What attracts rats to your house?

Rats have great memories and love their home comforts. So once Rattie has set up residence in your house or garden, he is unlikely to leave of his own free will. But how did that rat and his family decide upon your dwelling in the first place?

The simple answer is obvious…

If your home is warm, cosy and has a larder filled with delicious food, then is it any wonder rats have been attracted to your abode, and that they will keep on returning to your residence?

Getting rid of rats once they’ve settled in nicely is a little more complicated. Rats really don’t make great housemates. And you may even be surprised by the other nice homely touches that pull pesky pests into your pad.

So, what do rats love about your home?

SHELTER: Warmth, comfort and shelter: Rats are like all warm-blooded mammals. They require warmth and a place to shelter from the elements, and they will literally chew and bite their way through whatever they can to get inside.
FOOD: Food, glorious foo: Yummy. Rats love nice food. Meat, veggies, milk, fruit, bread, pasta, yoghurt, rice, breakfast cereals. Your rat resident will devour them all.

#1 Food & Shelter

Yucky. Rats love all food. Pet food, leftovers, rubbish from the bin, soap, fur, and a lick from oils and fats not cleaned properly from worktops and appliances. Rats might even munch on rabbit and dog poop according to some rodent experts.

An adult rat requires around 50 grams of food a day. That’s the equivalent of a chicken egg in weight. So, it doesn’t take much to leave plenty lying around, or unsecured, to feed a family of rats.

Dripping taps and pipes

Rats drink randomly and intermittently during the day. So it doesn’t require a bowl full of water or an upended can of juice to keep them hydrated.

Adult rats might drink up to 60 ml of liquid everyday. That’s about four tablespoons worth or a quarter of a tea cup. You might think that the leaky tap or dripping pipe beneath the sink isn’t giving away much water. But it’ll be plenty to sustain your rodent visitation.

An open-door policy

You can make it immeasurably easier for rats to enter your home by having plenty of access points for them to scurry through. A hole smaller than a one pence coin is more than sufficient for a rat to enter your home.

House plants

If you have indoor fruit or nut plants, then that’s a wonderful snack stop for your average rat, as are any grown in the garden or patio during the summer months.

Even house plants, with plenty of leafy foliage, can provide a restful refuge for the rat scavenging around your house when it had believed the coast was clear.

And the rest…

Bird feeders, dog bowls, piles of leaves, a log stack, nesting materials (newspapers, fabrics, loft insulation etc), tall weeds, debris, even an abandoned car – all will provide the three “S’s” of rat attraction – sustenance, shelter and snugness.

How to keep rats out of house?

So, remember these additional six S’s to stop that rat from setting up home in your house:

Seal – seal up potential entry points to our property.
Secure – secure waste and rubbish to prevent rats scavenging for food.
Store – store foods in secure containers.
Scarcity – don’t leave food out in the open for long – be it of the human or pet variety.
Sanitise – wipe down worktops, chopping boards, appliances, cooker tops, hobs etc to clean up oils and fats which may be appealing to rats on the prowl for a quick meal.
Seek – seek advice from a professional pest controller if you’re worried the scale of the problem is too much for you.