Remove Food Sources

• 1). Eliminate easily available food sources that have attracted wild rats to your backyard in the first place. If you feed your pet outside, bring the dish indoors ½ hour after setting it out. Don't leave the dish out if it looks empty, or even if your pet hasn't eaten the food yet. Fido or Muffin will become attentive quickly, and very likely will gobble it up when you repeat the ½ hour feeding ritual the next day.
  
  
• 2). Clean up scattered seed under bird feeders, and any spilled animal feeds in the garage or outbuildings. Mount bird and wildlife feeders well off the ground on poles where rats can't get to them.
  
  
• 3). Make garbage inaccessible to rats. Don't set bags of refuse out without sealing them in a strong container, like a heavy-duty garbage can with a tight-fitting lid. If the lid seems even a little loose, secure it with 2-3 bungee cords.
  
  
• 4). Pick up and dispose of pet droppings daily. Believe it or not, rats find even partially undigested food to be an easy snack.
  
  
• 5). Remove any fallen fruit from berry patches, shrubs and fruit trees. If the rat infestation is severe, consider stripping unripe fruit from the plants for disposal before it has the chance to ripen and fall to the ground.
  
  
• 6). Cover your compost bin or pile tightly, and never add animal products such as meat, grease, dairy, poultry or fish to it.
  
  
• 7). Clean up and remove any trash, litter, garden or yard refuse. These all offer hiding places for rats. Haul any junk lying around off to the dump. Stack things like firewood at least 18 inches above the ground.
  
  
• 8). Bait snap-type rat traps with tasty items that aren't easily stolen. This is no time for compassion; remember that wild rats are hardly an endangered species. You can smear a dollop of peanut butter onto the trigger. Or tie a scrap of raw meat, or a piece of potato or apple to it with sewing thread or dental floss. Place the baited trap where you've seen rat activity.