Check out our “Got Rats” poster series for tips on controlling rats without poison.
Our Got Rats? posters, created with the help of experts including a pest control company, highlight numerous ways to keep rodents away without using poison and other harmful methods. Click links to share, download, or print!
Got Rodents on your Family Farm?
Raptors are the solution but… they can’t be the entire solution. There are a variety of effective alternatives to poison. We recommend taking an “integrated pest management” approach to rodents that emphasizes exclusion and sanitation.
Preferred pest control companies that do not use poison
Preferred pest control products
Start by finding their source of food, shelter, and water and exclude them from it, or hire a company to help you. One of the primary attractants and sources of food for rodents is trash and waste. More tips.
Follow our best practices guide to keep rodents out of dumpsters and waste in!
Tips if you have rats in your crawl space
And read Marin County’s informative poison-free rat management plan.
Other tips on discouraging rats:
- Remove invasive ivy—it’s a luxury hotel for rats. They thrive in it! Replace with native plants that offer habitat for other wildlife.
- Pick up bird seed waste in your yard. Instead of bulk seed, use seed blocks or cakes that leave less seed on the ground.
- Do not leave pet food out.
- Make sure garbage bags are tied tightly and secured.
- Backyard chicken coops attract rats. Consider installing rat-proof flooring in your coop.
- Consider installing a barn owl box—but ONLY if everyone in your neighborhood commits to not using poison. See the Hungry Owl Project for more information and tips.
For information about gopher problems, check out Gophers Limited.
A few warnings:
Any time you see a “bait box” with an exit hole—beware. If the box contains poison, it should be labeled as such. If it contains a trap instead, it must be labeled—otherwise, the box likely includes poison.
Rats and mice can “check in,” eat poison, and then check out, easily becoming food for a hawk, an owl, other wildlife, or your pet cat or dog. Bait boxes are not safe for wildlife unless you get them from a company that uses snap traps inside them. (Most do not.) They should never be used out in the open where songbirds can get caught in them.
Most large pest control companies still use poison in their bait boxes. If you hire a pest control company, insist that they not use poison (or glue traps), or switch to a company using ethical methods. Demanding poison-free solutions helps reduce the market for poison. If there is a big enough market for exclusion and humane solutions, the poison will eventually stop. Remember that the poison cycle equals profits for pest control.
Finally, please do *not* use glue or sticky traps. They are cruel and inhumane and also catch songbirds, small owls, and other small animals who often have to be euthanized as a result (and only if they’re lucky). An animal caught on a glue trap, whether a rodent or a non-target animal, often suffers enormously and for a long period. It will eventually die of starvation, suffocation, pain, stress, and/or horrible injury from trying to escape. Several countries have banned glue traps, for good reason, but the United States still allows their use. Read more here (Humane Society of the United States) and here (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals UK).
