- 1). Open your garage door, and clean out any piles of junk. Make sure to wear gloves and clothing that covers you well, just in case a rat jumps out at you. Removing the junk piles may remove the rats' habitat. Keeping the garage clear also makes it easier for you to spot rat activity. It is important to have the garage door open while you work, so the rat can run outside if you do startle one, but do keep the garage door closed otherwise. Leaving your garage door open for extended periods of time increases the likelihood of more rats coming in.
- 2). Inspect the exterior for any locations that the rats may have come in through. If there are small holes in the siding, you need to close them off. For this you can purchase inexpensive metal grating and screw it into place over the hole.
- 3). Set up rat bait stations along the walls of the garage. Because rats have extremely poor vision, they feel their way around with their whiskers. If a rat bait station is set up along the wall they may not see it until they actually get trapped.
- 4). Keep your animals and young children away from the garage because of the diseases the rats may be carrying. Also, if you start using bait stations, you don't want your pets to be attracted to the bait.
- 5). Remove all food that may be stored in the garage, including pet food and bird seed.
- 6). It's best to store your garbage cans outdoors, but if you must keep them in the garage, use garbage cans with securely fitted lids.
- 7). Build your own humane rat trap if you do not want to kill the rats. This may not be as effective as the bait stations, but it can still work. Set a wide tube of some sort (cardboard or PVC) along the edge of a table, with a smear of peanut butter in the middle. The back half of the tube must be overhanging the table. Under the tube, position a garbage can, lined with a plastic bag. Spray inside the bag with WD-40. When the rat comes for the food, the tube is going to fall into the trash can. The sprayed grease will disable the rat's escape. Once this happens, take the trash can several miles away and release the rat.
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