Rats are common pests that can cause damage and spread disease. While poisoning is an effective way to kill rats, it often leaves dead rats in hard-to-reach areas like walls or attics. Scaring rats out of their hiding spots allows you to capture or kill them more easily. There are several techniques for frightening rats to get them to emerge from where they are hiding.
Why Do Rats Hide?
Rats are prey animals that instinctively hide from perceived threats. Their natural reaction when scared is to quickly run to a safe shelter. Rats often make nests in hard-to-reach areas inside homes and buildings. Common rat hiding places include:
- Inside walls, attics, crawl spaces, and basements
- Underneath or behind large appliances and heavy furniture
- Inside piles of clutter, debris, or storage items
- Inside abandoned vehicles, sheds, and garages
Rats feel protected when hiding in these enclosed, dark spaces. Flushing them out requires using fear-provoking stimuli they want to escape from.
Using Sounds to Scare Rats
Loud, unpredictable sounds are excellent for startling rats and making them run out into the open. Banging pots and pans together near rat hiding spots is an easy way to drive them out with noise. Other sound options include:
- Playing music or radio static loudly near nesting areas
- Firing loud squeaking toys, like dog toys, into enclosed spaces
- Using ultrasonic repellents that emit high-frequency sounds rats dislike
- Hammering or banging on walls near nesting sites
- Setting off harmless firecrackers or fireworks near hiding rats
You can also use recorded predatory sounds, like cats hissing, dogs barking, or hawks screeching to scare rats with animal noises they want to avoid. Just be sure to do this safely without risking fire or building damage.
Utilizing Scents and Tastes
Rats have a strong sense of smell and taste that you can use against them. Introducing unpleasant odors or flavors in rat nesting areas can drive them out quickly. Recommended smell and taste repellents include:
- Mothballs or camphor balls with strong odors
- Ammonia or vinegar diluted in water and sprayed near nests
- Peppermint oil, which rats dislike
- Spicy pepper sprays or powders
- Predator urine, like coyote or fox urine
- Raticide chemical smells associated with poisons
Aim to make rats as uncomfortable as possible with these offensive fumes and flavors. Avoid using anything toxic yourself. The goal is to irritate rats enough that they voluntarily leave to escape the stimuli.
Causing Vibrations Around Hiding Spots
Rats are highly sensitive to movement and vibrations. Causing shaking sensations nearby makes them nervous about being trapped in unstable areas during a collapse. Methods to cause vibrations that will flush out rats include:
- Striking walls or floors with hammers
- Slamming doors to create impact tremors
- Using vibrating power tools like an electric sander nearby
- Turning stereo speakers facing hiding spots up to high volume so they vibrate
- Letting dogs run after or scratch at areas where rats are hiding
These types of agitating motions will make rats feel unsafe and motivate them to abandon their nests. Just be careful not to cause any structural damage.
Shining Bright Lights on Hiding Spots
Rats prefer dark, shadowy areas to build nests and will scurry away if suddenly exposed to bright light. To flush them out with illumination, you can:
- Shine flashlights into all cracks and crevices
- Use mirrors to reflect sunlight into dark corners
- Employ camera flashes if nests are deep within walls
- Install temporary lighting pointed at nesting sites
- Use laser pointers to sweep beams rapidly over rat hiding spots
The more unexpectedly you can blast their shelter with light, the more likely rats are to panic and rush out. Just avoid shining bright lights directly into your eyes.
Flooding Rats Out With Water
Since rats cannot swim well, quickly flooding their hiding places with water can force them to evacuate. Ways to flush rats out with water include:
- Spraying strong blasts from a hose into wall holes or crawl spaces
- Pouring buckets of water into areas under appliances where rats nest
- Filling deep window wells or floor drains rats use as shelter
- Turning on sink or shower faucets to flood bathroom nests
- Activating fire sprinklers in rooms where rats hide
The sensation of rising water will compel rats to rush out to prevent drowning. But be cautious not to cause excess property damage with plumbing or moisture.
Using Smoke to Drive Rats Out
Though unsafe for extensive use indoors, smoke is very effective at forcing rats to evacuate from their dens. Potential ways to smoke rats out in limited amounts include:
- Blowing cigar or cigarette smoke into wall openings or under appliances
- Lit fumigation candles placed near nesting areas
- Contained smoldering cotton balls or rags
- Chemical smoke bombs designed to fumigate pests
- Carefully blowing smoke from fireplaces or grills into adjacent walls
Take extreme care to avoid burning or suffocating rats inside walls. Also beware of fire hazards and don’t breathe too much smoke yourself.
Using Dogs or Cats to Corner and Scare Rats
Dogs and cats have a natural chasing instinct that can be used to corner rats hiding in basements, crawlspaces, attics, or yards. Their barking, pawing, and digging antagonizes rats and prevents them from staying hidden. Some useful tactics include:
- Allowing dogs to follow rat scent trails back to nesting sites
- Letting cats perch patiently outside holes waiting to pounce on emerging rats
- Encouraging dogs and cats to scratch, dig, and bark at areas where rats are hiding
- Following their attention closely to identify prime rat harborage spots
With supervision, pets can aggressively force rats to abandon their shelters and run into traps or become exposed for removal.
Trapping Rats That Flee From Hiding Spots
Once you’ve scared rats from their hiding places, trapping them quickly is important so they don’t disappear again. Recommended trapping strategies include:
- Set snap traps or glue boards along rat travel paths
- Use funnel traps at wall entry points or under appliances
- Create perimeter fence traps around suspected nesting sites
- Have multiple capture devices ready for quick deployment
- Bait traps with food rats will find irresistible
- Place traps in natural “bottlenecks” where rats will pass through
- Use expandable trap designs that keep rats from escaping
Trapping is most successful immediately after rats have been flushed from shelters and are on the move. Be ready to catch them fleeing their hiding spots.
Using Predator Sightings to Scare Rats
Seeing or smelling natural enemies like snakes, coyotes, owls, or raccoons in their territory can scare rats into abandoning nests. You might see rats fleeing from:
- A garden snake strategically released into a crawlspace
- Hawk or owl sounds played over speakers near their dens
- Taxidermy models of predators placed near nest entrances
- Coyote or fox urine used to mimic those animals’ presence
- Trails around homes designed to guide predators to rats
Awareness of predators often compels rats to relocate dens somewhere they feel safer. This prey instinct can be used to your advantage.
Sealing Up Possible Nesting Sites
In addition to frightening rats out of hiding, prevent their return by sealing up spaces they could nest in again with:
- Steel wool crammed into openings
- Caulk or foam sealant patching cracks and holes
- Cinder blocks, wood, mesh, or metal used to block large gaps
- Concrete or mortar filling foundation drains and window wells
- Vent covers to prevent attic and crawlspace access
Permanently excluding rats from denning in your home again requires removing all possible entry points and shelter opportunities after driving them out.
Conclusion
Rats can be tenacious about hiding and nesting once they occupy a building. Getting them to abandon sheltered spots requires using various scary stimuli like noise, stench, and predators to make them flee. Rapidly trapping and permanently sealing offpotential nesting sites after chasing rats away will prevent ongoing problems. Scaring and chasing rats from their hidden shelters takes persistence, but removes these pests for good.