Despite being unwelcome visitors, rats are highly adept at finding entry points if given the opportunity. These pests reproduce rapidly and can cause extensive damage throughout your home while spreading potentially fatal diseases if their presence is not addressed promptly.
While rat traps and poison are commonly used to eliminate them, prevention is often a more effective strategy. With this in mind, pest control pros from Expert Pest Control have shared a simple and inexpensive method to deter rats from your home. The first step to keeping rats out of your home is to maintain cleanliness in your garden. Rats can detect the smell of food from over a mile away, so overflowing bins or rubbish in your garden could be seen as an open invitation.
However, their strong sense of smell can also be used against them. While many people resort to costly chemicals to repel rats, a lesser-known but “highly effective deterrent” is using vinegar.
The experts claimed that rodents are “especially unfond of white vinegar”, which is good news as it is a very common household ingredient.
You can dampen some cotton wool balls with white vinegar or simply add some to a spray bottle with water, as mentioned above. And it’s not just the smell; the “taste repels them as well”.
They said: “Although it may seem absurd, the strong acidity of the vinegar interferes with the rat’s sense of smell, turning your home and garden into no-go zones.”
According to B&B Pest Control, soaking cotton balls in vinegar is “one of the most effective” ways to repel rats. Simply place a handful of cotton balls in white vinegar, let them soak, and then place them wherever you’ve noticed rat droppings, smear marks or activity.
Cotton balls are also great because they can be placed in areas where there is rat urine, and they will soak it and sterilise it.
If you do not have any cotton balls, you can simply place the vinegar in a cup and then place the cup in areas with heavy rat activity. However, if you do not know where these areas are but you still suspect that you have an infestation, you can place the vinegar cup behind the furniture or appliances.
You can have multiple cups to protect a larger space, and if the area is well ventilated, you will have to replace the vinegar in the cups once a week.
Your third option is the vinegar spray. Take a spray bottle and add a mixture of half vinegar and half water, along with a teaspoon of salt. Mix the solution thoroughly, and then spray it in areas of rat activity.