How to Keep Rats Away from House

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If you’re having an issue where rats are getting into your home, the problem needs to be addressed immediately considering rats can carry diseases that are harmful to humans and pets. These diseases include Salmonella, TB, E. coli and Weil’s disease. They also carry ticks, fleas, mites and they certainly cause you to experience allergic reactions while in your home. It’s not typical for you to actually see a rat in your home because they love to hide from humans. However, you can pick up on signs that could indicate a rat problem such as damage to wires and wood, scratching noises inside the walls, distinctive ammonia like smells, ripped packages of food, nests or even burrows in your yard. When you notice these signs, it’s time to get into action.

Removing Their Food Sources
There are many ways to repel rats and keep them from moving in without notice. Some repellants work well alone while others are more effective with a combination of repellants. Even so, the first thing to consider when trying to keep a rat out of your home is to remove their food sources. Avoid leaving any type of food out. Instead, use metal and plastic containers for storing and keep your kitchen clean. This includes cleaning under those heavy appliances, cookers and other hard to reach places where food may drop down. If a rat gets into your home, he probably found food outside first which led him to check your place out. Clean around outside trash areas, use bird feeders that are squirrel proof and never put any type of meat into a compost pile.

Routine Home Checks
By doing routine home checks, you can locate any holes that need to be sealed to keep rats from entering. When doing this, it’s important that you look into small dark crawl spaces that aren’t necessarily visible. These are the areas where rats will more than likely get in. Make sure that all of your doors have bristle strips on them, because it is nothing for a rat to squeeze it’s behind through an opening that’s as small as 1 cm. Another thing that you should check during your routine home check is pipes. Believe it or not, rats have been known to get into your home through broken pipes leading from the sewer.



Ultrasonic Rat Control Repellant
Ultrasonic rat control repellants give off a sound that is totally annoying to rats making them turn the other direction before they even think of moving towards your home. The best part about these repellants is that humans are not able to hear them. The drawback is that if you already have an infestation of rats and don’t know it, they could actually become immune to the sound and they’ll never pay any mind to their eviction notice.

Peppermint Oil
If you want a deterrent to use against rats that is natural, peppermint oil is another option you can consider. Peppermint oil has an odor that rats despise and it seems to work well enough considering exterminators have often used it to change the course of rats and force them into cages. What you can do is place the peppermint oil around the inside of your home along the edges of the wall or you can place the oil along the route you think the rats travel most frequently based on their activity. Exterminators have found it useful to use peppermint soaked rags as a placing over the rat’s holes. This action is supposed to drive the rats out of the holes and into the trap, cage or bag. However, there may be more rats in your home than you’re aware of and this calls for the attention of a professional who can get them all out at one time easily and quickly.

Toilet Cakes
Everyone knows about toilet cakes considering they are what keeps our toilet bowls extra fresh and clean, but what does it have to do with repelling rats? Well, rats hate the scent of toilet cakes. They are somewhat like mothballs because eventually they dissolve. Take several toilet cakes and crumble them into small pieces. Throw them in rat holes and nests to drive rats away. The only problem with using this as a repellant is that it doesn’t last very long and if it gets into your skin, it will definitely burn you. This make this repellant dangerous in households where curious little ones reside.

While all of these repellants can be effective in the right circumstances, the only way to get rid of mice for good is by trapping them. A professional is needed to determine the right removal method depending on the severity of the infestation.

More in-detail how-to rat removal articles:

Information about rat trapping - analysis and methods for how to trap.
Information about how to kill a rat - with fumigants or poison.
Information about how to catch a rat - remove one stuck in the house.
Information about rat repellent - analysis of types and effectiveness.

Learn more about how to take care of your rat problem with my educational articles. I can show you how to get rats out of your garage and how to use one way exclusion funnels to remove rats without trapping them. Learn what feces looks like, and why using poison causes dead rats inside the house. Find out if rats are dangerous to pets and how well they can climb. I can let you know if a rat will chew through the ceiling and what you should do with a rat after you catch it. Learn how to get rats out of your car, your bedroom, or your attic, and how they fit through such small holes. I can show you what kind of damage rats can cause in an attic and the Property Modifications you can make to keep down rat populations. Learn if rats rabies, what to do if a rat gets inside your house and how to find and remove a dead rat.

Read about where you should relocate and if you should hire a pro or remove rats yourself. Learn if you should ever poison a rat and if it is possible for a rat to enter a building through Plumbing. I can let you know if homeowners insurance will pay for rat damage, the kind of sounds rats make, if a rat in the attic will have a nest of babies, and what wildlife rehabilitators. Find out some humane ways to kill a rat and if rats hibernate. Learn if repellents will get a rat out of the attic, and if the city or county animal services will help with a rat issue.

You're here to learn how to keep rats away from your house, the attic, ceiling, walls, roof, etc. This site is intended to provide rat education, information and rat prevention tips, so that you can make an informed decision if you need to deal with a rat problem. This site provides many rat control articles and strategies, if you wish to attempt to solve the problem yourself. If you are unable to do so, which is likely with many cases of rat removal, please go to the home page and click the USA map, where I have wildlife removal experts listed in over 500 cites and towns, who can properly help you with your nuisance rat. For more information, go to may main how to get rid of rats page.