picture alliance / Getty Images
Rats are a nuisance in the garden.
Rats don’t like plants with strong smells, like:
Want more gardening tips?
Rats love to eat fruit and citrus trees such as orange, lime, peach, and plum.
picture alliance / Getty Images
They are attracted to seeds and to nuts in the shell.
Eliminate these plants from your garden, if possible.
Manage Compost
Rats are drawn tocompost piles.
Piles contain easily accessible fresh food sources that rats find especially attractive.
Shiftfresh compost materialsto the middle of the pile.
Use a contained tumbler-stylecompost binto lock rats out of the compost.
Harvest on Schedule
Garden fruits and vegetables attract rats.
Ripe fruits and veggiesespecially those that fall to the groundare even more attractive.
Harvest your garden’s fruit and vegetables when they are ripe.
Learn the harvest schedule for all garden items.
Remove Pet Food
Food left outdoors for dogs and cats is a savory draw for rats.
Feed your pets indoors whenever possible.
Exploredog food storage ideaslike steel trash cans that protect the food from rats.
Avoid plastic containers, as rats can gnaw through them.
Fill bird feeders with only the minimum amount of food for the birds each day.
Do not leave the food overnight.
Place the hummingbird feederhigh and out of reach of rats or remove it from the garden altogether.
Introduce Cats
Rats are built for survival, so they avoid predators.
Cats are natural predators of rats.
Cats locate rats by their high-pitched squeaks.
They may follow through by scaring away, impairing, or killing the rats.
Use Ratters
While cats hunt rats, some types of dogs do a better job.
They even have an official name: ratter.
The word terrier stems fromterra, for earth.
Remove Snakes
Rats treat some snakes as prey.
So, if your garden has snakes, eliminate the snakes in order toget rid of the rats.
Install Catch Traps
Catch rats alive in a cage and later release them far from the garden.
Thebest rat trapsfor humanely stopping rats are live catch traps.
These are large wire cages with doors that snap shut once the rat has entered.
Release the live rats safely far from the garden.
Build a Fence
Once rats have been eliminated, erect a rodent-barrier fence around the garden.
This will prevent most, if not all, rats from entering the garden.
Install an 18-inch-high fence around the garden, with the lower section buried 6 inches or more.
Use 1/4-inch hardwire cloth (wire mesh) in 16- or 19-gauge stainless steel.
For large or aggressive rats, use 28-gauge diamond-shaped expanded metal mesh.
Stake every 12 to 24 inches.
Clean and fortify chicken coops to deter the rats.
Keep the chickens safe by covering openings with 1/4-inch-opening hardware cloth (wire mesh) fence.
Build a safety fence around the coop with hardware cloth rather than chicken wire.
Seal openings in the chicken coop, and keep the chicken feed within the enclosure.
Add Electronic Repellers
Rats may be repelled by high-pitched ultrasonic sounds.
By creating a consistent ultrasonic sound in the garden, rats might avoid the area.
Electronicultrasonic pest repellerswon’t get rid of rats alone.
But they can form one part of a larger pest elimination strategy.
However, you do need to get rid of the rats immediately.
Rats destroy plants and leave droppings.
Also, rats in the garden may eventually migrate into the home.
Eliminating the food and water sources that attract rats is the cheapest way to get rid of them.
A faster yet still inexpensive way is to use wood snap traps.
Snap traps either kill the rats or capture them for release.
Poisons are effective, but they can take several days or a week to kill the rats.
Catch traps hold the rats for live release elsewhere.
Snap traps usually kill the rats.
About Rats and Mice.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Landscaping Methods to Prevent Pests From Entering Your Home.
University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
Rat Terrier Dog Breed Information.
Which Dogs Excel At Earthdog & Why?American Kennel Club.
U.S. National Park Service.
