspect the house’s exterior; pay particular attention to damaged drains, cracks in garage doors, gaps around vents, and voids in the foundation for obvious access points.
Examine vents, drains, appliance ducts, and other potential access points inside the house.
Once you know where the rats enter the house, you can close the entry points and set traps.
3. Seal the Gaps
Rats don’t need a big or wide entry point to enter your home. They can fit through any hole that can fit two fingers. Therefore, seal any voids in the interior or exterior walls.
Fill these gaps with metal kick plates, wire wool, cement, or caulk for lasting results.
Check them several times a month to make sure they are well maintained.
4. Declutter and Clean Up
Rats love shelters and areas to hide. Terminating their hiding places is one of the best ways to eliminate rats in the house without poison.
Clean up clutters in and around your home and move objects close to the walls.
Get a secure lid for the trash can, clean up any spills promptly, don’t leave food out overnight, find where rats take food in your home, and keep your pipes and drains clean.
5. Consider Trapping
While rodenticides and potent poisons have fallen out of favor or been banned (as is the case in California), trapping has become the most effective means of eliminating rats; this is another way to kill rats quickly and effectively.
Trapping is a non-toxic method of reducing the rat population. However, be careful of the placement of traps, as a rat trap is much less likely to hurt someone in the attic than when next to the cereal cabinet.
If you are setting traps, use plenty of them and place them in areas with high rat activity. Use peanut butter, bananas, unsalted seeds, or apples as bait.
6. Use Natural Deterrents
Some simple, natural ingredients can go a long way when getting rid of rats.
Try these natural deterrent options:
- Spread peppermint oil, black pepper, cayenne pepper, or cloves around the outside of your house to keep rats out. Liberally apply the substance of your choice along the line between the foundation and the house floor.
- Sprinkle ground pepper (or pepper spray) near openings and rat holes. This will irritate the rat’s nose and airways and deter it from entering your abode.
How to Get Rid of Rats in the House’s Attic
Eliminating rats in the attic is much easier than getting rid of rats in other parts of the house.
Since the attic is an enclosed space separated from the main living areas of your home, you don’t have to worry about pets or kids getting hurt if they eat something that shouldn’t be there.
Using potent poisons and generously using traps can help thin out and eradicate rats in the attic, provided you take precautions to keep children away from the area.
How to Get Rid of Rats in the House’s Garage and Basement
When rats start to build their nests, they look for three things: shelter, food, and water.
The perfect shelter is filled with small hiding places that allow rats to escape predators and avoid detection.
This means rats feel at home in garages and basements, which serve as cluttered and congested storage areas.
If any type of food is available in or near these areas, they will likely be infested with rats.
To make matters worse, you will probably go a long time without realizing you have rats in your garage and basement.
Rats can breed unchecked in these hidden areas for months or even years, then spread to the rest of your home.
On the plus side, the same factors that make garages and basements perfect havens for rats make it easier to manage infestations.
Since you all don’t live in a garage or basement, reducing food sources is easier.
It’s also relatively safe to be aggressive with rat poison and killers that you wouldn’t want to use in the living rooms of your home.
Just keep good records of where you left traps, baits, and poisons, and be sure to clean them up when the infestation has been curbed.
How to Get Rid of Rats in the House’s Yard and Around Your Home
Even if you get rid of rats in your house, it won’t last long if there are still rats outside.
This is especially true as the winter months approach and rats enter homes searching for shelter and food.
With that in mind, let’s look at some of the top tips for getting rid of rats in your yard and around the living space:
1. Keep Your Garden Clean
Rats don’t like open spaces, so keep your lawn and garden clean, trimmed, and clutter-free; it’s the best way to dissuade them from opening a shop.
Mow lawns frequently, remove piles of wood or leaves, close and lock all storage areas, repair holes in siding, and cap the outdoor garbage bin.
Finally, ensure that rats have no access to food outside your home. Clean up fallen fruit and vegetables in your garden, or avoid pet and bird food outside.
These tips will go a long way in reducing the rat population in your surroundings.
2. Call in the Birds
Rats have many natural predators, and inviting these predators into your garden is a big step to getting rid of rats in the house. Owls, for example, can eat dozens of rats or mice in one night.
Focus on creating a suitable habitat to lure owls and other birds of prey.
Add a water feature (like a birdbath) to your garden, and consider building a birdhouse.
Tip: Avoid putting bird food outdoors to attract them. Rats are an abundant food source, and putting birdseed, suet, or other materials outdoors creates another food source that can attract more rats to your property.
3. Use Dry Ice
Dry ice is an effective way to eliminate rats without using poison. Dry ice releases Carbon dioxide, which anesthetizes and kills rats.
For best results, place dry ice at the burrow’s entry point. Wear gloves and other protective gear, as dry ice can damage your skin.
4. Set Traps
Traps are one of the most efficient ways to get rid of rats quickly in the house surroundings.
Consider using Snap traps, a quick method to kill rats instantly for best results.
Place other animals in a box or under a milk carton to prevent them from entering the traps.
Fill traps with peanut butter, which is cheap and attractive to rats.
If you notice rats eating something specific in your home, consider baiting the trap with it.
For example, rats eating apples off the shelf may respond well to a trap with apple slices.
5. Use Baits and Poisons Outdoors
Baits and poisons should be used primarily outside the home, as they are strong chemicals that can be dangerous.
If you put poison in the house, rats can spread it, making your home unsafe for everyone, including animals.
If you plan to use bait or poison to get rid of rats in your home, be sure to read and follow all label instructions carefully.
Always keep rat bait in a fully enclosed station where children, pets, and other animals cannot reach it.
Since there are so many warnings about using bait and poisons, one solution is to use a milk crate with heavy objects on top to use the rat’s contortionist abilities against it.
Dogs, cats, raccoons, and opossums won’t be able to knock the box over, but a rat will easily slip through the holes in the box and trigger the trap.
Although it is possible to use a poison like warfarin, this means that the rat is likely to wander off somewhere before dying and will be eaten by another animal.
Use a trap with aromatic bait to quickly and painlessly kill rats without endangering the health of other animals. Be sure to read and understand state and local laws.
If Need Be, Call an Exterminator
If it’s too late and you already have an established infestation, you may need professional help getting rid of rats in the house.
Although you can buy rat poison (rodenticide) at a DIY store, amateur rat control can be ineffective and sometimes dangerous.
Always read the label of any rat bait you buy and ensure it is out of reach for wildlife, pets, or children.
Many areas now have rats that are resistant to certain poisons. Pest control professionals can access different products not intended for the general public and help control poison-resistant rats.
They will also be able to protect other non-target species and give you tips on keeping rats from coming back to infest your property.
Remember: failed DIY treatments can worsen infestations, so always hire a trained, insured, and audited pest management company.
