Natural Rat Deterrent: How to Prevent of Rats Naturally | Orkin (2024)

FAQs

Natural Rat Deterrent: How to Prevent of Rats Naturally | Orkin? ›

The best natural rat deterrent is cleanliness. Food scraps are highly attractive to rats and garbage areas are often infested. Keeping trash sealed tightly and ensuring that no food crumbs or residue are available around your home can prevent rat infestations.

Rats have a strong sense of smell, which makes strong odors effective deterrents. Some scents that rats dislike include peppermint, eucalyptus, citronella, ammonia, and vinegar. Using essential oils, soaking cotton balls, or making spray solutions with these ingredients can help repel rats.

Filling holes and cracks that provide entry points and installing professional exclusion systems from companies like Cat-Guard provides a safe, natural, permanent barrier to keep rats out.

Peppermint oil, citronella and eucalyptus essential oils in their pure form are all smells that rats will dislike. A few drops of these oils in their pure form around the areas you know the rats have been should do the trick. Alternatively, soak cotton wool in essential oil and place in rat traffic areas.

Electronic rat traps are considered the most modern and effective traps for rodents. These traps lure rodents with food and baits them onto a metal plate inside that immediately electrocutes them. It is the most humane approach in comparison to snap traps and poisonous traps – the rat's death is nearly instant.

Does vinegar keep rats away? The best answer to that question would be no.

Sanitize the area. Part of an effective rodent control strategy involves preventing access to food and water and keeping your structures neat and clean to avoid providing easy shelter. Keep ALL food—especially horse, chicken, pet, and animal feed—in rat-proof buildings, rooms, or containers.

Peppermint oil — Essential plant oils like peppermint, rosemary, citronella, sage and lavender have strong botanical scents that rats dislike. One customer successfully repelled a rat by stuffing a peppermint oil soaked tissue into the rat hole chewed into the wall. The rat appeared to never come back.

All you need to do is, put on disposable gloves and combine 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of sugar or powdered chocolate and mix together. Add 1 cup of baking soda and blend the mixture very well. The sugar or chocolate will attract the rats and the baking soda will soon kill them after they have been consumed.

Famously, birds of prey feed on mice and rats. Raptors, including hawks, owls, eagles and falcons, are common predators. Red tail hawks, found across most of North America, and American kestrels, the smallest falcon in North America, will hunt rats by day.

What is a rats biggest enemy? ›

Rats identify each other by smell and will also fight off rival packs or their members. Their main predators are cats, owls and weasels and of course man.

Rats cannot tolerate smells such as ammonia, mothballs, peppermint oil, crushed cayenne pepper, and pepper spray due to their intensified sense of smell. Clean and uncluttered homes and yards scare rats due to the lack of food and places to hide, as well.

Essential oils are some of the best natural rat repellents. Rats have a highly developed sense of smell, which makes strong odors such as pine oil, cinnamon oil, and mint oil offensive to them. Cayenne pepper, cloves, and a mixture of vinegar and ammonia will keep rats away as well.

While rats can be difficult to get rid of, there are some effective and natural ways to deter them from your garden. Some of the most effective natural rat deterrents include crushed pepper, peppermint oil, cayenne pepper, black pepper, cloves, citronella, eucalyptus, and chilli flakes.

Peppermint oil — Essential plant oils like peppermint, rosemary, citronella, sage and lavender have strong botanical scents that rats dislike. One customer successfully repelled a rat by stuffing a peppermint oil soaked tissue into the rat hole chewed into the wall. The rat appeared to never come back.

Some of the most effective natural rat deterrents include crushed pepper, peppermint oil, cayenne pepper, black pepper, cloves, citronella, eucalyptus, and chilli flakes. These ingredients can be used separately or combined to create a rat-repelling spray.

Rats are afraid of human activity, mostly because humans are so much larger than they are. Rats also fear predators such as hawks, eagles, and other birds of prey. Other animals that rats are afraid of include your cat as well as rat terriers and other dogs that hunt rodents.