How To Get Rid Of Rats Outside

Finding rats and mice on your property is never a pleasant discovery. A rat on the outside of your property could easily mean there are rats inside spreading disease, as well. If you see evidence of a rat in or near your Bradenton home or business, you know there are more. You’ll want to know how to get rid of rats outside your home and the surrounding grounds of your local business right away. The problem is it can be a challenging effort. 

While getting rid of rats inside your dwelling can be tricky, dealing with a rat infestation outside your home is another issue entirely. Knowing rats are in your yard leads to concerns that they will find their way indoors sooner rather than later.  Rat burrows or any sign of rat activity surrounding your business could definitely mean more are lurking nearby. It’s only a matter of time before clients and employees start to notice, too. 

While do-it-yourself efforts can be helpful, it’s challenging to be sure your work is thorough. It’s also uncertain whether or not you’ve done enough to keep rats from returning. With a professional team like Rodent Solutions, Inc., you can have the experts handle your outdoor rat problem in Manatee and Sarasota County the right away.  

How Do I Know I Have Rats in My Yard?

Obviously, if you see one rat in your yard or outdoor premises, you can bet there are plenty more. However, rats are nocturnal and have a healthy fear of humans. So chances are you won’t see a rat itself, but the evidence they leave behind. There are signs that rats are building nests in your yard, even if you don’t see an actual rat.

For starters, just like all animals, rats will leave droppings or feces wherever they spend time. Rat feces tend to be dark brown or black and can be smooth or have a rough texted exterior, depending on if it is from a roof rat or a Norway rat. You may also notice tracks or rat-shaped footprints on regularly traveled areas.   

Another sure sign of rats living in your outdoor space is the destruction of building materials. Rats love to chew, as it keeps their teeth sharp. Plus, they often chew materials to use for their nests. Drywall, electrical wires, insulation, plastic material, and rotten wood are all susceptible to destruction. Be sure to inspect all outdoor materials, including your house or building, regularly to watch for rats. 

Likewise, finding piles of these materials or feces inside your outdoor grill, pool heater, kayaks, inside sheds, or other exterior storage containers can indicate signs of an infestation.  Rats love water, garbage, pet food, and anything that shelters them from birds of prey such as snakes, coyotes, cats, dogs, and birds. So, finding nesting or chewed materials in and around these can also mean rats have found a home in your yard. 

How Can I Make My Home Unattractive to Rats?

There are several reasons rats might gravitate to your yard, and many of them are within your control. First, rats know that other animals mean they can find access to food and anything else they need to live in your yard. So, if you keep animals outside, like chickens, ducks, or bird feeders, rats are attracted to these areas. 

Rats love free food and water.  Standing water in containers, tires, bird baths, or running water like fountains or dripping faucets is incredibly attractive to them (as well to mosquitoes). Bird feeders are the most common draw we see for rats and should be avoided entirely if you are concerned about rats. 

Garbage cans with loose lids and grills are considered food sources that invite rat populations to move in. To help prevent rats, clean your grill after every use. Simply having a grill that is kept outside is a magnet for them.  The cleaner you keep it, the less likely you are to draw rats.  Have a tight-fitting lid on your outdoor garbage can. Finally, remove containers where water can stand for any length of time to prevent attracting rats and stop mosquitoes from breeding in the water.  

You may also be growing plants, especially fruit trees or vegetable gardens, that attract rats. While we would never recommend removing your garden, we do suggest keeping fallen fruit picked up so it’s not rotting on the ground near your trees. Keeping your plants, bushes, and trees neatly trimmed with as little low-lying ground cover as possible is extremely important.  Rats nest in low-laying ground cover so they can remain hidden.  Taking this security blanket away from them is vital to reducing their population.   

Besides these factors, rats are communal animals.  In other words, rats attract more rats. Once a few rats find a home in your yard, more rats will join the party soon! If you can stop that population from starting in the first place, you can prevent the community from getting out of hand.  

Help! I Have Cleaned Up My Yard, But Rats Remain!

Getting rid of rats outside for most people in Florida is an on-and-off battle.  But we have ways to help you above and beyond the efforts we have mentioned that should only be performed by a professional

Rodent bait stations with poison deployed inside of our tamper-proof bait stations are the most commonly used method. The poison gives them something to eat instead of the food at your grill or your trash.  Depending on a few factors, rats will typically die within 3-5 days after consumption.  The positive to using rat poison is that you won’t have to incur the costs of regular rat trap checking.  While snap traps are effective, having us return on a regular schedule to remove caught rats can get expensive when trapping outside. Each station can also disperse many rats because they don’t need to eat much of the bait.  This keeps the costs down for the homeowner and achieves the desired result. 

Having a rodent exclusion performed to your home before deploying bait stations is always recommended because a rat that dying in your attic can leave you with a horrible smell leaching into your living area.  Remember, rats only need a ½” space to find their way inside. 

If you don’t want to use rat poison, we have a tool that, while it won’t kill anything (including rats) can help prevent the rats from breeding.  We now have a method of delivering birth control to rats that is extremely effective.  Rat birth control is more expensive than rat poison. It also takes a little bit longer to see the results, but it is another viable option for rat control.    

What Can Professionals Do That I Can’t Do Myself?

At Rodent Solutions Inc., we are a general pest control company that specializes in rats and other rodents. This means we see a higher percentage of rat cases than most, if not all other companies. We use our many years of knowledge and experience on all different types of accounts to rid your yard of rats. 

Our methods will provide you faster, more effective results than customers can expect to see on their own. We will also give you tips about specific habitat modifications you can make around your property to areas where rats might nest or thrive. We can show you how to modify their habitation points by reducing low-lying brush, bushes, trees and more. Our technicians are licensed to use professional-grade rat poison and rat birth control to remove rats and prevent their ability to reproduce in your yard.  

When you hire our rat control specialists, we’ll also check for entry points in your home and create a plan to seal these for a permanent solution to preventing rats from getting inside. We will make a plan specific to your home and situation that will keep you rat-free. We also guarantee our work, which means we’ll return at any point if you do find new rats trying to move back into your home. 

Rats in your yard or around your building are no joke, and they can be very damaging. Something that starts as a small presence can become a huge problem very quickly. When you call professionals like Rodent Solutions, Inc., you can be sure your problem will be solved right away. Our customized plans will help you get back to living and working worry-free. Call us as soon as you see rats or evidence of rats. We will assess your situation and get to work removing rats right away before they become a real problem.