Author: Michael Potter Updated: May 15, 2020
If you want to get rid of rats, but still haven’t found a method that works, don’t despair – you can get rid of rodents! We will tell you how to get rid of rats in a private house and apartment, about rat poisons and poisons, how effective electronic ultrasonic repellers are and why it is better to remove upholstered furniture from the room when using them. Is it possible to repel rodents with essential oils alone, and should you trust your grandmother’s folk advice on removing rats? You will find answers to all questions in this material.
There are many methods to combat these parasites that will not give them the opportunity to drive you crazy and destroy your home. But you must be prepared to fight comprehensively. We will tell you how to drive rats out of your house, what methods you can use to scare away or kill such unwanted neighbors, and how to make sure that they no longer appear on your territory - in an apartment or private house.
How to get rid of rats and mice in a private home
How to defeat a rat infestation in a private home?
The question is incredibly difficult. As experience has shown, not all means are good in this fight. Unfortunately, I had to verify this from my own experience. With the first frosts, it seemed like uninvited guests came to our house. We began to suspect this after something “boomed”, rustled and rang. After just about three weeks, the cautious noises turned into thundering madness.
While we were thinking about the humaneness of the methods and the inadmissibility of using poisons in the house, the rats began to multiply exponentially. And then we began to use all possible methods suggested to us, which we were assured would work 100 percent, but it turned out to be quite the opposite. But more about this...
From neighbor to internet
Where can I get the necessary information? The easiest way is to use smart tips from the World Wide Web. “A mousetrap is the most tested and reliable means of fighting rodents,” as it is written as a carbon copy on the Internet.
Indeed, my neighbors, using this simple device installed under the bathroom sink, caught all the mice. We had to fight a more serious enemy. Experienced fighters for sanitary cleanliness of houses note that it is much easier to defeat mice than their more intelligent relatives, rats.
They don't fall for the same trap twice. Rats are capable of thinking and analyzing: if one individual from a large family dies, an analysis is immediately carried out and the entire family will avoid this source of danger.
Mousetraps also have sizes
It turned out that these traps come in different sizes: miniature ones for catching mice and larger ones for rat “hunting”. You can find this device on the Internet for more than 2 rubles.
This happened only once. Never again, none of the rodents fell for this trap. No matter how much we ventilated and washed the mousetrap, no matter how much we placed it on the most tricky paths, the rodents masterfully avoided the dangerous obstacle and did not succumb to the alluring smell of cheese or other baits.
Crazy pens and glue
Delighted with the first result, we stated: one - zero in our favor! But the rats immediately struck back - they chewed through the cord from the refrigerator, which, moreover, was energized at that time. We immediately understood that this was revenge. There was nowhere to retreat.
Neighbor Maxim came to the rescue:
— Try making a glue trap. Place some seeds on a piece of hard cardboard and spread special glue on it. It is sold in all gardening stores. I put such a trap under the kitchen set: every night, a mouse would come across it.
But, alas, glue bait for our rodents turned out to be an overly naive method of control. Meanwhile, the husband was making another “correct” remedy, according to experienced mouse fighters. I took a 3-liter jar with a screw-on metal lid from my supplies.
I dug a hole in the center of the lid and cut about seven rays from it, which I slightly bent inward. It turned out to be a kind of mink. A lot of goodies were placed inside the jar: fried seeds, sunflower oil. They placed the jar on its side on the path in the hope that the rodents would like the house.
As the authors of this can invention guaranteed, the rodent will definitely crawl into the hole to feast on it, but will not be able to get out because the sharp teeth of the metal lid will be directed at it and will prick it. But our rodents had a different logic. Not a single rat ever used the jar trap.
This happened only once. Never again, none of the rodents fell for this trap. No matter how much we ventilated and washed the mousetrap, no matter how much we placed it on the most tricky paths, the rodents masterfully avoided the dangerous obstacle and did not succumb to the alluring smell of cheese or other baits.
Crazy pens and glue
Delighted with the first result, we stated: one - zero in our favor! But the rats immediately struck back - they chewed through the cord from the refrigerator, which, moreover, was energized at that time. We immediately understood that this was revenge. There was nowhere to retreat.
Neighbor Maxim came to the rescue:
— Try making a glue trap. Place some seeds on a piece of hard cardboard and spread special glue on it. It is sold in all gardening stores. I put such a trap under the kitchen set: every night, a mouse would come across it.
But, alas, glue bait for our rodents turned out to be an overly naive method of control. Meanwhile, the husband was making another “correct” remedy, according to experienced mouse fighters. I took a 3-liter jar with a screw-on metal lid from my supplies.
I dug a hole in the center of the lid and cut about seven rays from it, which I slightly bent inward. It turned out to be a kind of mink. A lot of goodies were placed inside the jar: fried seeds, sunflower oil. They placed the jar on its side on the path in the hope that the rodents would like the house.
As the authors of this can invention guaranteed, the rodent will definitely crawl into the hole to feast on it, but will not be able to get out because the sharp teeth of the metal lid will be directed at it and will prick it. But our rodents had a different logic. Not a single rat ever used the jar trap.
What damage do rats cause?
If there are rats in the area, the roots and seeds will be the first to suffer; they can damage the bark of trees and even the green part of plants. You can detect the presence of a rodent if you accidentally fall into one of its passages dug underground. Rats make large reserves in their burrows, which last for a long time, and they may not appear outside all winter.
In addition to destroying crops , they are carriers of dangerous diseases that can infect people and animals. They live in a pack and, in a state of aggression or fear, attack stronger animals, cats or dogs.
Rats are very fertile , an adult female can give birth to 4-5 cubs at a time, and she can give birth to 2-3 offspring per year. Therefore, if the fight is not started in time, then the proliferating rodents will cause great harm to the area.
Hungry animals do not disdain human supplies; they sneak into barns and often steal eggs. They can even steal small poultry chicks. Thus they scare the animals.
Folk ways and methods of poisoning rats
Rats are vermin that can spread disease and also compromise the structural integrity of your home. Most commercial poisons promise to effectively kill rodents, but they contain extremely toxic chemicals that also pose a danger to humans and pets.
If you need to poison rats, you can prepare rat poison, which will be much safer than its chemical counterparts, at home. Below are various rat poison recipes.
Homemade Rat Baiting Remedy
- Mix 100g plaster of Paris and 100g cornflour in a small, possibly disposable bowl. Plaster of Paris can be purchased at most craft and hardware stores. It is a dry powder that, when mixed with liquid, expands in volume and eventually hardens.
- Add 1-2 cups (0.2 - 0.5 l) milk. You can add more milk if the clumps of cornmeal or gypsum remain dry.
- Knead this mixture into a dough by hand.
- Tear off and roll 2.5-5 cm balls from the resulting dough.
- Place the balls behind the refrigerator, inside cabinets, under the stove, or other places to bait rats.
- Wait a few days and check the balls to determine whether they have been eaten or not.
If some of the balls were not eaten, you will have to make another batch of poison and place the poison in other places. The plaster will harden and the bait will become inedible over time.
How to get rid of a rat in an apartment
- Mix 130g flour, 1 cup (200g) sugar and 130g baking soda in a large bowl.
- Place the dry mixture in shallow containers, such as canning jars.
- Wait one day and check the jars.
This is another effective way to control rats in your home because the bicarbonate in baking soda reacts with the rat's stomach acid and produces carbon dioxide gas. Rats cannot regurgitate gas formed in the stomach. The gas will accumulate in the rat's digestive system, which will ultimately lead to the death of the rodent.
Methods to control rats
Methods to control rats
- Combine one package of dry (cooked) potatoes and a cup of plaster of Paris in a large bowl.
- Add a pinch of cinnamon to the mixture.
- Add one glass of water to the bowl.
- Stir the mixture and form small balls from the resulting dough.
- Place the balls (or mixture in canning jars) in areas where rodents live.
Adding a little peanut butter to your poison bait will help you attract and kill rats faster. Make sure you find dead rodent carcasses, as decomposing rodents can fill your home with an incredible stench that will linger for months and is also potentially hazardous to your health.
Advice!
Do not leave rat poison where pets or children can reach it. Even though homemade rat poison is less toxic, it is made from substances that are hazardous to health if ingested.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to get rid of rats using absolutely safe means for humans and pets. Wash and thoroughly disinfect the bowls in which the poison was mixed if you plan to use them in the future. It is better to use disposable tableware.
Simple but very effective homemade rat traps: description of designs
There are many design options for rat traps that you can assemble with your own hands from scrap materials. There are usually no problems finding such materials in a private home.
Below are examples of original designs.
A bucket with a spinning plastic bottle (or aluminum can) above it. Bait is applied to the bottle, the rat reaches for it, the bottle spins, and the animal falls down. It is useful to pour water into a bucket before use so that caught animals cannot jump back out. The photo shows an example of such a device:
The following video shows another unusual way to fight rats in the house using a homemade rat trap:
Making such a rat trap is more difficult and troublesome than buying a ready-made one, but when it is important to quickly take measures to catch the pest, then a homemade device may be a good option for solving the problem.
Fighting rodents with folk remedies
I will tell you one old way to get rid of rodents in your basement and cellar. People call it dirty. And that's why.
Getting rid of rodents using ash
You need to take wood ash and grind it finely, and then sprinkle it on the dry floors of the basement and cellar at the rate of one bucket per 5-10 m2, of course, only in those places where it will not interfere with you.
The ash contains alkali, which corrodes the paws of rodents. They lick it off, which causes further irritation to the mouth and stomach. Therefore, rats and mice are forced to move to another place.
For humans, unlike mice, ash is absolutely harmless, which is why the method I described is good. But there is also a disadvantage to this means of getting rid of rats and mice, because the “tailed ones” spread ash throughout the house and this does not make it cleaner.
Fighting rats and mice using culinary methods
There is another original method of fighting rodents in my collection of folk wisdom, I call it culinary. Wheat flour and building gypsum (alabaster) are mixed in a 1:1 ratio and this dry mixture is poured into a container.
Water for drinking is placed nearby. The bait has a familiar smell and does not arouse suspicion. The essence of the method is that after eating and drinking, a rat or mouse gets specific indigestion, since after a few minutes the mixture hardens like cement in the rodent’s stomach.
In our village, sometimes instead of flour and alabaster they used a dry mixture of quicklime and sugar. And there is another tricky way - take a wine cork and cut it into small pieces with a knife, mix it with finely chopped crusts of bread, and flavor it with a few drops of unrefined sunflower oil.
Important!
When this culinary delight gets into the mouse’s stomach, the plug begins to swell and gets stuck in the mouse’s intestines. Did you know that rats are very sensitive to human smell? Therefore, when preparing bait for them, you need to use something plastic or wooden, it could be a stick or a spoon.
You can wear rubber gloves. Before spreading the bait, the rats must be fed normal food for several days. And only then food with a “surprise” is placed in the same place.
Signs of rats
These rodents can appear in absolutely any room; residents of multi-apartment city buildings are also not immune from their appearance, even if they live quite high up.
It is quite easy to notice their presence and for this it is not at all necessary to see the pests themselves; they can be recognized by the following signs:
- Spoiled and eaten food. First of all, the attention of rodents will be attracted to vegetables, fruits, as well as various cereals and grains.
- Presence of rat droppings. Their waste products are easy to distinguish from mice, since they are much larger and have a specific gray color.
- Damaged wires, as well as various wooden and plastic objects on which there were traces of rat teeth.
If there is a suspicion, then it is best to start inspecting and searching for signs of rats in basements and storage rooms , since there are ideal conditions for their living, moreover, there is always food, and people in such places rarely disturb them.
You also need to know that surfaces made of concrete are not a significant barrier; rats can chew through it too.
Exterminating rodents with perfume
To repel rodents, formaldehyde or kerosene has long been successfully used, the smell of which is so disliked by mice and rats. But these liquids can only be used to protect non-residential premises. I recommend that you spray the corners of the cellar or basement with formaldehyde or kerosene and the rodents will immediately leave there.
If you yourself do not like the smell of kerosene, then you can take a piece of old rubber, place it in a bucket and burn it on the fire using a blowtorch. It is better to do this while storing food in the cellar.
Well, if you are somehow not satisfied with all of the above methods, try another one. Mice and rats cannot stand the smell of mothballs. Make a mixture of equal parts of naphthalene derivatives and sawdust and sprinkle it near mouse holes, passages and holes.
Mice can be effectively exterminated with turpentine, the smell of which they cannot tolerate. To do this, soak a rag in turpentine and place it in the hole. After a few days, this operation must be repeated.
Reinforced concrete method of fighting rats and mice
Reinforced concrete method of fighting rats In order to prepare a cellar or underground for storing food, all existing holes must be filled with glass, stoned or concreted, and the supply and exhaust pipes closed with a fine metal mesh.
A week before storing food, you should disinfect the room with a bleach solution.
And I recommend smoking the cellar, which is located outside the residential premises, with a sulfur bomb before storing the harvest.
This is done like this: we plug up the vents and cracks in the room being treated. Light the wick and close the door tightly. The smoldering time of the checker is about 1 hour, the time of the cleansing effect of the smoke is 24-36 hours. After this, it is necessary to ventilate the cellar well for 1-2 days until the smell disappears completely. And your cellar will be cleansed of fungus, mold, rot, and insects. And the rodents will run away.
Marine method of getting rid of rats
One day, while sitting on a rubble, I heard about an ancient maritime method of fighting rodents. It is said that several healthy adult rats were placed in a strong metal barrel. Left without food, they began to devour each other.
Attention!
The surviving rat was released into the hold of the ship, where it found and ate all its relatives. Today, the method is not relevant, since it requires a strictly limited space for the activities of the surviving individual: otherwise you raise a monster and it will run away to another place. Yes, and there are simpler and less bloodthirsty methods of controlling rodents.
We exterminate rats with vodka.
And the last method of exterminating rats - you don’t know for sure - is with the help of vodka. Frol Fomich’s eyes sparkled slyly: “Here, dear man, you can’t get away with a wine cork, you’ll need half a liter for a scientific experiment.” I had to respect the old man.
Before his story, they took a sip of a glass. From a good conversation and a drink, Frol Fomich became slightly tired and he snored sweetly and took a nap on the rubble. I didn’t wake him up, so Frol Fomich will tell you about fighting rodents with alcohol next time.
Symptoms of the presence of rats
How do you know that an unwanted guest has settled in our house? If we notice food debris, disturbed food supplies, bitten wires, cables, damaged woodwork or droppings, we can assume that a rat is the culprit. It often happens that we come face to face with a new tenant. Then we are sure that appropriate measures must be taken. Why?
The rats found are large - from 20 to 30 cm plus a tail - and reproduce very quickly. If we allow this, soon the population of these animals in our house will increase to several dozen individuals. Secondly, the rat will not leave the place where it feels good and has food. The source of food for it can be not only our pantry, but also the waste that we throw in buckets, in the yard, etc.
Rats carry parasites and diseases, which is why we need to get rid of them as soon as possible. It is worth starting our activities as soon as possible - it will be easier for us to fight with one or two rodents than with the entire herd, especially since they are smart animals and will quickly learn to avoid traps set for them. Here are the steps we can take to get rid of a rat from our home.
Destruction of rodents or how to get rid of rats and mice
With the onset of autumn and the time of harvest, owners of various buildings have a question - how to destroy rats and mice in a house or barn. Interestingly, these rodents are the most adapted to cohabitation with humans.
Such a neighborhood cannot be called pleasant - both rats and mice in the country (and in any other habitat) are considered pests. To know how to protect against rats and mice, you must first determine what kind of object we are talking about.
Advice!
You can also contact our specialists for help (consultations are provided by phone or online). Our proposals include many effective ways to solve the problem of rodent infestations forever.
Rats in city apartments or offices - is such a neighborhood necessary?
Wild rats thrive in urban landscapes. They can move into living quarters from a nearby pond or landfill. In addition, rats and mice can live in the entrance or in the sewer. They can enter the apartment both through open doors and through cracks in the walls or ceiling, as well as through ventilation ducts.
How to remove or get rid of mice and rats in an apartment or office
How to remove or get rid of mice and rats So, rodent control in the house is definitely necessary.
- Firstly, rats and mice are carriers of many serious infectious diseases, including salmonellosis, rabies and plague.
- Secondly, these animals can live perfectly well behind drywall (even in a layer of foam plastic or insulation) and, as a result of their activities, damage not only the finishing, but also the main load-bearing and engineering structures of the house.
People may be bothered by the unpleasant odor emanating from rodents, as well as constant noise at night. There are also cases where rats have seriously injured pets and children - and these are just a few reasons to drive away harmful rodents for good.
What does effective protection against mice and rats in homes mean in this case? What set of measures should be taken and what means should be used:
- when choosing how to deal with mice at home, you can turn your attention to traps with glue: they “grab” the rodent in the same way as happens when using a mousetrap, but the whole process is much more humane,
- if there are not many rodents in the apartment, then measures to destroy them can be reduced to installing several traps with bait,
- methods based on pesticides will be appropriate if there are a lot of rodents and it is not possible to deal with them in any other way.
To ensure that protection against rodents is not needed again after their destruction, simple preventive measures will be required: thorough cleaning, sealing all cracks, and so on.
Rodents in the garden - how to get rid of or drive away rodents from the dacha
Indeed, the removal and destruction of rats in the countryside is very important for humans. First of all, rats and mice in the house are carriers of various “infections,” and mice in the walls can ruin many structures.
In addition, they feel great in a bathhouse, attic, cellar, chicken coop and even in beehives. So, the main methods are how to remove or get rid of mice and rats in a private home.
Measures to prevent re-infestation of rats
To prevent repeated rodent invasions, you must:
- cover ventilation outlets with fine grilles;
- seal all cracks and rat passages with concrete mixed with glass;
- strictly monitor food products, which must be stored in tightly closed containers;
- remove garbage and food waste in a timely manner;
- clear the area of fallen leaves and debris;
- use fragrant herbs for preventive purposes.
Effective control of mice in a private home
Possible measures depend on what kind of private buildings the pests have chosen for themselves:
- the use of chemicals: with their help you can decide how to deal with rats in the cellar, preventing damage to household goods, or remove rats from the basement, minimizing the possibility of damage to the subfloor. But you cannot use poison in rooms with pets,
- traps and traps: in this way you can exterminate rodents in hives. Although, if we are talking about constant migration of pests, traps may not help.
Rodents on the site - how to preserve the harvest
Before deciding how to get rid of mice, garden rodents and rats in the garden, you need to know how they get there. For example, the vole mouse multiplies rapidly all summer - the number of individuals during the warm season can increase several dozen times (at the same time, they settle both near trees and directly in the beds).
Complete destruction of mice and rats in the vineyard is possible only after taking radical measures. Of course, the fight against voles in the fields also requires prevention - that is, keeping the area clean and free of waste accumulated on it. But rodents won’t just go away, which means that the fight against mice in the garden should be carried out using proven means.
Rodent control in the garden
Voles and other rodents are pests not only of fruit trees, apple trees, pears, plums and fruit bushes, but also actively destroy root crops, flowers (especially bulbous ones) and grain crops - not only by eating the crop, but also by damaging the root system of plants. The actual fight against rats and mice in the garden may involve using the following means:
- traps and other types of traps can only be used in such an event as garden protection if you know the permanent mouse trails or where their feeding areas are located,
- One of the ways to fight rodents in the garden is the use of pesticides. But in most cases this method is not only impractical, but also not safe for humans,
- The most modern and highly effective means of controlling rodents are repellers. Purchasing repellers is a humane way and will save you from having to look for animal corpses. Pests will simply leave an uncomfortable environment - even if there are many of them.
Physical (mechanical) method - 5 useful techniques
In the current unstable economic situation, this folk remedy is the simplest and least expensive. The owner of the house just needs skill in installing traps and crushers for catching rats, as well as various tricks.
There is a large selection of fishing gear on sale. What I would like to recommend first of all:
- When choosing a crusher or rat trap, look at the elasticity of the spring and the weight of the wooden or metal base to which the spring mechanism is attached.
- The spring should be tight and charge with force. This will allow for a more lethal effect when triggered. There should be no gap, or it should be minimal, between the activated spring and the surface to which it is attached.
- The base for the rat trap must be stable both in area and in weight. When the spring is activated, so that the rat trap does not bounce.
- And the most important thing is to constantly change the bait, as well as the position of the rat trap and be able to disguise it . Then you will achieve results.
- A positive effect can be achieved by “flooding” rat holes with water or digging up a garden plot. Rats make shallow passages between burrows, so you can disrupt their livelihoods by digging up the ground.
Biological methods
The natural enemy of rodents is the cat. Animals are repelled even by the smell of the animal itself. A cat practices its hunting instinct by chasing rodents. Don't mind eating fresh meat.
While even a kitten can handle mice, only an experienced cat can overcome a rat. A large rodent can win in a fight with a cat. Therefore, the cat does not always agree to catch rats, and sometimes it simply flees.
To use a “biological weapon” against pests in the house, you need to be confident in the cat’s abilities. Choose not a purebred feline, but a semi-wild creature with pronounced natural instincts.
On a note!
The cat rarely associates with rats and does not particularly chase mice. Only a cat that is as big as large rodents can remove rats from the house.
Rat Death #1 and #2
These two drugs are similar in their effectiveness and rules of use. The active ingredient of Rat Death No. 1 is brodifacoum, and that of Rat Death No. 2 is bromadiolone. Both of these substances belong to the second generation blood anticoagulants, both are approximately the same in toxicity for rats, but brodifacoum is more dangerous for the environment (this is partly due to the appearance of Rat Death No. 2 - in order to comply with environmental standards, the manufacturer needed to switch to a more environmentally friendly active ingredient, preserving product effectiveness).
The drugs are sold at the same price: approximately 70 rubles per 100 gram package (8 briquettes), or 120 rubles per 200 gram package (16 briquettes).
Perhaps the main disadvantage of the product compared to Storm is that it is produced in the form of soft test briquettes. Such briquettes dry out relatively quickly in residential areas and sometimes become moldy. Therefore, it is better to poison rodents with Rat Death in small apartments and private houses, where there are few pests, and they will relatively quickly find and eat the poison.
Review:
“We also use rat death 1. Rats usually die within a week. And everything would be fine, but only after this a terrible stench always appears in our apartment. As I understand it, it’s the dead animals that are starting to decompose... With us, they always die in hard-to-reach places, and always in different ones. And it’s unclear where, either behind the wall, or somewhere under the floor. Either in the bathroom or in the hallway we smell this stench. And fleas appear and flies fly to the smell. But we are forced to endure, since neither cats nor mousetraps help, only poison ... "
Oksana, Moscow
The versatility of the Hawk repellers
Hawk repellers are used both at home and for agricultural purposes. Advanced models are even allowed to be placed outside buildings.
Where can it be used
Repellers are used in residential buildings: apartments, houses, country cottages, etc. They are placed in holiday homes and tourist centers to protect visitors from rodents.
The beeping of the device causes severe emotional stress in rats.
The devices can be used in domestic premises: garages, storerooms, basements. They are required to protect granaries, production and warehouse buildings.
Due to the absence of harmful effects on human health and the large covered area, there are no restrictions on the use of Yastreb repellers. Some models are waterproof.
Prevention of re-breeding of rodents
To prevent the recurrence of rats, you need to do the following:
- Look around the room. Cover all holes and cracks with a mixture of concrete and broken glass. This will prevent animals from chewing their way through.
- Remove food from open access and clean regularly. Pests will have nothing to eat; they will not have material to build nests and shelters.
- Cover the ventilation shafts with fine mesh wire mesh. It is better to secure it with screws or screws. This will allow you to quickly remove or replace the mesh if necessary.
- Do not leave garbage near the doors to your apartment or house, or near the garbage chute.
- Lower the toilet lid. Rodents are good swimmers, so they move freely through risers and sewers.
- Place mosquito nets on the windows. It is advisable to close them when you leave home. Rats are able to climb trees and jump into houses. They can easily chew through the mesh while you are away. If you are at home, you will hear the noise and be able to react quickly.
To prevent rats from getting in, you need to throw out trash regularly.
It is recommended to use ultrasonic repellers for prevention. If they are turned on constantly, rats will not have the desire to move into your home.
Traps
Simple devices of different sizes and power. They all act identically. Unbend all the way and lock into place. When a rat's paw gets inside, the latch releases the mechanism, and dense plates with sharp teeth close.
Traps and mousetraps for fighting rats The power of some traps is such that the head of a rodent is immediately torn off and the body is broken in half. The rat dies on the spot or is mortally wounded. Getting out of the trap is minimal.
Important!
In the house, traps are placed in the pantry or closet. Should not be used in rooms. If someone accidentally gets caught, they will receive a deep laceration on their leg. If it is a small child or a pet, the situation is even more complicated.