Home Outside Rat Control

Get a cat

I had the city come out and set up stations. See if your area has a program

Get a couple of stations and place them around the backyard. Make sure to keep the bait/poison changed out.

Cat, I don't have a cat personally, but we have several neighborhood cats who love to hang out at my house. I generally leave them be and let them do there thing.

I have 8 of those black plastic commercial bait stations that I've acquired after various services have left them at my houses over the years. They appear to have special locks on them so that only the services can get them open, but you can easily bust them open with a screwdriver and re-bait them yourself. That's what I do. The government put regs on on how much of the active ingredient (a vitamin k clotting inhibitor) can now be in regular rat bait like d-con, which is really low, and I also find that they don't like to eat the "block" kind of bait and prefer pellets, so I go to Lowes or Home Depot and buy pellet mole poison instead. It turns to phosgene gas in their stomachs.

Do that, or get a cat.

Or heck, some terriers make pretty good ratters too. My GSP (not a terrier) kills rats, but she can't climb trees to get the nest. Cats will climb trees - high - and get those nests. I've seen them do it.

How do you get rid of the cat afterwards?

You don't get rid of the cat. You don't ever let it live inside, either. The rats will come back, trust me. You want the cat lurking around out there. You can get it fixed for cheap if it's female, free in some places, so no more cats will suddenly appear.