7 Fantastic Ways to Get Rid of Rat Holes in Your Yard (2024)

Across the country, homeowners struggle with how to get rid of rat burrows. Many fill rat burrows only to find more reappear within a few days. Rats ruin your fruit, vegetable, and ornamental plants. They’re disruptive and devour your bird seed, making your backyard unpleasant.

Worse, rats carry diseases like rat bite fever and leave droppings on your garden furniture and patio. Don’t be disheartened if you notice rat burrows. Though these rodents are persistent, they’re quick to move on once conditions become unfavorable for survival.

Everyone deserves to enjoy nature without worrying about rats scuttling around. Skip toxic rat poisons that risk injuring your family, pets, and wild animals. Follow our step-by-step guidelines on everything from filling in burrows correctly to preventing the rats from returning.

Brilliant Ideas for How to Get Rid of Rat Burrows

Don’t lose sleep over pesky rodents. A rat problem can drive you crazy when you fill rat burrows, but the holes keep coming back. Find out how to eliminate mouse holes in your yard for good and return to enjoying the great outdoors.

Use proven techniques such as live traps, permanent burrow closure, dry ice, and conventional traps to eradicate the rats once and for all.

Why Do Rats Leave Holes in the Yard?

The rat hole you found in your yard looks unsightly, and it might seem strange for rats to create small openings in your flower beds or compost pile. Burrowing is a typical pastime for rodents, including rats.

Rats burrow underground to hunt for a food source, find nesting materials, and move more freely through the ground (mainly if it is too hot or cold). They also burrow to protect themselves from predators above the ground, such as cats, dogs, and other animals that hunt them.

Though rat burrows have a purpose, they may damage your plants. Rat burrows are typically 12 to 18 inches deep. If the burrow is close to a structure’s foundation, it can be as deep as four feet, letting them move beneath the groundwork and into the building.

Signs of an Outdoor Rat Infestation

Several species of rats could be the culprit in your outdoor mayhem, though thankfully, the indicators and treatment are the same.

The rodent burrows are maybe the most unpleasant for dedicated gardeners. Rats burrow deep into your gardens and containers, causing visible disruption and cavities in the soil. Besides burrows, several other signs of a rat infestation in your yard exist.

Other indicators include rat droppings, the unpleasant odor of rat urine, and a swiftly emptied bird feeder. A live or dead rat is a solid sign pest treatment is required. Take action as soon as you notice rat activity to keep the invasion from worsening.

How to Get Rid of Rat Holes in the Yard

The ethical and compassionate approach to handling a rat population is to set up a live rat trap and release the rodents in a location where they can’t create problems.

Live rat traps are gentler than rat poison or snap traps and do not injure kids, pets, or wildlife. Rodents are captured alive in live traps, allowing you to perform rat removal without touching them.

Place a bucket beneath a wall or patio table as a basic live trap. Place a spoon on the wall with some peanut butter bait on one end. The spoon and the rat tumble into the bucket as the rat climbs the spoon to devour the bait. Check your trap twice a day and release any roof rats caught.

Fill Rat Burrows With Earth or Steel Wool

Filling rat homes is a solid first step in your pest control. If the burrow appears inactive — empty or unoccupied — fill the small hole with soil and crush i. Wait a few days and examine whether the rats have returned to the hole. If this is the case, it is an active tunnel.

If the tunnel is active, which means rats live inside, caving it in with dirt will not suffice since the rats can re-open it. In this case, stuff steel wool into the entrances to stop the rats from tunneling their way back in or out. Ensure the steel wool is well packed so rodents can’t nibble through it to access their rat nests.

Steel wool can also be used to stop rats from entering your house. Once established in your yard, rats will squeeze through holes in your garage. However, you can easily patch these holes with steel wool.

Get Rid of Burrowing Rats With Dry Ice

Using dry ice is a powerful strategy for rat control and decreasing burrowing rat populations. Stuff dry ice into rat nest burrows before they are sealed to destroy the rats inside. As the dry ice melts, enormous volumes of carbon dioxide are released, filling the hole and suffocating any rodents hiding within.

This procedure is thought to be more humane than other ways of elimination, and dry ice is non-toxic. It does not discharge any hazardous pollutants into the environment.

If not handled properly, dry ice may cause severe burns and frostbite. Always wear thermal gloves and goggles while working with dry ice to tackle a rodent infestation.

Getting Rid of a Rat Nest With Conventional Traps

A snap trap attracts rats with food on a weight plate, such as nut butter or fruit. The snap trap opens as the rat climbs the scales, killing or injuring the rodent. Glue traps, like snap traps, are best utilized when all other choices have been exhausted.

Sticky rodent traps, like sticky traps for co*ckroaches, are large pieces of board with glue on one side. When the rats step on the adhesive, they become entangled and eventually die.

Snap and glue traps are dangerous to your loved ones and pets, and vulnerable wildlife accidentally set them off. These traps are brutal and unclean, requiring the removal of headless or injured rats. Conventional traps should only be used as a last resort when all other less cruel techniques have been tried, especially outdoors.

Prevent a Rat Burrow in Your Garden

Rats threaten disease control and destroy your flowers. Prevent rats with some simple tips to make your outdoor spaces less appealing by limiting their access to resources.

Rats search for unrestricted access to food, shelter, and nesting materials. Limiting how many of these things they have increases the likelihood they won’t stick around and burrow.

There are other natural options to make rat deterrent. Follow our recipe to make your own rat repellent with mothballs to get these nasty critters out of your yard.

Did this article help you plan how to get rid of rat burrows outside your building? Like co*ckroach control or getting rid of bed bugs, removing burrowing rats may take time.

Rat burrows look messy, and the presence of rodents is a disease risk. Choose the most convenient method from above, or combine a couple to restore your outdoor areas to rodent-free spaces.

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