I’m a gardening expert and my 24p trick keeps rats out of your garden

A gardening expert has shared a super simple trick that will help you banish rats from your garden for good.

So if those pesky critters give you the creeps and you’re looking for a quick and easy solution to keep them at bay, you’ve come to the right place.

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Rats seem to be a big problem in the UK during the autumn as they enter gardens looking for a warm place to dig, such as sheds or compost heaps.

But don’t worry, there’s an easy way to deter them. You may already have the secret.

Rodents usually reside in a garden where they have access to food. This means that they often steal fallen fruit from trees, feed on plants or even eat your crops.

But according to one gardener, garlic is the best way to keep rats out of your garden. Yes, you read that right.

Juanita Schulze, a horticultural expert from David’s Garden Seedsclaimed that rats absolutely hate the smell of garlic, making it a naturally effective method.

According to Juanita, you can plant garlic or make a homemade repellent spray from it to say goodbye to rats for good.

She explained: ‘Rodents hate the strong smell of garlic.

“Garlic doesn’t grow from seeds, but buy a few garlic bulbs and plant them in your garden to keep rodents away.”

Rats rely on their sense of smell to survive. It helps them find food and detect predators.

And garlic, which many Brits love and which is an essential ingredient in many of our favourite home-cooked meals, has a strong odour that overpowers other smells in the garden. Rats will find this confusing.

In addition, garlic is an excellent repellent because it contains sulfur compounds. Rats avoid this smell because they associate it with toxins that they think can be harmful.

If you want to use garlic to keep rats away, simply plant garlic around the edges of your garden or around gaps in fences. This will create a natural barrier that rats will not want to cross.

Common garden pests

Common garden pests are no cause for alarm. If you can identify them, you can work to remove them and prevent them from coming back.

Aphids (green aphid, black aphid)

Aphids are very common and can affect the growth of plants. They have small soft pear-shaped bodies and are usually green or black. You can find them in clusters on the stem of soft shoots – look especially under leaves – or you can find a sticky substance on your plants that betrays that aphids have been there sucking the sap.

Whitefly

These small white-winged insects are related to aphids, only 1 or 2 mm long, and look very similar to white moths as adults. They can be found on the underside of leaves, preferring younger, fresher leaves. They fly in clusters when disturbed. Their life cycle is only three weeks long, meaning that an infestation can occur very quickly.

Snails

An unmistakable, clumsy-looking body plus small sensory tentacles on its head. Slugs propel themselves forward on a single, muscular leg. They range in size from surprisingly small to frighteningly large; limax cinereoniger species can easily exceed 20 cm in length.

Caterpillar of the cabbage moth

The caterpillars of the cabbage moth are happy to penetrate into the heart of the vegetable. The caterpillars are recognizable by their yellow or brown-green hues and are hairless.

Mealybug

Mealybugs are small oval insects with a white, powdery wax coating. There are several species, many of which have what appear to be legs coming out of their sides and back. In their earliest stages of life, it is quite possible to mistake them for fungi and not recognize them as insects at all.

In addition, it is a good idea to plant a lot of garlic next to any root vegetables you have in your garden, such as carrots or potatoes. This will prevent rats from digging up the garlic.

And that’s not all: you can also make a spray from garlic that keeps rats away.

Tips to keep pests out of your garden

• Plant plants like peppermint to repel rats.
• Place Garden Net Pest Barrierover your flower beds.
• Fill open containers with beer and place them in the ground to repel slugs.
• Spraying plants with Neem oilto repel ants, flies and spiders.
• Sprinkle your flower beds with Diatomaceous earth.
• Mix 1 tablespoon of dishwashing liquid, 10 drops of peppermint oil and 4 cups of water and spray this on the flower beds.
• Place eggshells around your plants to protect them from slugs.

Juanita advised, “Another garlic tip is to chop the garlic finely and boil it in water. Then strain out the garlic pieces and put the garlic water in a plant sprayer.

“Spray the bottoms of your plants to keep rodents away. Spread chopped garlic around the outside of your garden.”

If you follow this method, you will need to reapply the homemade garlic repellent every few days or after rainfall to maintain the scent in your garden.

This is a simple, quick and natural way to prevent rats from being a nuisance this fall, without having to use harsh chemicals.

And if you run out of garlic, don’t worry. You don’t have to spend money on it, because you can buy it for just 24p at Sainsbury’s.