While there are people who like to have rodents as pets, most people don’t want them in their homes and see them as pests that can carry disease. Putting out traps, getting a cat, or sprinkling poison around their homes are just some of the ways that they use to try to get rid of them. For a lot of people, though, the idea of getting rid of the rodents is coupled with an unease at deliberately and often inhumanely killing them, and people are starting to look for better ways to get them out of and away from their homes that don’t involve harm to the little creatures.

If you want to remove rats and mice from your home and/or discourage them from coming around the good news is that there are natural solutions for rodent control that you can use so you don’t have to kill them. Killing them ‘humanely’ has been another argument that people have made, but what constitutes ‘humane’ killing is certainly arguable, so no real conclusion on that has been reached. There aren’t that many choices for people who don’t want to kill rodents or cause them to suffer but who certainly don’t want them around, but there are two: trapping them humanely and releasing them elsewhere, and using natural methods to keep others away.

One of the best and most natural ways to get rid of rodents is to trap them, but with live traps, not with traps that snap on their necks or which glue them in place to starve to death. Live traps are very humane, and when the rodent is inside and the door closes the rat or mouse can just remain in the trap until you (or someone else if you don’t like to handle the traps) can move the trap to a different location where the rodent can be released. Not everyone likes the idea of releasing these rodents because they think that the little animals will just return to their home, but they often will just go elsewhere, instead, as long as they are taken far enough from the home.

Before you take any drastic measures to get rid of rats or mice be sure that you aren’t giving them a reason to come around your home. Things like keeping woodpiles and compost piles away from your home, keeping your trash cans tightly closed, and not leaving your pets’ food sit outside where rats and mice can smell it can go a long way toward keeping your house and yard free of rodents. If you follow simple tips like these, and trap and remove any rodents you might already have around, the odds are that your rodent problem will go away.

Companies out there today make special fragrance packets that are designed to keep rodents away, and you can use them if you don’t feel like the effort you’ve already made are enough, or if you’re looking for something quick and effective. These pouches aren’t toxic to you or your family or pets, and you won’t even be able to smell them ” but the mice and rats will. As long as there are rats and mice near your unprotected home they will try to get in for the food and the warmth, but you can use natural products to gently discourage them and you won’t have to feel bad or guilty about killing them.

For people who don’t mind killing the rats and mice but would prefer not to use chemicals and traps to do so, getting a cat or even a small dog can often do the trick. Cats, especially, are natural predators for rats and mice, and they’ll be inclined to give chase without any training. The downside to this is that the cats will not generally eat what they kill, so they may leave the dead rodents as ‘presents’ for the family, and this can be an unpleasant find that a lot of people would really prefer to avoid if possible.

Knowing the facts about the treatment that you’re using to get rid of rats and mice is one of the best things that you can do, because you don’t want to use something around your family that you thought was safe and later find out it was not. Children and pets that could get into rodent poisons and traps are some of the biggest worries with this issue. It’s not a good idea to chance your family’s health by putting out poison, but it’s unhealthy to be around rats and mice that may carry disease, as well, so natural solutions to rid your home and yard of them can be the best choice.

Tags: environment, garden, gardening, green, health, home, household, Lifestyle, living, mice, mouse, rodent

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 31st, 2009 at 3:08 am and is filed under gardening, pest control. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.