Say Goodbye To Rats With This Clever Herb Garden Trick

Rats are scavengers and, typically, very hungry ones. Given that they are omnivores, they will readily dine on any fruits, vegetables, or meat they can find, and are often attracted to gardens. Your carefully tended plot can serve up a veritable cornucopia of fresh fruits and veggies, and may provide easy shelter and access to water. You can help keep your garden clear of these rodents by simply adding a few new crops: There are a variety of herbs that, while we love them, are known to repel rats. Highly aromatic herbs like mint, sage, and oregano possess the power to send rats off looking for other food sources.

There are several reasons to keep rats out of your garden. For one, they can destroy your potential harvest. They can also spread a variety of diseases. If rats are in your garden, then your family and pets risk exposure and illness. Because of these threats, it's best to be proactive, rather than wait until you've seen signs your garden has a rat problem to plant these rodent-deterring herbs.

The key to making this rat-repelling trick work is planting the right crops in the right places. First, choose a selection of herbs known to be repulsive to rats. The best option, mint, is a sweet-smelling herb that repel squirrels, so it makes sense that other rodents, like rats and mice, don't like it. While all mint plants can function as a deterrent, peppermint is considered the most effective. Other herbal options include kitchen staples such as rosemary, sage, oregano, and basil.

Each of these strong-smelling herbs work to repel rats in the same way — they interfere with a rodent's sense of smell. Because rats use odors to locate food and detect predators, they avoid areas where their olfactory senses are overwhelmed by strong scents. While there doesn't appear to be a lot of rigorous science on the topic, YouTuber Shawn Woods found the trick works with mice. Alternatively, owners of pet rats have pointed out on Reddit their scurrying pets happen to love mint. So you may need to experiment with different herb combinations.

To ensure your herbs provide maximum protection for your garden, the best bet is to plant them around the perimeter. Essentially this will create a natural wall or barrier around your garden that both emits rat repelling odors as well as masks the scent of whatever enticements — such as fresh fruit or compost — your garden may have. Both anecdotal and at least one preliminary study suggest the results are real but temporary, so it may be best to combine this trick with other measures. Add in garlic, which is another plant that repels pests naturally, or plant daffodils to help make your rat problem a thing of the past.