Rats are ultimate opportunists who will go into summer gardens to forage for food, eventually digging up lawns, tearing out plants or even knocking over bird feeders. It is incredibly important to get rid of rats once you spot them, as their urine can contaminate soil and spread disease. 

It may seem easy to just put poison down, but the chemicals can also pollute your garden, make crops unsafe to eat and are incredibly dangerous if you have any animals or children in your household. Instead, the eco-friendly pest control experts at Green Rodent Restoration have shared a more natural alternative to stop rats: growing certain herbs in your garden.

The expert said: “Keeping plants, whether indoors or in a garden, has a ton of benefits. You probably already know that they improve air quality and boost your mental health, but did you know about plants that keep rats away?”

It may seem strange but rats are a very sensitive sense of smell which they need to navigate an area, look out for predators, and detect food. 

Some herbs are known for their pungent smell due to the high concentration of oils which smells lovely to humans but disrupt a rat’s ability to smell properly.

This will make rats feel unsafe as it will make it more difficult for them to survive in a garden but the scent these plants give off is also naturally irritating so will make rats feel extremely uncomfortable. 

This is a simple and safe way to stop rats lingering in your garden this summer, but best of all these herbs are known to be really easy to care for and do not.

What are the best herbs to stop rats coming into a garden?

Mint

Mint is the most effective plant at repelling rats as it contains a substance called menthol, which are a very strong and sharp scent that all rodents hate. 

The expert said: “Rodents don’t like the cool, fresh smell so it’s the one plant they’ll definitely stay away from. You can also dry the mint you grow and place it in satchels around your home!”

Rosemary 

Rosemary has a woody smell which is less intense than mint but is also known to annoy rats as it can mask scents that attract them like rubbish, compost or any other food. 

However, rosemary can also act as a physical barrier to keep rats away for long periods of time if you plant it around fences as it will make it more difficult for them to enter gardens. 

The expert said: “Rosemary grows as a bush, and it looks beautiful lining a garden and creating an anti-rat border.” 

Lavender 

Lavender is fantastic to have in your garden as its flowery fragrant scent contains linalool, which rats hate, but it is also known to repel other pests in the garden like slugs. 

The expert said: “Lavender is another fantastic fragrant plant. Humans find the scent calming, but rats and other pests stay away. Instead, lavender will attract bees and other important pollinators to your yard, so overall, it’s a useful plant that contributes to the health of your garden.” 

Having lavender will help other flowers grow bigger since there are more pollinators about and its strong scent will be too overpowering for rats to nest to stop them coming into your garden this summer.