Getting rid of rats can be a challenge.
The good news is that you have several tools in your pest control arsenal to address these annoying and dangerous rodents. Here we will look at how to kill rats with homemade rat poison.
Rats are also known to be transmitters of various diseases. They can damage valuable property, contaminate foodstuffs, scare the kids, and make creepy rat noises in your attic.
Simply speaking, rats are dangerous! So, it’s easy to see why their elimination should be a top priority.
How nice would it be to develop your rat-eliminating poisons in your home with relatively healthy ingredients for humans but poisonous to your rats? Below are some simple recipes for homemade rat poison options that work! Even with these options, you should still use rat poison responsibly.
ATTENTION: Before we continue, if you want to make your own rat poison then that can be achieved. What you need to be aware of is that these options can be dangerous to other animals, including your pets. Never expose your pets to these DIY rat poisons!
What you will learn in this post:
- 5 excellent homemade rat poison options
- How to kill a rat with these poisons
5 Homemade Rat Poison Options That Work
Mixed with other food substances to make them attractive and edible to rats, these five items can be used as DIY rat poison to get rid of rats from your home efficiently:
- Baking soda
- Boric acid
- Plaster of Paris
- Instant mashed potatoes
- Ammonia
The aim is to either kill the rats by making the poison react with their stomach fluid and release harmful gases or have them choke up from the smell of the poison, damaging their lungs and eventually leading to their death.
The toxins, however, should be placed out of the reach of young ones and pets as we don’t want accidental poisoning.
Baking Soda Poison
Baking soda can be used as a natural poison that kills rats. The ingredients needed are sugar or chocolate powder mix, cornflour or cornmeal, and baking soda. You will also need disposable gloves, jar lids, and a blender for the preparation.
The principle we exploit in using this poison is the production of bicarbonate gas when baking soda mixes with stomach acids, leading to stomach bloating. Since rats cannot release the gas and relieve themselves, they eventually die from internal blocking or stomach rupture, which leads to profuse internal bleeding.
Method of Preparation
- Please put on disposable gloves and make sure they are snug. You could use elastic bands to tighten the ends.
- Combine one cup of sugar or chocolate powder mixed with a cup of cornmeal and baking soda.
- Blend the combination well until everything becomes a homogenous mixture.
The sugar or chocolate mix will attract the rats to eat the mixture with a promising taste, and the baking soda will eliminate the rats within a short period.
How to Use
- Put rat poison in some jar lids, making them about half full.
- Set the baited jar lids on the normal and well-used rat paths where rats can easily access them. You can discover this by noting locations where there are often rat droppings.
- Monitor locations for a reduction in droppings or total absence. This will indicate that your rat problem has been eliminated.
- Watch for dead rats and adequately dispose of them because they stink after a few days.
You should ensure that the rats have easy access to the poisons to consume as much as possible for it to be effective.
Also, make sure the poison is placed in areas that pet animals, especially dogs, do not easily access.
Boric Acid Homemade Rat Poison
To make this, you will need some chicken broth, boric acid, jar lids, a stirrer, disposable gloves, and a bowl for preparing the mixture.
Boric acid is often used in homes as a detergent as it works very well to keep surfaces clean, as a preservative for some foodstuffs, and as an antiseptic. It can prove dangerous to rats when consumed as the acid acts in the stomach to cause bleeding, leading to death. This mechanism is a useful tool for eliminating rats using this poison.
Method of Preparation
- Put on gloves to avoid skin reactions and irritation.
- Pour one cup of boric acid into the bowl and add the chicken broth.
- Keep adding and stirring the mixture until you get a thick paste that is not easily stirred. If the mixture is thin, add a bit of boric acid.
How to Use
- Spool the paste into little balls the size of a marble and place two or three into jar lids or other small and wide containers you can easily access.
- Place the jar lids along the paths the rats follow and make them easily accessible. You can use their droppings as telltale signs as they most often revisit the same areas they got fed.
- Monitor these places for reduced droppings or dead rats. You could relocate poisons if the rats do not access the first sites.
The chicken broth is used as the bait and attractant, drawing the rat towards the poison, while the boric acid eliminates the rats. Monitoring is necessary so that dead rats can be withdrawn from poison sites as quickly as possible to prevent the odor they give off when they begin to rot.
Plaster of Paris Poison
The ingredients you need for this poison recipe include sugar or chocolate mix, cornmeal or cornflour, and some plaster of Paris. You will also need a blender, jar lids or small containers, and protective gloves for your hands.
Plaster of Paris, when ingested, combines with the stomach fluid and causes the stomach and intestines to harden. This does not support life and causes the death of rats.
Method of Preparation
- After putting on your disposable gloves, put one cup of sugar or chocolate mix, cornmeal, and plaster of Paris into your blender.
- Blend till you have a homogenous mixture.
- Pour into the lids or containers till they are half full.
How to Use
- Place lids in areas where the rats frequently visit.
- Ensure that the lids are easily accessed and wide enough for the rats to feed comfortably.
- Monitor to ensure the poisons are working and remove any dead rats.
Rats are often attracted by sugar and chocolate mix. Like children, they enjoy sweets. We hide the poison in the sweet, drawing them in. And the plaster of Paris helps to eliminate them effectively.
Instant Mashed Potato Poison
The ingredients to be used here are instant mashed potatoes and water. You will also need jar lids or small shallow containers that you don’t mind disposing of after use.
Method of Preparation
There is nothing unusual in the preparation. You give the rats the instant mashed potatoes, which serve as bait and poison. A simple homemade rat poison option!
How to Use
- Fill the lid or containers to ¾ with dry instant mashed potatoes and leave them in the places most visited by the rats.
- Be kind enough to place water beside the food, as the rats will feast on the dry poison and get thirsty. Although they can find water themselves, it makes it even easier for them.
- Observe for a reduction in or total absence of droppings to confirm that this poison has eliminated the rats.
Instant mashed potatoes make rats thirsty as it is dry. When provided with water, they keep drinking to relieve their thirst, and as a result, they bloat. This bloating causes respiratory distress and eventually leads to their death.
Ammonia Poison
To prepare this poison, you need water, ammonia, and detergent. Unlike the poisons mentioned above, this doesn’t have to be eaten, but the pungent smell it produces has been shown to impair the rats breathing enough to kill it.
This is a good homemade rat poison option and can also be used as an excellent homemade rat repellent!
Ammonia is a potent cleaning agent and disinfectant but can also be used as a very effective poison against rats.
Method of Preparation
- Pour 2 to 2½ cups of ammonia into a bowl.
- Add 1 cup of water and 3 spoonsful of detergent to the ammonia.
- Mix thoroughly and fill the jar lids or shallow containers with it.
How to Use
- Scatter the containers across the house, especially in areas that rats frequently visit.
- The rats will not ingest the ammonia; however, it impairs their respiratory systems and makes breathing difficult.
Ammonia smells pretty bad, but this combination reduces its stench and makes it a bit bearable to live with. This small discomfort, however, is worth it if it works in eliminating the rats.
Conclusion
You should note that some of these homemade rat poison options are harmful to house pets, especially small-sized ones like cats and lapdogs, and you should ensure their safety when the poisons are used. If you want to make your rat poison, then you need to use it safely!
The big plus with these poisons is that they are cheap, easy to make, and do not need exotic ingredients other than everyday household materials.
Good luck!
Thank you.
Will any of these methods hurt animals up the food chain? Will these methods hurt squirrels?
Hi Sherrie, and thanks for getting in touch!
There is a small danger that these homemade rat poisons will cause issues up the food chain (secondary poisoning), although the risk is significantly lower than when using other poison options.
I have a few old bags of powder milk. I was wondering if this could be used with another ingredient and kill the rats outside?
Hi
I’ve never combined powdered milk with other ingredients to kill rats so I am not 100% sure. I also don’t think that rats are attracted to powdered milk so you might want to look at other options.
Hope that helps
A friend says burning white pepper on charcoal and placing in ceiling kills rats. Is this correct ?
Hi – it is not something I have tried to be honest, so I am not sure.