Today you’ll learn exactly how to stop rats under shed without calling for professional help. Whether you’ve spotted just one rat or you have happened to run into a handful of them, the tips we’ve shared in this guide will help you to eliminate them permanently.
Rats can damage your shed by burrowing under to find warmth and food. Beyond vandalizing the shed’s panels and going even further to your gardening space, rats carry with them vermin that cause serious illnesses such as leptospirosis.
As disturbing and disgusting as rats are, they aren’t difficult to control. With some simple DIY methods, such as using glue boards and traps and clearing away their homes, you can keep rats away from your shed without the need for professional help.
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How to Stop Rats Under Shed in 4 Ways
How to Keep Mice Out of Shed Naturally
Here are four things you can do to keep rats away from your shed:
1. Seal Holes Under the Shed
Start by walking around the perimeter of your shed to determine how many holes and cracks the unit has. Then seal any hole that’s at least 0.25 inches in diameter. Seal the cracks and close any entry point that a rat can use to squeeze itself into the shed.
Check the windows and under doors to see if there are open spaces that rats can possibly use as entryway into the shade. Close the space to a size less than a dime so you don’t leave them any chance to push themselves in.
Get in the shed and clean it thoroughly. Arrange all your tools and work wear in such a way that you don’t leave space for rats to hide and thrive. Check to make sure that there are no nesting grounds that can encourage rats from rebuilding.
You can take this even further by building concrete around the shade. While this will cost you some money, it’s a huge step to keep rats away because they can’t dig through concrete.
2. Use Glue Boards and Rodent Traps
With possible entry points closed, all the cracks sealed, and concrete built around the perimeter of the shed, it’s unlikely a rat will find its way in. However, they might still find their way in if you leave the door to the shed open.
This is where glue boards and traps come in. These are cost-effective solutions that let you keep mice and rats out of the shed with the least human intervention. All you have to do is to get a high quality, top-rated trap, set it up, and let it do the rest of the work for you.
Glue boards feature extremely sticky adhesive coatings, which easily remove rodents, insects, and snakes out of your yard. They’re the best alternative to snap traps because they don’t endanger children and pets.
Mousetraps are also a good solution and worth considering if you need an extreme approach.
The advantage of mousetraps is that once they catch rats and nice, they don’t let loose. 100% of the time, the traps kill the mice and rats in an instant.
3. Get Rid of Their Homes
If your shed has been subject to infestation by rodents for a while, there’s a high chance they have already made your garden shed their home.
In other words, they’ve already built nest in the shed where they can go every night, reproduce, thrive, and continue to destroy your property.
The best way to stop them from producing and coming back to the shed is to destroy the nest so that they don’t have a space to thrive. So go ahead and remove old boards, rock piles, firewood unused boxes, and whatever else you don’t use out of the shed.
By doing a full shed de-clutter, you leave no space for them to hide. And that means they don’t have a place to come back to and reproduce.
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4. Take Away Rodent Friendly Sources of Food
Rodents feed on anything, from grains and seeds to nuts and pet foods. Since they’ll eat whatever comes their way, taking away their source of food from under the shed will discourage them from sticking around.
Seal garbage cans. Sweep away food waste that might have dropped while you were eating from the shade. And store pet food in conditions unsuitable for pets to access.
What Happens if You Disturb a Rats Nest?
Pest control professionals warn against disturbing a rat’s nest for a reason. Since they are aggrieved, they can easily transmit pathogens through air. And that’s so even if you don’t touch the nest.
So what should you do exactly?
First, open the window and door of the shed for about 30 minutes to give the nest enough time to air out. Don’t use a vacuum cleaner or a fan as doing so will encourage the spread of rodent viruses. Natural light should be enough.
See also: Storage shed skirting ideas
Put on a pair of rubber gloves and remove the droppings and debris left by the rats. Next, mix one-part bleach to ten-part water and use the mixture to clean the shed. The mixture should be sufficient to disinfect the pathways the rodents use to get into the shed and use vinegar to remove rodent scents from the space.
Now pour the bleach over the nest and leave it for some time to soak in. Pick the nest, place it in a plastic bag, and dispose in a garbage can.
See also: Epsom salt for groundhogs under shed
Now that you know exactly how to stop rats under shed, it should be easy for you to keep them away without the need for professional intervention.
With these cunny and annoying animals out of the way, you don’t have to worry about their disease-causing venoms or their ability to ruin your shed or anything in it.
