Rats in the garden are the worst case of pest infestation outdoors. This guide explains the signs you can use to recognize the presence of rats. Find out here about the legal obligation to report, animal-friendly expulsion measures and effective control strategies.

Rats are unhygienic and can cause damage in the garden

Table of Contents

Show all
  1. the essentials in brief
  2. Is there a reporting requirement?
  3. how to recognize
  4. What to do?
  5. drive away rats
  6. Fight without poison
  7. Fight with pest experts
  8. frequently asked Questions

    9. the essentials in brief

    • Rats in the garden are notifiable. This obligation to report also applies if there is only a reasonable suspicion.
    • Hints for rats in the garden are holes, nests, rat droppings, paths and gnawing marks.
    • You can drive away or fight isolated rats without poison. If rats run around in the garden in broad daylight, a professional pest controller will solve the problem.

    Do you have to report rats in the garden?

    According to § 2 of the Infection Protection Act, rats are dangerous health pests that can transmit more than 100 diseases to humans. For this reason, there is a reporting requirement for rats in the garden in Germany. Rat infestations in real estate of all kinds as well as on ships and other means of transport must also be reported. The following overview summarizes who is obliged to report in an emergency:

    • property owner
    • homeowners
    • Landlords and tenants of residential properties or commercial premises
    • Residential Property Managers
    • Beneficiaries (leaseholders) of land
    • Owners or authorized users of ships

    There is no deadline for reporting rat infestations. However, citizens are called upon to report the suspicion of rats in the garden or house. Rats within the meaning of this regulation are both house rats (Rattus rattus) and brown rats (Rattus norvegicus). Anyone who fails to comply with their duty to report commits an administrative offense that is punishable by a fine.

    How to properly report rat infestations

    A rat infestation can also be reported in writing

    The local public order office is responsible for rats in the garden. Rat infestations can be reported to the authorities either verbally or in writing. The notification should contain at least the following information:

    • Name of reporting person
    • which property is affected
    • Name and address of the property owner, landlord, administrator if applicable
    • whether and when the property owner was informed

    More information is helpful. Let the officers know exactly what clues your strong suspicions are based on, such as locations of rat droppings and suspicious holes. If rats are already running through the garden in broad daylight, use this information to underline the urgency of taking adequate countermeasures.

    Tenants of a property are also obliged to send the message about the pest infestation to the landlord. If you have fulfilled your obligation to report, the public order office will promptly initiate risk investigation measures. The competent authority can either determine the extent of the rat infestation through its own officials or commission a specialist company.

    digression

    Rats - dangerous and prolific

    Numerous animal species have made the leap from being pests to being beneficial in the garden. This does not apply to rats. Since the Middle Ages, rodents have been making life difficult for us as threatening disease carriers of plague, cholera, dysentery, toxoplasmosis and the life-threatening hantavirus infection. The rabble contaminates our food supplies with fetid feces and urine. Rats are nocturnal and shy. If the beasts feel cornered, they become aggressive and bite. Their willingness to reproduce is record-breaking. Reproduction takes place almost all year round with an average of 8 young per litter and 6-8 litters per year and female. Brown rats are sexually mature after 2 to 3 months, black rats after 3 to 4 months.

    Recognizing rats in the garden - tips

    Rats love compost heaps

    Where do rats live in the garden? If you know the answer to this question, you can track down the malware at an early stage. Rats dig holes as entrances to their burrows, use the same routes over and over again, and gnaw almost any material. The following table indicates typical indications of the presence of rats in the garden:

    holes and nests rat feces running streets gnawing marks
    shed 0.5-1 cm (house rat) garden paths on flower buds
    garage 1-2 cm (wandering rat) along the wall on leaves
    decking boards distributed over a large area (house rat) trodden dirt to wood
    compost heap piled up (wanderrat) Footprints in the dust on cables, pipes
    tree disc foul stench to plastic
    drain pipe cover

    Have the above tips strengthened your suspicion that a rat problem is looming in your garden? Then please read the following detailed information.

    Discover holes and nests

    Rats in the garden prefer to create burrows with at least two entrances. These entrances are always open and lead to a boiler room and one or more pantries. Each entrance can be recognized as a round hole with a diameter of 3 to 5 centimeters. Main passages located behind are 8 to 9 centimeters high, 11 to 12 cm wide and transversely oval. A rat nest of brown rats or free-ranging black rats consists of leaves, grass, scraps of paper, and other soft material. The following overview sums up where the telltale holes in the garden can be:

    • Shed and garage: on the edge of a wall or wooden wall, a few centimeters away
    • Decking boards: along the board edges
    • Compost Bin: Round to oval holes gnawed in the bottom or lid
    • Tree disc: openings located between tree and shrub roots
    • Drain cover: right next to the drain cover, often with gnawing marks on the cover itself

    If dirt has accumulated in front of the holes or cobwebs hang in front of an entrance, the rats have left the nest. If no other openings can be found in the garden soil, the cup has passed you by and the rat rabble has moved on.

    Identify rat droppings

    Rats leave relatively small droppings

    Most rat droppings can be identified from afar by a strong smell of ammonia. In the garden in the fresh air the stench is less intense than indoors. In case of doubt, the following properties indicate that it is rat droppings:

    • brown to black-brown
    • cylindrical in shape
    • blunt ends (wanderrat)
    • tapering spiral shape (house rat)

    Fresh, shiny rat droppings are a symptom of a current infestation. If you only find dry, crumbly faeces in the garden, the monsters have left the property. Please exercise caution when reviewing. Even when dried, rat droppings remain infectious for some time if you breathe in the particles that are thrown up.

    recognize routes

    Rats don't see well. For this reason, the rodents prefer to move along well-known paths. This has the advantage in the garden that real footpaths are formed that are easy to recognize. Narrow, well-trodden paths are typical. In addition, rats often leave unique footprints in the garden with four-toed front paws and five-toed hind paws with an extra-long middle toe. In addition, rats do not raise their long tails when running. This behavior creates a drag between the footprints.

    Assign gnawing marks correctly

    As omnivores, rats have powerful teeth. Few materials can withstand the incisors. As a result, there is a lot of damage to plants in the garden. In spring, hungry rats scramble up tree trunks to lay hands on flower buds and leaves. This leads to fatal harvest losses on fruit trees. The little fruit that ripens in autumn is nibbled on mercilessly.

    In rats, the incisors grow incessantly. This forces the fur wearers to gnaw even when they are actually not hungry. The result is considerable material damage, especially to wood, cables, pipes, garden tools, birdhouses or garden furniture. Two parallel grooves are typical gnawing marks of a rat.

    Rats in the garden - what to do?

    Nothing works as well against rats and mice as a cat

    Private garden owners are legally obliged to report a rat infestation to the public order office. This obligation to report exists so that the municipality can place more poisoned baits in public areas in the vicinity. Measures to combat rats in your own garden, on the other hand, are the responsibility of the hobby gardener. Depending on the infestation pressure, there are various options for getting rid of rats in the garden. The following table provides a summary overview:

    To evict Fight without poison Fight
    turpentine live trap rodenticides
    used cat litter snap trap pest repellent
    chili powder predators
    iron vitriol

    Smart solutions for effective rat control indoors and outdoors are on the rise. Rentokil is a pioneer on the German market with the patented AutoGate rat baiting station. The Austrian supplier Smarthygiene goes one step further with its innovative SmartWiseBox for rat control without poison. The effort for monitoring, installation and monitoring is still too expensive for private users. The offer is aimed at companies in the food industry and other high-risk businesses that can handle the high costs. It is to be hoped that modified solutions for private users will not be long in coming.

    Drive away rats in the garden

    The first signs of rats in the garden are a good reason for natural hobby gardeners to use non-toxic deterrence. Rats can't see very well, but they smell all the better. Effective means are aimed at their fine sense of smell to successfully drive rats out of the garden. How to do it:

    • turpentine: Soak old rags in turpentine and lay them out in the garden
    • cat litter: fill used cat litter into air-permeable bags and place strategically
    • chili powder: Sprinkle chilli or pepper powder on running streets (refresh after every downpour)
    • iron vitriol: Distribute iron vitriol (green salt) in suspicious places

    We recommend using the four remedies alternately. That way, rats in the garden can't get used to a particular smell and then ignore it.

    tips

    When rats come into the garden, the animals simply follow their natural instincts in search of shelter and food. Therefore, amateur gardeners who are close to nature do not condemn the invaders to an agonizing death. The frequently propagated pesticide made of porridge with plaster causes severe digestive pain with a long agony and is frowned upon in animal-friendly gardens.

    Fight rats in the garden without poison

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    The effectiveness of smell as a repellent against rats is on shaky ground. So far, the success could not be proven in any serious study. When fighting rats in the garden without poison but with visible results, the following three options come into focus:

    live trap

    You can buy a live trap for rats in specialist shops or build one yourself. The construction catches the animals without harming them. At a safe distance of at least one kilometer from inhabited places, the rat is released. How to properly fight rats in the garden with a live trap:

    • location: on walkways or near sites with rat droppings
    • bait: Peanut butter, Nutella, cheese or bacon bits
    • control: every 8-12 hours

    Important to note for an animal-friendly process is the provision of sufficient water and feed for transport to the release site.

    The live trap is the humane version of the rat trap

    snap trap

    If the use of live traps is out of the question, classic snap traps put an end to rats in the garden. The experts at the Federal Environment Agency advocate this control method instead of taking the risks of rat poison. For maximum success, the experts advise not setting the trap and bait for a few days. That way, the suspicious rats can get used to it. To protect children and pets, snap traps should be placed in shelter stations.

    hire predators

    Can't you get used to the close contact with rats in live traps or the brute force of snap traps? Then get powerful protection from the animal kingdom. These animals like rats to eat in the garden:

    • cat
    • dog
    • Owl, especially eagle owl
    • stone marten
    • hawk, buzzard

    When dogs and cats smell a rat, their natural hunting instinct is immediately awakened. In order for pets to actually get rid of the pests, they should be able to stay in the garden for several hours every day and at night if possible. If the natural garden has a nesting box (€49.85) for owls, the enemies of rats will appear all by themselves. Martens give you a warm welcome with piles of stones and mixed hedges as retreats instead of scaring the creatures away with smells. If a hawk or buzzard finds a perch in the garden as a vantage point, the predators make short work of careless rats that dare to leave the nest during the day.

    Fight rats in the garden with pest experts

    If rats are romping around in the garden in broad daylight, it's too late for gentle remedies. It is often acute overpopulation that forces rats to forage even during daylight hours. A large rat population poses a high health risk for the entire environment and leaves little leeway even for the animal-friendly hobby gardener.

    The Federal Environment Agency urgently advises against daring experiments with rat poison, so-called rodenticides. Edible baits contain active ingredients that inhibit blood clotting in the rat's body. As a result, the animal bleeds to death within 3 to 7 days after ingestion. If other animals eat the bait or a dead rat, such as dogs, cats, rabbits, hedgehogs or deer, they also die as a result. The deadly danger emanating from rodenticides for children cannot be imagined.

    A professional pest exterminator is qualified to provide safe and reliable rat control in the garden. After making contact, the specialist first inspects the garden and adjacent buildings. He then draws up a well thought-out pest control plan, precisely tailored to the local conditions. If the plan calls for the use of poisonous baits, they will be placed in tamper-proof bait boxes. Thanks to expert rat control, you can get rid of the plague within a short time with guaranteed safety for you, your family, pets and animals in the garden that are worth protecting.

    frequently asked Questions

    Our neighbor has rats in the garden and doesn't care. Should we report the rat infestation to the public order office?

    As soon as a stronger rat infestation is noticed on a site, the legal obligation to report takes effect. This obligation also applies if it is a public space or a neighboring property. If it is more than a single specimen, please do not hesitate to contact the regulatory office with this observation.

    What do rats eat in the garden?

    Rats are omnivores with powerful incisors. Once the animals have nested in the garden, no plants are safe from the beasts. Rats like to plunder the food stores of chickens, ducks and fish. Kitchen waste disposed of on the compost heap is a paradise for rodents. Even when rats aren't hungry, they keep eating to wear off their ever-growing fangs. In this case, wooden planks, plastic buckets, cables, pipes and garden furniture have to take their toll.

    Rats have settled in my rented garden. Does the pest infestation entitle me to a rent reduction from the landlord?

    Because rats pose a health risk, as a tenant you are generally entitled to a rent reduction until the landlord has rectified the defect. The extent to which you can reduce the rent depends largely on the general conditions. Rat infestations in the immediate vicinity of farms and pigsties are evaluated differently than in a city apartment. Talk to your landlord to find a mutual, viable solution. Alternatively, you should seek advice from a lawyer.

    Can rodenticides against rats also be used preventively?

    No, it is not permitted to lay out poisonous bait, so-called rodenticides, on suspicion.A rat infestation must have been established beyond doubt in advance so that the rat poison is used in accordance with the law. In exceptional cases, certified pest controllers are permitted to use permanent baiting that is not directly related to an acute rat infestation. However, private users are not allowed to make this exception.

    How to prevent rats in the garden?

    If you follow a few important basic rules, you will be spared rats in the garden. Do not dispose of leftover food on the compost. Observe strict hygiene when disposing of waste, such as storing rubbish in tightly closed containers. Rats often find access to the garden via broken ducts. By checking the pipe system regularly and repairing the smallest damage promptly, you prevent rat infestation. In this context, you should never flush leftover food down the toilet so that sewer rats don't even notice your property.

    Are sticky traps a tried and tested, animal welfare-friendly remedy for rats in the garden?

    No. The use of glue traps against rats is highly questionable from an animal welfare point of view. Even with daily checks, you expose the animals to unspeakable agony. Captive rats are subjected to such extreme stress that several victims have even bitten off their extremities in distress. For this reason, sticky traps against rats are prohibited in Germany and Austria.

    tips

    Finds of animal droppings are rarely due to rats in the garden. It is often the legacies of hedgehogs or martens. The size of the excrement gives an important indication of who is cavorting in the garden. Hedgehog droppings are 3 to 6 centimeters long, while marten droppings are at least 8 to 10 centimeters long.

Category:

Animals in the garden