As the pleasant spring weather draws us outdoors, many of us find ourselves asking the same question year after year — how can we keep rats out of our gardens? Rats nesting in and around our homes can cause no end of problems, but one gardening expert has shared his top tip to stop this from happening.
The Key to Rat Prevention
Peter Dowdall, widely known as The Irish Gardener, says there is no 'miracle' fix, and that it all boils down to staying on top of one vital thing: hygiene. Speaking to this reporter, he said: 'Rats, it comes down to, and it's not a miracle thing, but if you want the proper answer to it, rats are in probably 100% of gardens and they come out at night time when they are not seen and the garden is quiet. It is all about making sure you are not giving them a reason to stay in your garden, that you are not giving them a reason to nest, it comes down to a lot of hygiene really.'
What Attracts Rats?
With more than 30 years of experience working in Irish gardens, Peter went on to outline his biggest 'do nots' when it comes to preventing rats from setting up home in your garden. He explained: 'Never throw cooked food waste into an open compost bin because that will draw rats. If you give them a food source, a water source, and somewhere safe to nest, then they will stay, so it is all about cleanliness in the garden really in terms of hygiene. Not leaving stuff that would be attracted to rats and nesting sites and food sources. If you can make sure you are not leaving them in the garden, then that's as much as you can do really against rats.'
Common Lawn Care Mistake
Beyond the issue of rodents, scores of people are heading to garden centres this month in an effort to spruce up their outdoor spaces. However, Peter cautioned that one of the most frequent blunders he witnesses gardeners making is purchasing a 'best selling product' that he claims will 'blanket bomb' lawns. He explained: 'When it comes to the lawn, I would imagine that one of the best selling products in garden centres at this time of year is what is called the triple action products — which are bags of lawn feed with the moss killer and the weed killer built in. They are very ecologically damaging. It is like blanket bombing your lawn. So, you are feeding the grass which is grand, but you are also applying chemical moss killers and chemical weed killers to the lawn, many in areas that don't need it. They don't have weeds or moss — so you are just blanket bombing it.'
He stressed that this carries a significant ecological drawback, warning that applying chemicals to areas of grass that don't require treatment — and where children will run around and play — poses a genuine risk. For more practical garden advice, see Peter Dowdall's Garden Q&A.
