Rats in the Garden: Advice, Control and Elimination

Rodents are difficult pests to deal with and can evolve beyond a nuisance for your home and garden. Rats can also lead to health hazards.

Other than house basements, backyards are one of their targets. Rats can make under decking, a compost pile, or garden buildings their refuge.

Not only that, but they can also destroy fence panels, invading your garden space. Hence why rat species are considered unwelcome visitors. If you want to know how to get rid of them, read to find out what signs to look for! In this post, we’ll also talk about preventive measures and the best ways to exterminate them.

Things You Should Know About Rats

Rats need food, water and shelter to survive. You may spot their tunnels (6-9 cm in diameter) or their ‘runs’. This includes the tracks alongside walls, fences or buildings that are up to 10 cm wide.

You’ll also notice signs of rats through rat droppings, gnawed wood where food is stored, or parallel teeth marks in crops. Rats eat most root vegetables, including carrots, parsnips, beetroot, and potatoes.

They also consume seeds and fruits. Thus, visible damage is likely to occur to crops. Their droppings may also be visible to where the damage has occurred, so make sure to keep an eye out for them.

What’s more, rats have well-developed senses of smell, taste and touch. Their acute sense of hearing is also worth noting.  They use pheromones and (ultrasonic) vocalisations to communicate. This also makes them particularly sensitive to any sudden noise.

As for the appearance, rats can be easily spotted in the garden, especially during the day. But it would be more helpful if you were also aware of the two common types of rats in the UK.

1. Brown rats

Sometimes weighing over half a kilo and measuring around 23cm, the brown rat is the largest of the rats in the UK. Brown rats are considered omnivorous. They eat anything from fruit and seeds to human food waste.

Moreover, they are particularly common around towns and cities. Look out for their blunt muzzle, a tail that is shorter than its body and their small furry ears.

2. Black rats

Another type of rat species is common in the UK. Weighing around half as much and shorter than brown rats, black rats vary in colours from back to grey-brown.

They have large, hairless ears and a tail that’s longer than their body. Moreover, they’re skilled and agile climbers.

They can run along with telephone wires and make their nests high up in the roofs. This is where they got their other name as ‘roof rats’.

More about brown and black rats

Both species breed rapidly and become sexually mature in about three months. Each female may produce from three to twelve litters of between six and eight young in a year.

Gnawing also helps keep their constantly growing incisor teeth worn down. As a result, they often prey on woodwork, plastic, bricks and lead pipes. Stripping insulation from electrical cables is one of their targets as well.

Brown rats live in any location that provides food, water, and shelter. In homes, they dwell in roof spaces, wall cavities or under floorboards.

In gardens, they burrow into grassy banks or under sheds. They are also often found living in sewer systems. Whereas black rats live only within buildings, such as dockside warehouses. They occupy rocks and cliffs on islands.

Look for nesting areas under rubbish, timber and drain pipes to spot them in your garden. Make sure to check under decking and inside your garden building too. Also, they normally come out at night to look for food resources. Thus, you won’t necessarily notice them in the daytime.

Damage

Once rats start invading your home and garden, they can be very destructive. When it comes to health risks, they can spread serious diseases, such as Leptospirosis.

On top of that, they can also cause damage to the area in which they’re habiting. For instance, under your decking or inside your workshop.

Moreover, rats eat wires and cause property destruction. This is due to their constantly growing teeth. By chewing on wires, they get rid of the pain, and they also keep their teeth in great shape. You’ll notice their presence through the noise they make at night.

How to Get Rid of Rats in Your Garden

1. Keep your outdoor space tidy

Rats tend to avoid open, clean areas, but they sure do love to use cover to move around unseen. A tidy garden can strip this away, making it less attractive to them.

Work around the garden edges first. Remove timber piles, loose bricks, and debris close to fences and sheds. Cut back any overgrown areas to reduce potential nesting spots. The goal is to give them less, or none at all, hiding spots.

2. Watch out for bird feeders

Birdseed is high in protein and can draw in rats from several gardens away. They can climb and get into feeding stations to reach it. You don’t have to remove it, but it’s better to use squirrel-proof feeders instead.

Always store bulk bird food in galvanised metal bins, as rodents can chew through strong plastic. And if you see active burrowing, remove all feeders for 14 days to break the feeding cycle.

3. Block access under garden structures

Rats are drawn to dark, sheltered, ground-level cavities. The space under your decking is the obvious one, but the same principle applies to any garden structure that sits flush on bare ground — sheds, gazebos, greenhouses, hot tub surrounds, even trampolines that haven’t been moved in years. Each one offers what brown rats want most: concealment from predators, shelter from weather, and ground-level access for burrowing.

The fix is the same across all of them. Wherever a structure can sit on a solid foundation — paving slabs, concrete, or compacted hardcore — that’s the best outcome, because there’s no cavity to nest in. Where one can’t be eliminated, the goal is to make it unattractive: open up the perimeter with lattice or vented skirting so daylight and airflow reach underneath, and leave at least one side accessible so the space isn’t somewhere you forget about.

Sweep the deck after outdoor dining or BBQs. Even small grease deposits are enough to sustain a rodent scout — and once a rat finds a cavity and a food source nearby, it’ll stay.

Pro tip: For active infestations, trench the perimeter and install a 1/4-inch welded wire mesh barrier in an L-shape — buried 6 inches deep and bent outward 12 inches from the base — to physically block burrowing. A 12–18 inch strip of coarse angular gravel or pea shingle along the perimeter also makes burrowing uncomfortable; rats can dig through topsoil easily, but loose angular stone shifts as they tunnel and frustrates the work.

Foundation tip — for sheds specifically. A raised, ventilated base kit removes the closed-off cavity entirely. Pair our grid-system bases with pea shingle underneath to create a footprint that rats find uncomfortable to burrow through, and that lets you actually see what’s going on under the shed.

Choose a shed built to resist a determined animal. Rats don’t need a ready-made entry point — given time and motivation, they’ll create one. The question is how hard you make it. Overlap cladding uses thinner feather-edge boards secured only at the nail points, so individual boards can flex and pry away from the frame, and the thinner timber is faster to gnaw through. Tongue & Groove sheds use thicker boards locked together along their full length by the tongue-and-groove joint itself — harder to separate, harder to chew through, and designed for superior pest resistance rather than left to chance. 

4. Rotate your layout

Rats are neophobic. They have an innate fear of changes in their environment. Don’t let your garden layout become static. Periodically move pots, garden furniture, and stored items such as boxes or wood piles. This prevents them from getting too comfortable.

5. Seal off entry points to garden buildings

A wooden shed is vulnerable if the ground level is open or has gaps. Even a gap the size of a 2p coin is enough for a rat to get through. In this case, use stainless steel wool or mouse mesh to plug holes, as these are the only materials they cannot gnaw through.

If your building has been compromised, consider a metal shed or pressure-treated shed. They offer a significantly harder barrier against persistent gnawing than standard timber. Extra measures, such as blocking entry points if needed, can still help.

Browse Metal Sheds
Browse Pressure Treated Sheds

6. Keep an eye on your crops

A vegetable garden patch is a buffet, with root vegetables like carrots, parsnips, and potatoes being the main targets. Don’t leave ripe produce in the ground. Once a rat identifies a food source, they will return nightly until the supply is exhausted.

If you use raised beds, ensure the base is lined with wire mesh to prevent bottom-up tunnelling.

7. Protect your compost bin

Compost bins are often warm, moist, and filled with food waste. The perfect recipe for a winter breeding spot for rats. Make the bin less inviting. Never add cooked food, meat, or dairy to a garden compost heap. Keep the contents moist by adding a little water (not soaked).

If your bin is plastic, place it on top of a wire mesh base to allow worms in but keep rodents out.

8. Pets as a deterrent

While you shouldn’t rely on a pet to solve an infestation, having one around changes the ‘smell’ of the garden. Dogs and cats, for instance, are disruptive forces that make rats less likely to stay. Let your four-legged friends roam around the garden to play. Who knows, they might catch an intruder!

Note: Always ensure pet food is never left outdoors overnight, as this will override any deterrent effect.

1. Spring/snap traps

Designed to kill rodents instantly with a spring release mechanism. Spring traps are triggered when the rodent steps into the trap or takes some food bait.

They can be dangerous if you have pets and children, especially when used outdoors. Place them on high-activity areas of the rat colony, such as:

• In the darkened corners of your garden or along walls
• Behind appliances
• All areas where droppings are evident

And since they need to touch surfaces as they move, place the traps accordingly from 15 to 20 feet apart.

2. Electrocution traps

This kind of trap discharges a high voltage shock when a rat walks on metal plates inside a containment box. They are an expensive method and not all can be used outdoors.

Note: Electrocution traps should be checked frequently for any dead animals.

3. Live capture traps

These are usually a small cage with a trigger mechanism to enclose the rodent when it pulls on the bait. They also need to be checked frequently to release any non-target animals caught.

4. Ultrasound devices

An alternative method used to disperse rats. Ultrasound devices emit sound at frequencies beyond the range of human hearing.

Rats and mice experience high volume ultrasound which can repel them without affecting humans.

Rats in the Garden: Round-up

Spending time in your garden should offer a relaxing experience – one which is beneficial to your health. So, you certainly don’t want it ruined by a rodent infestation!

There are a number of ways you can control rats, but we hope our guide will help you solve your rodent problems. For traps and poisons, you can buy them at any garden centres near you but make sure to use them properly!

You may also contact professional pest controllers to deal with rats effectively and immediately.