Can rats be scared away from returning?

It's probably very easy to scare a rat away, as many of them would much rather scamper away and hide rather than face you, but it's keeping the rats away that is the problem. Shooing them out of one room just forces them into another, and if you try to shoo them out of that one too, they'll just head deeper inside your home. This will usually result in a rat colony or pack in a place of your home that you can't easily access. When you can't easily access it, you can't easily get rid of those rats.

Don't you see? Scaring the rats away just doesn't solve the problem. Noise or light will often disturb rats enough to make them move, and bigger predators too, such as you, your household members, or even your household pets. They'll just run somewhere you can't find them though. They probably won't run outside of your home, and even if they did, it won't be long before they're right back inside again. You need to get to the root of the problem in order to get them out and make sure they've stayed out. This means finding the tiny little holes that they've used to get inside your building in the first place. Then you'll need to seal it up and it's only once you have done that, and made sure you have done it thoroughly, that you can set traps to eradicate the rat infestation. If you don't do things in exactly that order, more rats will just enter your home, lured in by the pheromones that the initial rat left to guide them there. If it's not a rat that breaks in, it'll be another wild animal. Sadly,many areas across the United States are rife with wildlife. This is a good thing for the ecosystem, but a bad thing for homeowners. You need to make sure you're protecting your home as best as you can from passing invaders.

Go back to the Rats in the Attic home page.

When you read about rats online you mostly find articles detailing how to deal with rats after they have already set up shop in your home. While these are definitely a needed point of view to consider, there are actually a number of options for you to make your property as inhospitable for rats as possible and scare them from ever entering your home in the first place. 

The first step that you can easily do is to keep your yard tidy and clean. Rats are attracted to sources of food and often we leave our yards a bit too unkempt. Rats will seek out garden vegetables and seeds, but they will also seek out your garbage if it is easily accessible. If you don’t have one already, try to find a garbage can that will lock closed.

Next, you can try and attract a bird of prey to your yard to keep an eye out for any pests that come onto your property. One of the best options you can choose would be an owl. To attract owls you must build an owl house somewhere in your yard. You can place these in your tree or along your fence. They work best if you put them around 8 to 10 feet in the air to dissuade squirrels from moving into them.

Another option is to bait and trap rats before moving them away from your property. This process can take quite some time depending on the number of rats living in burrows on your property.

If you are finding rat burrows in your yard, you can quite literally smoke them out. If you find rat burrows that are far away from anything flammable (think sheds, decks, and trees) you are able to use smoke bombs. Just light one, place it into the burrow as far as you can safely place it and stand back. As it becomes harder to breathe, the rats should evacuate their home and scatter. If they cannot leave they will asphyxiate and die.

If using a flammable smoke bomb would be too much of a risk, you can also use dry ice to achieve a similar result. Instead of placing a smoke bomb in the burrow you can place a decent chunk of dry ice and pour water down behind it. It will begin to break down and release carbon dioxide. This chemical will put the rats to sleep and kill them very quickly. It should be very humane in most cases. It is worth noting that dry ice is incredibly cold and can burn you if you touch it with your bare skin. You should only handle it while wearing heavy work gloves.

If you follow these tips, you should have a rodent-free property in no time at all.