Rat droppings are a sure sign of a serious pest problem. A detailed assessment is worthwhile. Depending on the size, the excrement can be the remains of other animals, such as mice, hedgehogs or martens. This guide explains how you can clearly identify rat droppings. Rat droppings pictures, information about appearance and a clear comparison simplify reliable identification.
How do I recognize rat droppings?
Rat droppings are dark brown, spindle-shaped and approximately 12 cm long. If you find rat droppings in your home, stable or garden, you need to take action. Remove the feces using disposable gloves and a respirator and clean the area with a disinfectant.
- Rat droppings are 1-2 cm long, dark brown and have a tapering spindle shape, comparable to large grains of rice.
- More than 120 dangerous diseases are transmitted through rat feces, such as hantavirus infection, cholera, dysentery, toxoplasmosis and salmonella.
- Removing rat droppings thoroughly and safely requires disposable gloves, a respiratory mask and the use of effective disinfectants.
Recognizing and differentiating rat droppings
What does rat poop look like? This is the first question when finding excrement in the house and garden. Sometimes a foul smell of ammonia has raised worrying suspicions that there are rats in the surrounding area. Of course, a horrible smell is not the only criterion for the presence of the dreaded pests. The droppings of some harmless small animals also give off a disgusting smell. The following table provides an overview of the important properties of rat droppings in comparison to mice, hedgehogs and martens:
| Comparison | Rat poop | Mouse droppings | Hedgehog poop | Marten droppings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Size | 1-2 cm | 0, 3-0, 7 cm | 3-6 cm | 8-10 cm |
| Shape (Appearance) | banana-shaped, rejuvenating | spindle-shaped or round | rolled, pointed ends | twisted lace |
| color | dark brown, shiny | dark brown | black to dark brown | black to dark gray |
| Smell | after ammonia | strict | barely noticeable | horrid smell |
| Consistency (fresh) | sticky, soft | shiny, soft | fest | coarse, visible food residue |
| Typical locations | + Basement | + Basement | + Bed | + Attic |
| + Attic | + Attic | + Garden paths | + Basement | |
| + along skirting boards | + false ceiling | + Terrace | + Garden house | |
| + Kitchen | + Kitchen | + paved areas | + Garden |
Rat excrement pictures below visualize the excrement in comparison with the excrement of mice, hedgehogs and martens. Below we will go into more detail about the special properties. Practical tips provide information on the differences to the excrement of mice, hedgehogs and martens.
Mouse droppings or rat droppings?
Stool size, appearance and smell in the table above serve as an initial indication of whether the culprits are mice or rats. What makes it more difficult for the layperson is that the remains of young rats and adult mice are difficult to tell apart. Include the following additional aspects in the assessment to distinguish between mouse droppings or rat droppings:
- Mouse droppings: spread over a large area or randomly throughout the house, primarily near the nest
- Rat droppings: concentrated in certain areas with up to 40 grains of droppings per night
Mouse droppings initially only appear sporadically, mainly along walking paths and preferred resting places. Parallel to the explosive multiplication, the quantity gradually increases. Adult house mice produce 60 to 80 fecal pellets every day, which at 3-8 mm are significantly smaller than rat feces. What at first glance appears to be a bundle of lint often turns out to be mouse droppings upon closer inspection. In contrast, the rat excrement latrines are hard to miss.
Mice and rat droppings can hardly be distinguished
Hedgehog droppings or rat droppings?
Joy and sorrow are closely linked when distinguishing between hedgehog droppings and rat droppings. Hedgehogs are welcome beneficial insects in the garden and, as insect eaters, actively support the nature-loving gardener in pest control. Rats in the garden pose a high risk for hobby gardeners of frightening the rodents while working on the ground and incurring dangerous bite wounds.
You are spared a lot of guesswork if you want to distinguish between the hedgehog and rat answers. At 3 to 6 centimeters, hedgehog droppings are more than twice as long as rat droppings. To test, simply hold a match next to it to clear up any remaining doubts. You can read about what to do if your garden is infested with rats here.
Marten droppings or rat droppings?
If martens meet in the house, an undisturbed night's sleep is over. Before the nocturnal noise starts, the nimble animals unnoticed inspect the attic, garden house and barn as a potential kindergarten. In this context, martens leave behind their droppings, which are clearly different from rat droppings, even to the untrained eye. At 8 to 10 centimeters long and 1 to 2 centimeters thick, marten droppings are significantly larger than rat droppings. Furthermore, marten solution is riddled with food residues, such as fruit stones and feathers.
However, there is no significant difference in terms of smell. The excrement of martens and rats smells equally disgusting.
Excursus
Danger potential of rat droppings
Rats are dangerous carriers of disease. In fact, domestic and brown rats carry pathogens for more than 120 serious diseases. Direct contact with the shy, nocturnal pests is rare. This fact does not make the beasts any less threatening. Rat feces contain treacherous pathogens such as toxoplasmosis, dysentery, cholera and life-threatening hantaviruses. Rats in the garden also act as reservoir hosts for various Lyme disease bacteria, which are transmitted to humans and animals by ticks as vectors.
Rat droppings size – differences between brown rats and domestic rats
The domestic rat is one of two rat species found in our country
Two species of rats that naturally have different lifestyles have established themselves in Germany. The domestic rat (Rattus rattus), also known as the black rat, ship rat and roof rat, primarily seeks proximity to humans. The brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) prefers to live in gardens, fields and forests. The latter is the larger rat species and is well on its way to displacing the weaker house rat. Advancing urbanization and destruction of their habitats are increasingly forcing brown rats into the habitats of domestic rats. You can tell which of the two rats you are dealing with by the size of the rat droppings and the associated characteristics:
- Domestic Rat Feces: 0.5 to 1.5 cm long and thin, uniform, cylindrical with pointed ends
- Black Rat Feces: 1.0 to 2.5 cm long and thick, cylindrical with blunt ends, more irregular, similar to a grain of rice
With a little luck, the rats will have left their footprints in the dust where the excrement was found as a further distinguishing feature. Domestic rats mostly walk on tiptoes, whereas brown rats move on the cushions of their paws.
Removing rat droppings – how does it work?
Removing rat droppings goes far beyond traditional cleaning. As the above digression conveys, the excrement poses a high risk of infection. Important precautions must be taken in advance to ensure that you do not inhale toxic feces particles or come into skin contact with the feces. The following instructions explain in practice how to properly remove rat droppings:
Accessories
- Disposable gloves
- Respirator mask
- Street broom
- Hand brush with shovel
- Bucket, scrubber and pick-up or wet cleaner
- All-purpose cleaner
- Disinfectants
- garbage bag
When removing rat droppings in the garden, please have a hard brush (root brush) ready if the droppings are on paved surfaces. If the rabble has relieved itself on the bed soil, you need a spade.
If you want to remove rat droppings, you have to be well prepared
Step-by-step instructions
Before starting the cleaning campaign, please ventilate the room thoroughly. Then tilt the windows to ensure a continuous supply of fresh air (without drafts) during the cleaning work. How to remove rat droppings in the house thoroughly and safely:
- Put on disposable gloves and a respirator mask
- Removing piles of excrement with a street broom and shovel
- Sweep away small, isolated excrements with a hand brush and shovel
- Fill bucket with hot water and all-purpose cleaner
- Moisten the soil well and leave to act for 20 minutes
- Wipe the floor thoroughly
- spray with disinfectant or wipe and let dry
- clean the entire area again with hot water and all-purpose cleaner
Remove the repulsive smell with a high-quality cleaning agent, such as Sagrotan All-Purpose Cleaner Disinfection. Remove the last remnants of the nasty ammonia smell with an enzyme cleaner, such as Green Devil or BactoDes special odor remover (Amazon). Please put the discarded rat droppings as well as the disposable gloves and the respiratory mask in the garbage bag, which you tie tightly and throw into the residual waste bin. Please also clean your shovels, brooms and hand brushes meticulously with water and disinfectant.
You can use these instructions with slight modifications to remove rat droppings from paved areas in the garden. The easiest way to remove rat droppings is on bed soil. In this case, pierce the contaminated area with the spade and put everything in the garbage bag, which you tie tightly and dispose of in the household waste.
Tip
The risk of infection does not only come from rat droppings. Mice excrement is equally dangerous to people and pets. In Germany, infection with the hantavirus or leptospirosis is much more often due to contact with mouse droppings than with the excrement of the increasingly rare domestic rats. For this reason, gently driving mice out of the house and garden is also a sensible measure for animal lovers.
Inhaled rat feces – what to do?
Dried rat droppings become an acute he alth hazard if you inhale the dust particles. This often happens when gardening or cleaning around the house. It's enough to sweep the terrace, tidy up the shed or stack firewood. Fatally, the stirred up fecal dust can contain the pathogens of the dreaded hantavirus infection, which enter your respiratory tract and the organism via this route. The following symptoms indicate that you have caught the reportable disease:
- sudden high fever
- severe joint and muscle pain
- severe headache
- massive drop in blood pressure
- Visual problems
- acute kidney failure
- Incubation period: 5 to 60 days
If you have symptoms that resemble a severe cold, please see your family doctor. He will clarify whether it is the hantavirus infection or one of the numerous other diseases that are associated with rat feces. Your symptoms, especially impending kidney failure, will be treated. A vaccine is not yet available. The good news for those affected and their families: Sick people are not contagious and therefore do not have to be quarantined.
Prevent rat infestation – tips for preventive measures
Were you able to use this information to assign found feces to another animal species? Then this circumstance only superficially gives the all-clear. Animal excrement in the house indicates loopholes that rats could also use as a portal of entry. So that you don't have to deal with a rat infestation in the first place, we recommend these preventative measures in the house and garden:
Rat prevention at home
All entrances to the house should be blocked - including on the roof
Rats are agile climbers and squeeze through tiny openings and crevices. Slam the door in the face of the bold intruders with these precautions on your house:
- Close door gaps: Close gaps with rubber lips or brush strips
- Grid entrances: Equip doors, windows, ventilation shafts with small-mesh grilles (less than 18 mm)
- Seal supply pipes: repair damaged pipes and lines
- Plaster openings: Close wall openings with plaster, concrete, rock wool or grids
- Install backflow flaps: Secure drain pipes with backflow flaps
- repair broken roof tiles: check roof tiles for damage after every storm and repair them
Rats always seek proximity to water. This property makes the entire inflow and outflow system in the house a potential entry point for pests. Regular care and maintenance of the sewer system and connections from house connections to the public supply network effectively prevent rat infestation. This includes not disposing of leftover food in the toilet, which magically attracts the voracious pests.
Prevention of rats in the garden
A little care is enough to make the garden repellent to brown rats and wild rats. The pests are constantly looking for a rich source of food and a safe haven. With these preventative measures you can thwart rodents in your garden:
- No food waste in the compost: throw organic kitchen waste in the residual waste bin
- Feeding pets indoors: Feed dogs and cats in the house, empty and wash bowls promptly
- Close the organic waste bin tightly: Fit the lid of the organic waste bin with a rubber seal or use a maggot lid
- Store yellow bags rat-proof: Store yellow waste bags in locked rooms until the day of collection
Food supplies for chickens, fish or ducks are a richly laid table for rats. It's worth the effort to keep the supply in the basement or rat-proof shed.
Rat control indoors and outdoors
2 Teil Rattenbekämpfung
Are our recommendations for rat prevention measures too late? Rat droppings in the house require immediate action. The rodents are dangerous disease carriers, cause expensive damage and contaminate your food. The beasts usually appear in packs, reproduce extremely quickly, are extremely clever and suspicious. Without consistent and timely countermeasures, you will soon have a rat infestation on your hands.
Sporadic occurrences of rat droppings still provide an acceptable window of opportunity to drive away the rats with home remedies. The following remedies have a chance of success in the early stages of a rat infestation:
- Live traps with peanut butter as bait
- Pour used cat litter into a cloth bag and hang it near rat feces latrines
- Soak rags with turpentine and place in suspicious places
- sprinkle black pepper or chili powder on walkways
Increased appearance of rat droppings in various sizes indicates that the pests have begun to multiply. There isn't much time left for experiments with gentle deterrents. Don't hesitate any longer and contact a tested, certified exterminator who is familiar with rat control.
Frequently asked questions
Is rat droppings in the house required to be reported?
In Germany there is an obligation to report rat infestations, which is stipulated in a regulatory regulation on rat control. Obligated parties include property owners, house owners and tenants alike. According to § 2, any urgent suspicion must be reported to the responsible authority, such as finding rat droppings in the house or garden. In most municipalities, the public order office is responsible. The report can be made in written or oral form. Risk investigation measures are then initiated, either by the authority itself or a specialist company.
How long is rat feces contagious?
Rat droppings are still contagious for a few days even when dried. Direct contact with excrement is not necessary for viruses to be transmitted. Frequent cases of infection with the hantavirus occur because the pathogens are inhaled with the dust or enter the organism through minor skin injuries while gardening.
We managed to get all the rats out of the house. What remained was an unbearable stench of feces. How can we remove rat poop smell?
Conventional cleaning products are a losing battle against the intense ammonia smell that rats' feces, urine and smear marks leave in the house. In practice, microbiological-based products such as Biodor Pet Animal have proven to be effective against the smell of rat feces. The environmentally friendly concentrate is diluted with water and applied to large areas. Ideally, you should keep the areas slightly moist for two days. As a rule, one treatment is enough to permanently eliminate the unbearable smell of rat feces in the house. The product is available in hardware stores and online shops for prices starting at 12 euros per liter.
Is rat poop toxic to dogs?
Rat droppings are just as dangerous for pets as they are for us humans. Young dogs in particular eat everything that comes in front of them because their natural warning instinct is not yet fully developed. If you suspect that your pet has eaten rat feces, consult the vet as soon as possible. Ideally, you should collect the remains of the excrement using disposable gloves and a respirator mask and take the sample with you in an airtight plastic bag. In the laboratory, the veterinarian can determine whether the rat feces is contaminated with viruses and initiate the right treatment for your dog in good time.
Despite all the rat poop pictures and detailed explanations of appearance and comparison, are we still not sure? What to do?
Get advice from pest experts. The Lower Saxony State Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (Laves) offers professional fecal examinations under the heading of zoodiagnostics. For this purpose, send in the indefinable solution along with a form stating the circumstances of the discovery. For the low price of 12.50 euros, the experts determine which animal the excrement belongs to.
Tip
The compost heap becomes a land of milk and honey for rats if you don't dispose of vegetable and cooked food waste here. One of the best preventive measures against rats in the garden that boldly break into the house is competent composting. All kinds of clippings, coffee grounds, withered flowers or chopped twigs have little attraction for rats and yet are transformed into nutritious natural fertilizer.
