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6 Ways to Keep Rats Out of Your Garden, And 1 to Avoid

It is very common to encounter rats in your garden. This is because rats will go anywhere where there is food to eat and your garden presents such a wonderful opportunity. Rats tend to go into gardens, dig holes to hide in, and then eat your supply of fresh vegetables.

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They also have a constant supply of drinking water because you are regularly watering your garden. The need to get rid of rats in the garden is one that is very real if you consider the amount of damage they can do to your plants.

First, let’s discuss a widely thought about and discussed method that should never be used; chemicals! Yes, chemicals can poison rats and kill them but then you’ll have dead poisoned rats on your property to clean up, yuck!

Rats can carry other pathogens beyond poison too. Furthermore, you are poisoning your own garden and your own plants could make you sick. There is too much uncertainty that comes from chemical methods of getting rid of rats and anyone who suggests it is uneducated or doesn’t care about your best interests.

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#1. The best way that you can remove these animals from your garden includes installing a fence with a wire mesh around your garden. This will prevent the rats from getting into the garden in the first place and burrowing hiding holes in it. Mesh installed a few inches underground around the perimeter of your garden will also discourage rats from digging deep enough to still gain access into the garden from outside. It will also keep other destructive animals such as rabbits away. However, if it's too late to add any sort of preventative measures and you've noticed the pests making their way through to your garden already, your best bet is to contact Pest Control in Georgia to come and solve the problem for you instead.

#2. Another strategy that you need to consider is to contain your compost waste in a container so that it does not supply food to the rats. If you are composting, the compost pit likely offers a more diverse menu especially if you dump leftover food from your house in there. If the compost is well covered, the rats will not have a balanced supply of food that includes starch and protein to compliment the vegetables in the garden. This may just deter them from camping in your garden because they do not have easy access to a great food source.

roof-rat

#3. You may also need to clear out the grass and any bushes that may be around your house, from the walls to the garden. This will eliminate the cover under which rats move as they look for food. Lack of cover leaves them exposed and therefore they have to run to other places and look for different hiding places. They are less likely to come around if they do not feel safe.

#4. Having cats and dogs is another wonderful deterrent for rats. Your pets will hunt them and keep their population at bay. Please keep in mind that rats will also be attracted to your home by the pet food that you may often leave outside for your pet. Keeping the pet food indoors will remove this option from the equation and the rats will have to look for better options to get their balanced diet from, driving them away from your property.

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#5. Bottom line, the best way to deal with rats is to prevent them from coming into the garden in the first place with full exclusion barriers. Sealing off all the spaces through which they might come in is the best way to achieve this. You can also keep monitoring your garden in order to nip the problem in the bud before you have a whole colony of these animals hiding in there. If you are a serious garden enthusiast and rats are just a constant issue in your area, moving to a full greenhouse type environment with full exclusion is a surefire way to prevent them from entering.

#6. If full exclusion is not possible or desired for aesthetic reasons, the last surefire solution is to hire a professional nuisance wildlife company to help you. Nuisance wildlife professionals are different from pest control companies in that they employ humane methods for treating nuisance wildlife.

About the Author Laura Bennett

Hello, I’m Laura Bennett. I love nature especially when it comes to flowers and different kinds of plants. I started a very small garden behind my house and I named it Humid Garden. So, I created this blog to provide aspiring and inspiring thoughts about gardening for gardeners and anyone who has the intention of keeping a garden.

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