Seeing rats in your home can be terrifying, and particularly frustrating if you’ve made an effort to keep things as clean as possible.
If you’ve exhausted all other options for getting rid of rats in your home, don’t give up hope; there are several basic, natural solutions that will almost certainly do the trick.
A wonderful, cheap, and non-toxic home treatment for getting rid of rats is with the use of black pepper.
How does black pepper work?
Black pepper is an excellent option if you want to get rid of rats but don’t want to harm them.
The pungent aroma of black pepper serves as a powerful deterrent to rodents. Mice and rats have an acute sense of smell and find pepper irritating to their nasal passages, in a similar way to how bleach can be used to repel mice and rats.
Black pepper is also poisonous to rats due to its high quantities of a chemical called piperine. The toxic effects of piperine require ingesting a lot of pepper, however, which rats aren’t likely to do.
The reason for this is that rats only try a little bit of a new food before moving on to something else, and since pepper doesn’t taste good to them, they’ll quit eating it and scamper away before they ingest enough to hurt or kill them.
How to get rid of rats with black pepper in 4 easy steps
How to get rid of rats with black pepper
- Prepare the area
Cleaning up any crumbs, trash, or other anything that could attract rats is the first step in getting rid of them with black pepper.
Black pepper isn’t the most powerful of deterrents, so it’s important that there are no attractants in the area. Rats will brave being in the same areas as the pepper if it means they can nibble on some leftover crumbs! - Inspect the area
Once you have thoroughly cleaned the area, it’s time to look around for any signs of droppings or access points.
Inspect the area for points where the rats may be entering. Key areas include the foundations, damaged pipes, and floor gaps.
Keep a note of all possible entry points and areas of activity - Lay the black pepper
Work through your list of all possible entry points and areas of activity, laying a good barrier of black pepper as you go.
The goal is to effectively create a barrier to deter rats from entering, so be liberal with the pepper and be sure to create a barrier that is wide and thick. - Stay vigilant
Once all known areas have been peppered, it is important to continue searching for areas where the rats may be hiding.
Any new entry points should have a new black pepper barrier put in place, and old barriers should be topped up. This is because it is possible that the rats, or even different rats, will return to your home.
Conclusion
Black pepper is a safer and cheaper approach to get rid of rat infestations than many other solutions. There are no poisons used, and the rats are not hurt in any way. This also makes it a great alternative to poison if children or pets are in the house.
In most situations, a little nibble or sniff is all it takes for the rats to turn and run.
By using this simple, inexpensive method, your home should be rat-free once again!
FAQs
Black pepper contains a natural chemical called piperine, which is toxic to rats. However, for rats to feel the toxicity of piperine they would need to consume large amounts of black pepper, which they are unlikely to do.
Rats have a highly developed sense of smell, and they find the pungency of pepper to be irritating to their nasal passages. Therefore, black pepper can serve as a repellent for rats.
Ground peppercorns make the best types of black pepper to use as a rat deterrent.
