How to Proactively Prevent and Deter Rats

The discovery of a rat problem is naturally stressful, making proactive deterrence and prevention the best course of action. Knowing how to keep rats away is essential, as infestations pose significant threats to your home, including structural damage, fire hazards from chewed wires, and serious health risks.

Rats are nimble, resourceful, and constantly seek entry points into domestic properties. While Black rats (Rattus rattus) are skilled climbers that often inhabit lofts, the more commonly found Brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) prefer to burrow near solid structures (like sheds, garages, and walls). Brown rats are also adept at swimming through drainage systems, making rodent proofing vital across your entire property.

Learning how to get rid of rats permanently and keeping rats away starts with understanding what drives them. Effective rodent proofing relies on denying rats their three core survival requirements: food, water, and shelter. Eliminating these attractants is the best way to deter rats and keep them out of your home and garden.

Food Requirements

Brown rats are omnivorous, highly opportunistic, and consume up to 30g of food daily. They are drawn to household food waste, pet food, and bird seed.

• What do rats hate? Rats dislike lacking access to easy meal sources. To discourage them, store all food, pet feed, and bird seed in sealed, heavy-duty, rodent-proof containers made of metal or tough plastic.
• Getting rid of rats from garden areas: Clear up fallen fruit, remove bird feeders at night, and keep outdoor compost bins tightly sealed.

Water Requirements

Rats require a consistent daily water supply of 15ml to 60ml. While a rat can survive for up to a week by extracting moisture from its food, accessible standing water will quickly draw them to your property.

How to keep rats away: Repair leaking outdoor taps and pipework immediately. Ensure proper drainage around your foundation and clear standing water from garden trays, guttering, and under floorboards.

Shelter, Entry Points and Harbourage

Rats seek cover, warmth, and protection from predators and the elements in quiet nesting spots. Rats are exceptional climbers and can scale rough brickwork, timber, and drainpipes to find shelter inside cavity walls, lofts, or beneath floorboards.

• How to deter rats in the house: Seal all cracks and openings greater than 20mm in your building fabric using wire wool and quick-setting mortar.
• Remove harbourage: Clear garden clutter, overgrown vegetation, and timber piles near exterior walls where rats naturally seek cover.

A full-blown rat infestation is complex, stressful, and can be difficult to resolve. A proactive approach to rat prevention, focusing on professional deterrence and proofing, protects your property from the outset and is the best way to deter rats. It is significantly easier to deter rats initially than to eliminate them once they are established. Protecting your premises by sealing all potential access points and making the environment unattractive gives rats no reason to stay and offers true peace of mind.

• Proactive Rat Proofing: Focuses on sealing entry points, removing food and water sources, and using natural rat deterrents. This prevents entry, eliminates potential nesting grounds, and offers long-term peace of mind.
• Reactive Eradication: Relies on trapping, baiting, and professional pest control after an infestation takes hold. This approach is significantly more stressful, costly, and difficult once rats are established inside walls or under floorboards.

Learning how to keep rats away relies on restriction; making your property completely unappealing by eliminating their essential resources. Denying food and shelter is the most effective way to deter rats and prevent an infestation before it starts.

To discourage rats from settling on your property, take these vital steps to eliminate food access:

• Secure All Food: All food, including dried pet food and dry goods, must be stored in airtight, hard-plastic or metal containers. Rats can easily chew through soft materials like cardboard and plastic bags.
• Manage Waste: Ensure all indoor and outdoor bins have secure, tight-fitting lids. Never leave bin bags exposed on the ground, and clean your bins regularly to remove food residues that attract rodents.
• Maintain Kitchen Hygiene: Clean up food and drink spills immediately. Regularly clean hard-to-reach areas, such as behind and under appliances like fridges and cookers where crumbs accumulate.
• Garden & Business Waste: Use a secure, rodent-proof compost bin. If you are getting rid of rats from garden areas, remove fallen fruit promptly and take bird feeders in at night. Commercial businesses must ensure waste skips are locked and emptied frequently.

Rats seek dark, quiet spaces to nest and hide from predators. Restricting potential harbourage areas is key to rodent proofing your surroundings:

• Clear Interior and Exterior Clutter: Rats thrive in clutter and require places to hide. Remove piles of old boxes, unused items, and debris from both inside and outside your property.
• Maintain Your Garden: Keep grass short and cut back dense, overgrown vegetation. Trim climbing plants and heavy shrubbery away from exterior walls, as de
• Store Materials Off the Ground: Stack firewood and building materials neatly, keeping them raised off the ground and positioned away from the building's walls.

While Restriction makes your property less appealing, Exclusion (or proofing) physically makes your premise inaccessible. A professional proofing survey is vital to correctly identify all entry points. A thorough survey should assess the property from top to bottom, including below ground (drainage) and the actions taken from such a survey are the best way to deter rats and prevent an active infestation.

Knowing how to get rid of rats in your house starts with securing physical entry points:

• Seal Gaps and Cracks: Inspect foundations, exterior brickwork, and eaves for any openings larger than 20 mm. Seal these using rodent-proof materials such as cement mortar, sturdy galvanised wire mesh, or metal plates. Never use soft materials like expanding foam, soft wood, or silicone products, as rats can easily gnaw through them.
• Protect Vents and Air Bricks: Cover all air bricks, vents, and utility openings with sturdy, galvanised wire mesh with a gap size of 5mm or less. This lets air flow freely while preventing rats and mice from squeezing through.
• Secure Utility Lines: Pay close attention to the points where pipes and cables enter your building. Seal any gaps around them securely. Caution is needed when proofing around electrical cables; seek professional advice, as metal products may not be suitable.
• Check the Roof: Because rats can climb exterior drainpipes, ivy, and rough wall surfaces, repair broken roof tiles and seal gaps under fascia boards to prevent rodents from invading loft spaces.

Rentokil’s Flexi Armour Range is the perfect solution for preventing rodent access to buildings. See the range here.

In residential Irish properties, many rat infestations can be linked back to the sewer system.

• Signs of Drain Activity: Check inspection chambers and manholes for grease marks (smearing), droppings, or broken pipework. Droppings found in lofts or rats in cavity walls are frequently traced back to faults in the main soil stack.
• Structural Damage: Concerns such as tree roots, debris, or frequent blockages in your drains can indicate structural damage that rats can exploit. A professional CCTV drain survey helps locate hidden fractures in subterranean pipework.
• Professional Inspection: If you suspect drainage issues, a survey may be required to assess the integrity of the pipes.
• Install One-Way Valves: Installing a one-way valve (or non-return valve) can prevent rodents from entering your premises via the drain. As rats can gnaw through plastic, it is highly recommended that a metal valve is installed for long-term effectiveness.

When to Choose DIY:

• Minor, early-stage rat problems where you can easily see the entry point (e.g., a single gap around an exterior pipe). 
• Preventative proofing around garden sheds, air bricks, or compost bins before rats appear.

When to Call a Professional:

• Rats are actively nesting inside cavity walls, loft spaces, or under floorboards.
• You hear noises in the drain stack or suspect subterranean pipework damage (requiring a CCTV camera survey).
• You have tried DIY trapping or repellents, but signs of rat activity persist.

At Rentokil, our guiding strategy is based on the principles of exclusion, restriction, destruction, and monitoring. We prioritise exclusion and restriction because they tackle the root cause of rodent infestations, providing the most effective way to deter rats and protect your property from structural damage and health hazards.

We possess the expert skills and experience to execute proofing to the highest standard, often offering solutions that are unavailable through DIY methods. Our unique and innovative Flexi Armour range is specifically tailored and designed to robustly exclude rodents from your premises. We combine this expertise with the ability to offer rat-tailored drain surveys to prevent rats from entering through your drainage system, offering a complete, lasting solution.

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  What keeps rats away?

  The most effective, long-term strategy to keep rats away is a dual approach combining exclusion (blocking physical access) and the rigorous removal of attractants (food, water, and shelter).

  • Physical Exclusion: You must physically deny rats entry by sealing all entry points. This requires proofing gaps, cracks, and holes using durable, chew-proof materials like cement mortar, strong mesh, or metal plates.
  • Remove Food and Water Sources: Make your property undesirable by securing all resources. Store food, including dry goods and pet feed, in airtight, rodent-proof containers. Clean up spills immediately. Secure rubbish and compost bins with tight-fitting, secure lids. Crucially, declutter storage areas, attics, basements, and gardens to eliminate nesting materials and vital hiding spots (harbourage).
  • Eliminate Harbourage: Declutter lofts, basements, garages, and gardens to remove hiding spots and potential nesting materials.

  Prevention and physical exclusion are the definitive keys to long-term rat control.

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  Will rats leave if there's no food?

  It is highly unlikely that rats will abandon premises simply because one primary food source has been removed, as they are exceptionally adaptable survivors. Rats are resilient scavengers capable of surviving on minimal nourishment, including food crumbs, pet waste, or insects.

  If shelter, warmth, and water are available, rats often remain established and can relocate deeper into cavity walls, lofts, or spaces under floorboards. Instead of leaving the area completely, they may forage at neighbouring properties while keeping their nest inside your home.

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  What smells do rats hate to keep them away?

  Rats possess an extremely sensitive sense of smell and genuinely dislike several strong, pungent, or highly irritating odours, as these can disrupt their navigation and sense of security.

  • Scents that deter rats: Peppermint oil, crushed garlic, raw onions, white vinegar, cayenne pepper, and eucalyptus.
  • Limitation: Natural scents evaporate quickly and act only as temporary visual or scent barriers. They are rarely sufficient to resolve an active infestation on their own without structural rodent proofing.

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  Do rats climb on walls?

  Yes, rats can climb vertical surfaces, especially those with rough or textured finishes. Their sharp claws, textured foot pads, and muscular tails allow them to scale many building structures.

  Rats generally cannot scale smooth, non-porous surfaces like polished metal, glass, or smooth plastic, as their claws cannot gain purchase.

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  How Long Can a Rat Live Without Water?

  A rat can typically survive for up to a week without a direct water source by extracting moisture from the solid food it consumes.

  However, because rats need between 15ml and 60ml of fluid daily to remain healthy, an easily accessible water supply is a major attractant.