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how can get rid of rats

To get rid of rats safely and for good, focus on three things: remove what attracts them, block how they get in, and then eliminate the ones already inside your home or yard.

Quick Scoop: What Actually Works

  • Clean up food and shelter so your home is less attractive to rats.
  • Seal every gap they can squeeze through (even tiny ones) with materials they can’t chew.
  • Use traps (not random poison) in the right places, and consider pros if the problem is big.
  • For “kind” or non-lethal approaches, focus on exclusion and making your space hostile to them so they move on.

1. First Step: Make Your Home Unfriendly

Rats come for food, water, and hiding spots.

Do this indoors:

  • Store all food (including pet food, grains, snacks) in sealed containers, not bags or open boxes.
  • Clean crumbs and grease from floors, under stoves, behind fridges, and in cabinets regularly.
  • Take trash out often; use bins with tight lids.
  • Reduce clutter (boxes, piles of clothes, paper bags) where they can nest.

Do this outdoors:

  • Don’t leave pet food outside at night.
  • Keep garbage in strong bins with fitted lids; don’t let bags sit on the ground.
  • Trim vegetation touching walls and fences; rats love covered “tunnels” along walls.
  • Move wood piles, junk, and dense clutter off the ground and away from the house.

2. Block Their Entry Points

You’ll never fully win if new rats keep coming in.

Where to look:

  • Around doors and garage doors (gaps at the bottom and sides).
  • Around pipes, cables, vents, and A/C or heater penetrations.
  • Roof edges, eaves, attic vents, broken tiles, and gaps around chimneys.
  • Cracks in foundations and walls.

How to seal (use materials they can’t chew):

  • Steel wool + sealant inside small gaps; rats can chew foam alone.
  • Metal or stainless-steel mesh on vents and larger openings.
  • Cement, mortar, or metal plates for bigger structural gaps.
  • Weatherstripping or door sweeps on exterior doors.

A practical example: people who tried traps and poison but still had infestations often only solved it once every roof, vent, and pipe gap was professionally sealed.

3. Traps: The Main Workhorse

Once you’ve cleaned up and sealed entry points, deal with rats that are already inside.

Best options:

  • Snap traps
    • Quick and widely recommended; place them in boxes or along walls to avoid harming pets and kids.
* Bait with peanut butter, nuts, or dried fruit; place with the bait end against the wall because rats run along edges.
  • Enclosed or “box” traps
    • Multi-catch or enclosed traps reduce the risk to pets and children and hide the caught rat from view.
  • Electric traps
    • Deliver a quick kill, usually inside an enclosed unit.

Placement tips:

  • Put traps along walls, behind appliances, along runways where you see droppings or smear/grease marks.
  • Use several traps at once instead of just one; rats breed fast.
  • Check traps daily and dispose of rats with gloves; then disinfect the area.

Avoid:

  • Glue boards are often criticized as inhumane and can cause prolonged suffering.
  • Random open poison inside the home; rats may die in walls and smell, and there’s risk to pets and wildlife.

4. If You Don’t Want to Kill Them

If your priority is “get rid of rats but don’t kill them,” focus heavily on exclusion and deterrence.

Steps:

  • Seal up the home so they cannot get to food or nesting spots.
  • Remove all food sources (inside and outside) so your home is not worth their effort.
  • Use live-catch traps only if you can release them legally and far enough away (check local regulations; in some places this is restricted).

Be aware: if the house is still open and attractive, non-lethal methods often just mean “they leave briefly and come back.”

5. Big Infestations: When to Call Pros

If you’re seeing rats daily, hearing them in multiple rooms, or finding lots of droppings, you might be dealing with a sizeable colony.

Pros can:

  • Inspect your whole structure to find hidden entry points that are easy to miss (roof overlaps, wall voids, sewer lines, etc.).
  • Do systematic exclusion with professional-grade materials (stainless steel mesh, concrete patches, heavy-duty vent covers).
  • Set up a full trapping and monitoring plan until activity is gone.

Forum users with long-running rat problems often only solved them when they combined professional exclusion with ongoing trapping and sanitation.

6. Simple Action Plan You Can Start Today

  1. Tonight
    • Put all food and pet food into sealed containers; clear counters and sweep floors.
 * Take trash out; make sure lids fit tight.
  1. This Week
    • Walk the house inside and out with a flashlight; mark every gap bigger than about a pencil with tape or chalk.
 * Buy steel wool/metal mesh, sealant, and a few quality snap or enclosed traps.

 * Seal the obvious gaps and set traps along walls where you’ve seen droppings.
  1. Next Few Weeks
    • Keep checking and resetting traps until activity stops.
 * Finish sealing less obvious entry points (roofline, vents, utility penetrations); consider a professional inspection if you still see signs.

7. Trending Tips & Myths (2024–2025)

Recently popular online “hacks” include using baking soda mixes, plaster of Paris, or boric acid recipes as rodent killers, but these are still poisons and must be kept away from pets and children. Many pest professionals emphasize that no hack replaces proper sealing of entry points and a solid trapping strategy.

TL;DR

  • Clean up food and clutter so your place is unattractive to rats.
  • Seal every possible entry with metal or concrete, not just foam.
  • Use multiple traps along walls and near droppings; avoid random poisons, especially with pets.
  • For big or persistent problems, bring in a pest control pro for a full inspection and exclusion job.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.