How to Get Rid of Rats in Lawn, Gardens, and the Yard

Having a rat problem with roof rats, Norway rats or brown rats in your home is a horrible experience. However, it is almost as bad if you spot them outside. In the yard or garden, they will not only contaminate and damage your flowers, vegetables, and plants but can also be a danger to your family and pets.

Additionally, in the winter months, rodents will be drawn to enter your house in order to seek warm shelter and food. Rats, like other rodents, are well-known to spread infectious diseases and cause damage to wooden structures and cables. They are also known to reproduce incredibly quickly, having an average of a dozen offspring every month. Acting quickly to avoid an invasion of rats and mice is necessary to protect your home and health.

There are three steps you need to do to protect the outside space of your home to be free from rats.

Many people prefer to use traps rather than poison baits in order to protect other outdoor small animals, pets or curious children from accidentally consuming dangerous chemicals. Bait stations, closed poison bait units that have small entrances for rats, protect children and pets from getting in contact with the poison. But animals that eat rodents may be harmed as the poison in the dead or living rats can kill them as well. Also, poisoned rats may crawl into the walls or other building structures of your home which will make it difficult for you to remove their remains

Considering the well-being of other animals and to avoid dead rats from decomposing in hard-to-reach places of your home and garden, live, snap, electrical or glue traps can be the best solution. Traditional snap traps will work in most situations and they are quite cheap to use.

If capturing a live rat is too much of a daunting task for you, electrical or snap traps will effectively kill the rodents, leaving you only with the obligation to regularly dispose of them.

Whatever product you choose to use read carefully the label instructions and use gloves when handling remains to avoid catching any bacterial infection.

Due to the rapid breeding rate of rats, it is important to place a large number of traps in the garden or yard in order to ensure that they are all captured. Leaving out deactivated traps for the first couple of days is advised to ensure that the traps are positioned in the right places and for the rats to become comfortable to enter and explore them.