Easy five-minute gardening trick keeps rats away from your garden and home
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Rats are causing havoc for gardeners everywhere with their voracious underground food hoarding and burrow-digging antics - leaving behind damaged plants and a high risk of spreading diseases through their waste. Gardeners are often tempted to resort to traps and poisons, which can inadvertently harm other wildlife. However, the word among gardening buffs is that a natural deterrent is best to keep these rodents from breaching home borders. Faced with rodent troubles in her own green space, Maia Brown sought advice on the Gardening Hints and Tips Facebook group.
She confessed: "Rats! We've got a rat/rats visiting our garden - we see it most days. It's not nesting in or under my little shed, there's no food source in the garden and I stopped feeding the birds several weeks ago.". Adding her worries, she said: "I'm a bit nervous now about going into the garden but my main concern is for my dog and grandchild. Does anyone know how I can deter this rat from coming into the garden? Thanks.".
The overwhelming consensus from forum members was to use peppermint – either oil or plants – to fend off the pests, reports the Express. Helen Ballard recommended: "Peppermint oil works a treat to keep the rats out for a long time." Diane Moss suggested: "I love peppermint oil for this. Rats hate the stuff. It worked in my garden and house.".
And James Reid chimed in: "They don't like peppermint. Use it on cotton balls around the garden or grow some of these plants." Emma Gibson revealed her secret weapon against rodent intruders, explaining: "Liberal use of peppermint oil on bits of cotton wool deterred them from my garden after five minutes of using the stuff. I saw them sprinting away.".
