How To Keep The Rats At Bay With Natural Ingredients

Rats are one of the most annoying pests, especially in the urban area and it is a common pest that found worldwide. They can make serious nuisance in your kitchen, besides carrying parasites of harmful diseases. They can also damage your property, so there is no way to compromise with their presence at your place. If you want to stop the rats from getting in your place, keep your home clean because that is the key.

Often, they are attracted to your garden or kitchen due to comfortable situations like wholes, cracks, etc. that connect the routes to your kitchen. It is pretty difficult to keep all of them out, but you can try some simple steps so that your place will become less attractive to the rats.

It’s really hard to describe the scary feeling when someone sees a rat in their kitchen or other parts of the home. Do you know throughout the world fifty thousand people get rat bites every year? Rats weigh between 15 to 20 ounces, but you hardly can see them because they love to hide in dark and damp places. 

How Do You Know You Have Rats? 

In most cases, it is hard to find their presence; if you are trying to find them in your house straight go to the kitchen and look for their droppings near the food sources. Rats normally follow the same footway to the food sources so often they leave greasy marks throughout their path. Try to look for any trace of the greasy patches. 

Sometimes they leave bite marks in the food sources or in the wooden properties. Try to find if there is any hole in the ground of your kitchen or the garden. Rats always love to keep close to their food sources so they can be easily found near your kitchen. 

Also, try to observe if your pet is behaving abnormally, like if your cat or dog is getting excited and running after something without having proper clue. 

Try To Separate Rats From Their Food Sources 

This is practically impossible, but you have to do that in order to keep them away from your home. If you stop providing them food, they will search for other food sources and eventually leave your place. Though the rats don’t require as much food like mice, but they eat quite frequently. 

If you are storing food, try to keep them in a sealed container so that the rats cannot reach them. Don’t leave any spills; try to clean them up as soon as possible. Mop your floor using a disinfectant because rats don’t like the smell of the disinfectants; they will avoid the place due to the smell. 

Rats spread more than 35 different diseases most of which are harmful to humans if they bite you may get sick. You can affect if you touch their urine, feces, or saliva, it may result in nasty infections like Salmonellosis, plague, Lassa fever and many more. 

Set Traps 

If you are not sure whether you got rat infestation, try to set traps near the food sources like in the kitchen and in the garden near the wholes. You can buy the traps from the market, or you make it following some DIY methods. The traps are very effective in catching the rats, and also it will help you detect their presence in your house. 

Check this video to see how to make rat traps through DIY methods: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yT2FSq_LGA

Natural Remedies To Keep The Rats Away 

Here are some natural remedies which will help you deal with the rats. Do not go for the chemical treatment at first as that can be harmful to the health of your family members. Read this section of the article carefully to know how you can maintain a safe distance from the annoying rats with these natural ingredients. 

Peppermint oil 

The smell of peppermint oil is strong, and it is unappealing to the rats. So, you can use it to keep the rats away from your kitchen; this is non-toxic and free from harmful chemicals. Generally, humans do not have any serious problem with peppermint oil, so it is safe to use. 

For better results, you can mix it with black pepper as rats don’t like the taste of it. The mixture is an environmentally friendly option to keep them at bay. It is a better and safer option than applying rat poison, especially if you live with children, and pets avoid using the poison as accidental swallowing may be harmful to them. 

Due to the effectiveness of peppermint oil, many professional exterminating companies are using the peppermint oil along with poisonous rat killing products. Peppermint based formulas keep the rats away from the target areas. 

Potato Powder 

You can sprinkle instant potato powder to the target areas, you may think rats will eat the potato powder happily, but there lies the trick. After rapidly eating the mixture, it will swell and expand inside their stomach, and they will die eventually. 

Garlic 

Garlic is another natural ingredient that the rats don’t like due to its pungent smell. You can mix the chopped garlic along with water and sprinkle over the target area. Clove can also be mixed with garlic to make it stronger for the rats. 

Clove oil 

Like garlic, clove oil can also be used to keep the rats away from your home, that is why it is considered as the natural pest control solution. It can be used in the same way as popular commercial insecticides. 

The mixture is non-toxic and safe for children and pets. The clove oil works better when combined with other essential oils like citrus and peppermint oil. You can apply it under the cabinets, near the containers or directly on the kitchen floors. Along with rats, it will also control the ant and cockroach battalion in the same way. 

Clove oil-based insecticides are much safer than the commercial insecticides; you can apply it as frequently as you want as it is completely safe. 

Onions 

 Onions are another natural ingredient that can be used for rat removal. If you are using onion be careful to replace it frequently as they tend to rot over a short period. All you need to do it, slice an onion and place it directly on the target areas; it will start working automatically.

Ammonia 

 The formula is simple, keep the rat away by applying anything, and everything that they hate, and ammonia is one of them. You cannot apply the ammonia as frequently as peppermint oil or clove oil. 

Buy a bottle of all-purpose ammonia, take it in a bottle with a spray nozzle, apply it on the target areas and leave. The best time of applying ammonia is at night because that is when rats feel comfortable to search for food. 

Cocoa powder and plaster of Paris 

Another effective rat killing mixture is cocoa powder and plaster of Paris; you can also add some sugar to it in order to make it sweet. Rats will eat the mixture due to the sugar content and will desperately require water. They will die quickly if they drink water, even if they didn’t drink it will lead them to death. 

Hot pepper flake 

Another natural ingredient that keeps the rats away is pepper flake. This is another inexpensive way to keep the rats away, simply sprinkle the red pepper flake on the target areas, and wait for the rats to cross. Once they smell the pepper, they will be forced to change the course of their route. 

 Do you know in wild rats will die after 2 to 3 years, but in captive or favorable conditions they can live up to 5 years? They can start reproducing from the third or fourth month after their birth. The scariest part is they can reproduce more than five times in a year with more than 12 litter per batch so that they could have more than 1500 descendants each year! 

After discovering a rodent infestation in your home or office, take prompt action to remove them. Try any one or two mixtures to deal with their presence. If it fails to provide the desired result after a couple of weeks, call an exterminator. Don’t buy poisonous rat killers, especially if you live with children and pets.