Rat repellent

There are a few things you must understand about Riverside rats before you go out shopping for a repellent. Rats generally only ever have one home, it is their only key to survival, they know every square inch of their home range and the rat also knows that outside of its home range it almost certainly will not survive very long. Now you know this and you realise also that the rats know it then trying to find a repellent to drive them out of their California home to almost sure death is going to be a hard ask.



There are many many many Riverside repellents being sold on the market, these range from bottles of chemicals in spray form to ultrasonic devices that the FTC says are fake to other urban myths like use mothballs, ammonia and predator urine, so let's debunk them one at a time.

Spray on repellents: yes, rats like all other animals do not like spray on repellents but even if you spend an hour spraying every different type repellent you can buy on the one Riverside area the rats will not move out, they would just avoid the area until the smell drops off which it will eventually. There has never been a single recording case of a rat infestation being cleared by using chemical repellents, yeah you heard it, not one.

Ultrasonic devices: to be honest, all the evidence suggests that the Riverside rats don't even notice these things and considering their expensive price tags and what the authorities say about them they really are just a waste of time and effort. I have one California professional actually say that it would be cheaper and easier just to leave the radio on a station the rats hate, at least that will annoy them.

Strong smells: here is one urban myth that I love, use peppermint oil as a repellent for Riverside rats. This one actually makes me laugh because a number of professionals actually use peppermint oil as bait on their snap traps, so as a repellent I would have to say there are serious doubts about it. Another one I'm going to cover here is predator urine, this will not work because California rats always live in an environment where predators are present, whether it is the human beings who live in the house or the cats and dogs that also live in the house and if there are no pets to endanger them there will always be aerial predators whenever they leave the building, like hawks and even magpies.

To learn more about our services, visit the Riverside wildlife removal home page.