Keeping Rats Out of Your Garage
Rats, they can get anywhere! They can live in the country, and they can live in the suburbs. A highly adaptive creature, rats can chew pretty much anything and climb tons of things too. As they are highly adaptive, they can even survive in your garage.
Before you can understand how to get rid of rats in your garage, you need to understand why they like it… why do rats like being in your garage?
If you want to control rats, then you need to know what they like. Rats like the garage as it is a good source of food, water, and shelter. The primary need here that the garage provides to these rodents is shelter, but the garage offers proximity to the other two needs, food and water, making it a perfect nesting location for rats.
The cracks on the walls and ceiling offer them access to the different parts of the house to easily access food and water in plenty. Basically, they can hide out in the garage until you are asleep, then they get into your home to look for food!
How to Get Rid of Rats in The Garage
Clean The Garage
Rats flourish in dirty and untidy environments, and since most people are reluctant to clean their garages often (like me), it offers an ideal home to the rodents. It is not an area that folks visit too often, which adds to the security a rat will feel. It is wise to ensure that you rid your garage of any trash and clutter, reducing the comfort and security for the rats. If possible, clear out the entire garage one item after the other to identify what is still relevant and what you no longer need. Once everything is out, clean the whole garage with detergent and get rid of all cobwebs as well.
Be sure to dust off the items you store in the garage. You can donate what you don’t need or sell them instead. Make a little money while eliminating rats, a win-win for you! Cleaning your garage will also result in clearing a few food sources away too. This is pest control 101.
Bait With Poison
One of the primary reasons why you have rats in your garage is easy access to food. Use this against them as rat bait! This time, add in some poison to a bait station too. Bait stations have proved to be very effective for ridding your garage of rats.
As soon as your garage is clean (tip 1), set your bait station down with the poison in. Using rat poison can be dangerous, so please be careful! While placing the baits, ensure you wear gloves to prevent them from detecting any human scent, making them refuse to take the bait.
While using poison should be used as a last resort, it is an effective way of killing them. Always use humane traps to contain the rat while the poison takes hold. That is a responsible way of using rat poison because it will protect your local environment.
Using Traps
Traps are poison-free. However, you need to note that rats have an efficient survival mechanism. It sounds unbelievable, but rats have been known to avoid traps when they realize they are traps! Setting a trap for rats is easy. Getting them on it can be a challenge.
For this reason, you must find specific locations where the rats cannot escape the traps. Always place the traps in rat runs and give them very little space around the trap. The other thing is to ensure that you use food bait for the rats in the traps, such as cheese, to attract the rats towards the trap.
Be sure to wear gloves while setting the glue traps as well to avoid leaving any human scent. Make sure you are checking them regularly if you are using snap traps. You will want to get rid of the dead rats ASAP.
Flood The Burrows
Even with cracks in the garage wall and ceiling, rats will sometimes dig a burrow in the garage walls for shelter. While you are inspecting your garage for rat invasion, you must identify the burrows.
The entrance to the burrow will be a hole in the ground. It may even be outside the garage. Check the local area thoroughly. Flood these holes to drown any rats inside and have traps and baits in place if they try to get away before drowning. If you want them to drown, then make sure you trap a rat inside before flooding the burrow.
Get/Borrow A Cat
It is a bit of a drastic course of action; however, getting a cat does keep rats away. If you want to know how to get a rat out of your garage, send in a cat. A cat is a natural predator for a rat, especially for small rats.
Not only will a rat chase all rodents away, but it will also spray the entire garage to mark out its territory! A rat is likely to avoid the garage unless it is the very last resort. After all, cats eat rats, which is another reason you should avoid using rat poison.
