Rats are just one of the many pests that could be hiding out in your garden.

However, gardens are the place where you can intersect them and prevent them from approaching, attacking and entering your home. 

Once they’ve infested your home, you are better off calling a pest controller who can eradicate the problem and save you the headaches and sleepless nights.

To get rid of rats in the garden, poison and traps usually come to mind first, but as good as a pest control method they can be, it’s not very convenient to surround your garden with traps and poisonous elements all the time if you are cultivating it, and have pets and children around. 

You can help yourself by utilising some organic pest control methods. For quite some time, people have determined that “some plants successfully deter rodents”, according to pest control expert Jordan Foster of Fantastic Pest Control.

Using plants to deter rats is only effective during the spring and summer months when crops can grow.

1. Garlic 

The smell of garlic is “repulsive” to rats. Once they come in close distance with it, “they will think twice before getting close” to it. 

Gardeners can experiment with garlic water and squirt it down a rat burrow. The smell “will make it uncomfortable for the rats to live there”, and “they will leave the place for good” for a more comfortable one.

2. Lavender

Rats rely on their sense of smell to find food and avoid dangerous situations like coming in close proximity to predators or with something repulsive to their senses. 

Because of its “potent smell”, lavender can deflect rats from their search for food. So “they try to avoid plants like this one”, claimed Jordan. 

It may be helpful to plant it around areas where rats may be attracted like around decking, garden structures and around the perimeter of the garden.

3. Mint 

Rats “very much dislike the smell of mint”. Growing beds with mint at different places around the garden is a good way to “cut off some access points” for the rodents. 

4. Onion

On the one hand, you can go for growing onions in your garden or just place onions at the most common points of entry for the rats. 

After taking one smell at it, “they will run”, said Jordan. Just make sure to put a new onion every few days otherwise, it will rot, and instead of repelling the rodents, it will become their food. 

However, onions can be dangerous if you have pets. It is especially poisonous for dogs. 

Growing beds with onion, garlic and leeks is a “pretty effective way” of creating a natural border for “keeping not only rodents but several other pests at bay as well”.