Rats in the garden are the ultimate pest infestation in outdoor areas. This guide explains how you can recognize the presence of rats. Find out about the legal reporting requirement, animal-friendly expulsion measures and effective control strategies here.
- Rats in the garden must be reported. This reporting obligation also applies if there is only a reasonable suspicion.
- Indications of rats in the garden include holes, nests, rat droppings, walkways and gnaw marks.
- You can drive away or fight isolated rats without poison. If rats are running around in the garden in broad daylight, a professional pest controller will solve the problem.
Do you have to report rats in the garden?
Rats are, according to Section 2 of the Infection Protection Act, dangerous he alth pests that can transmit more than 100 diseases to people. For this reason, there is an obligation to report rats in the garden in Germany. Rat infestations in all types of real estate 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
- House and apartment owners
- Landlords and tenants of residential properties or commercial premises
- Managers of condominium companies
- Those en titled to use (tenants) of land
- Owners or authorized users of ships
There is no deadline for reporting rat infestations. However, citizens are asked to report any suspicion of rats in their garden or house. Rats within the meaning of this regulation are both domestic rats (Rattus rattus) and brown rats (Rattus norvegicus). Anyone who fails to comply with their obligation to report is committing an administrative offense which is punishable with a fine.
How to correctly report a rat infestation
A rat infestation can also be reported in writing
The local public order office is responsible for rats in the garden. Rat infestation can be reported to the authority either verbally or in writing. The message should contain at least the following information:
- Name of reporting person
- which property is affected
- Name and address of the property owner, landlord, if applicable manager
- whether and when the property owner was informed
Further information would be helpful. Tell the officers exactly what you suspect is based on, such as locations of rat feces 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 report the pest infestation to the landlord. If you have complied with your reporting obligation, the public order office will promptly initiate risk investigation measures. The responsible authority can either determine the extent of the rat infestation using its own officials or commission a specialist company.
Excursus
Rats – dangerous and prolific
Numerous animal species have made the leap from pest to beneficial in the garden. This doesn't 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 is contaminating our food supplies with smelly feces and urine. Rats are nocturnal and shy. If the beasts feel cornered, they become aggressive and bite. Their ability 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 per female. Brown rats reach sexual maturity after 2 to 3 months, domestic rats after 3 to 4 months.
Identifying rats in the garden – tips
Rats love compost piles
Where do rats live in the garden? Anyone who knows the answer to this question will be able to track down the pests at an early stage. Rats dig holes as entrances to their burrows, always use the same routes and chew through almost all materials. The following table shows typical signs of the presence of rats in the garden:
| Holes and Nests | Rat poop | Running streets | gnaw marks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shed | 0.5-1 cm (domestic rat) | Garden paths | on flower buds |
| Garage | 1-2 cm (black rat) | along the wall | on leaves |
| Decking boards | widely distributed (domestic rat) | trodden dirt | on wood |
| Compost heap | piled (black rat) | Foot Seal in the Dust | on cables, pipes |
| Tree disc | bad smell | on plastic | |
| Drain pipe cover |
Have the above tips reinforced your suspicion that there is a rat problem brewing in your garden? Then please read the following in-depth 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 living boiler and one or more pantries. Each entrance can be seen as a round hole with a diameter of 3 to 5 centimeters. The main corridors behind them are 8 to 9 centimeters high, 11 to 12 cm wide and cross-oval. A rat nest from brown rats or free-living domestic rats consists of leaves, grass, scraps of paper and other soft material. The following overview shows where the tell-tale holes can be in the garden:
- Shed and garage: on the edge of a wall or wooden wall a few centimeters away
- Decking boards: along the edges of the boards
- Compost container: round to oval holes gnawed in the base or lid
- Tree disc: openings between tree and shrub roots
- Drain cover: directly next to the drain cover, often with gnaw marks on the cover itself
If dirt has accumulated in front of the holes or if there are cobwebs hanging in front of an entrance, the rats have left the nest. If there are no further openings to be discovered in the garden floor, the cup has passed you by and the rat rabble has moved on.
Identifying rat poop
Rats leave behind relatively small excrement
Rat droppings can usually be identified from a distance by a strong smell of ammonia. In the garden in the fresh air, the smell is less intense than in buildings. If in doubt, the following properties indicate that it is rat droppings:
- brown to black-brown
- cylindrically shaped
- blunt ends (black rat)
- tapering spiral shape (domestic rat)
Fresh, shiny rat droppings are a symptom of current infestation. If you only find dry, crumbly feces in the garden, the monsters have left the property. Please exercise caution when assessing. Even when dried, rat feces can still be infectious for some time if you inhale particles that have been blown up.
Identify running streets
Rats have bad eyesight. For this reason, the rodents prefer to move along well-known paths. This has the advantage in the garden that it creates real trails that are easy to see. Narrow, well-trodden tracks are typical. Furthermore, rats often leave clear footprints in the garden from front paws with four toes and hind paws from five toes with an extra long middle toe. In addition, rats do not lift their long tails when running. This behavior creates a dragline between the footprints.
Correctly assign gnaw marks
As omnivores, rats are equipped with powerful teeth. Only a few materials can withstand the gnawing teeth. As a result, there is a lot of damage to plants in the garden. In spring, hungry rats quickly climb up tree trunks to feast on flower buds and leaves. This results in fatal harvest losses for fruit trees. The little fruit that ripens in autumn is nibbled mercilessly.
Rats' teeth grow constantly. This forces the fur-bearers to gnaw even when they are not actually hungry. The result is significant 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 helps against rats and mice like a cat
Private garden owners are legally obliged to report a rat infestation to the public order office. This reporting requirement exists so that the municipality can increasingly place poison bait in public areas in the surrounding area. Measures to combat rats in your own garden, however, 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:
| Distribute | Fight without poison | Fight |
|---|---|---|
| Turpentine | Livetrap | Rodenticides |
| used cat litter | Snaptrap | Pest Control |
| 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 bait station. The Austrian provider Smarthygiene goes one step further with its innovative SmartWiseBox for rat control without poison. The effort required for monitoring, installation and monitoring is still too expensive for private users. The offer is aimed at companies in the food industry and other risky industries that can afford the high costs. It remains to be hoped that modified solutions for private users will not be long in coming.
Get rid of rats in the garden
The first signs of rats in the garden are a good reason for nature-oriented hobby gardeners to scare them away without using poison. Rats have very poor eyesight, but they can smell all the better. Effective means of successfully driving rats out of the garden are aimed at their keen sense of smell. This is how it works:
- Turpentine: soak old rags with turpentine and lay them out in the garden
- Cat litter: fill used cat litter into air-permeable bags and place strategically
- Chili powder: Sprinkle chili or pepper powder on walkways (refresh after every rainstorm)
- Iron vitriol: Distribute iron vitriol (green s alt) in suspicious places
We recommend using the four remedies alternately. This way, rats in the garden can't get used to a particular smell and then ignore it.
Tip
If rats come into the garden, the animals are simply following their natural instinct in search of shelter and food. Amateur gardeners who are close to nature do not condemn the intruders to a painful death. The often propagated control agent made from 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
Ratten und Wühlmäuse - die besten Fallen
The effectiveness of smells as a rat repellent is shaky. So far, no serious study has proven its success. If you are fighting rats in the garden without poison but with visible results, the following three options come into focus:
Livetrap
You can buy a live trap for rats from a specialist store or build it yourself. The construction captures the animals without causing them any harm. The rat is released at a safe distance of at least one kilometer from inhabited places. How to properly fight rats in the garden with a live trap:
- Location: on walkways or next to places with rat droppings
- Bait: peanut butter, Nutella, cheese or bacon pieces
- Check: every 8-12 hours
It is important to note that for an animal-friendly process, there is enough water and food available for transport to the release site.
The live trap is the humane version of rat traps
Snaptrap
If the use of live traps is not an option, 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 recommend not setting the trap and bait for a few days. This 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 brutal force of snap traps? Then get powerful shooting help from the animal kingdom. These animals like to eat rats in the garden:
- Cat
- Dog
- Owl, especially eagle owl
- Beech marten
- hawk, buzzard
When a dog and cat smell a rat, their natural hunting instinct is immediately awakened. In order for pets to actually get rid of pests, they should be able to stay in the garden for several hours every day and even at night. If the natural garden has a nesting box for owls, the rat enemies will arrive on their own. Martens welcome you warmly with piles of stones and mixed hedges as places of refuge 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, which venture out of the nest during the day.
Fighting rats in the garden with pest experts
If rats are running around in the garden in broad daylight, it is too late for gentle remedies. It is often acute overpopulation that forces rats to search for food even in daylight. A large rat population represents a high he alth risk for the entire environment and also leaves little scope for animal-friendly hobby gardeners.
The Federal Environment Agency strongly advises against daring experiments with rat poison, so-called rodenticides. Eating baits contain active ingredients that inhibit blood clotting in the rat body. As a result, the animal bleeds to death within 3 to 7 days of ingestion. If other animals eat the bait or a dead rat, such as dogs, cats, rabbits, hedgehogs or deer, they will also die as a result. The deadly danger that rodenticides pose to children cannot be imagined.
A professional pest controller 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 creates a well-thought-out pest control plan, precisely tailored to the local conditions. If the plan includes the use of poisonous bait, these will be placed in tamper-proof bait boxes. Thanks to expert rat control, you can get rid of the pest within a short time with guaranteed safety for you, your family, pets and garden animals that need to be protected.
Frequently asked questions
Our neighbor has rats in his garden and doesn't care about them. Should we report the rat infestation to the public order office?
As soon as a significant rat infestation is noticed on a property, the statutory reporting requirement applies. This obligation also applies if it is a public space or a neighboring property. If it is more than just a single specimen, please do not hesitate to contact the public order office with this observation.
What do rats eat in the garden?
Rats are omnivores with powerful teeth. Once the animals have nested in the garden, no plants are safe from the beasts. Rats love to plunder the food supplies of chickens, ducks and fish. Kitchen waste disposed of on the compost heap is a land of milk and honey for rodents. Even when rats are not hungry, they continue to eat to wear down their ever-growing teeth. In this case, wooden planks, plastic buckets, cables, pipes and garden furniture have to be taken into account.
Rats have settled in my rented garden. Does the pest infestation en title me to a rent reduction from the landlord?
Because rats pose a he alth risk, you as a tenant are generally en titled to a rent reduction until the landlord has remedied the problem. 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 assessed 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 as a preventive measure?
No, it is not permitted to use poisonous bait, so-called rodenticides, on suspicion. A clear rat infestation must have been identified in advance so that the rat poison can be 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, this exception is not available to private users.
How to prevent rats in the garden?
If you follow a few important basic rules, you will be spared rats in your garden. Do not dispose of food scraps in the compost. Maintain strict hygiene when disposing of waste, such as storing trash in tightly closed containers. Rats often find access to the garden through broken drains. By regularly checking the pipe system and repairing the smallest damage promptly, you can prevent rat infestation. In this context, you should never flush leftover food down the toilet so that sewer rats do not become aware of your property in the first place.
Are sticky traps an effective, animal welfare-friendly means of combating rats in the garden?
No. The use of sticky traps against rats is highly questionable from an animal welfare perspective. Even with daily inspections, you expose the animals to unspeakable suffering. Captive rats are put under such extreme stress that various victims have even bitten off their extremities in their distress. For this reason, sticky traps against rats are banned in Germany and Austria.
Tip
Found animal feces are rarely due to rats in the garden. These are often the remains of hedgehogs or martens. The size of the excrement provides an important clue as to who is in the garden. Hedgehog droppings are 3 to 6 centimeters long, marten droppings are at least 8 to 10 centimeters long.
