Best Rodent Repellents
By Craig Basset, Expert Reviewer for Repellent Guide
published: Feb 05, 2018 | updated: Feb 08, 2018
Rodents are pests that plague apartments, homes, basements, garages, sewage systems and other areas that receive regular human traffic. Rodents reproduce rapidly and are often carrying a number of diseases and leave feces and other elements such as hair every wherever they go. Most people hate rodents and consider them to be a sign of filth and are constantly looking for ways to prevent them from nesting or reproducing in areas around building structures or other places occupied by humans.
Scent based
Certain rodent repellents manipulate the sense of smell to discourage or prevent rodents from inhabiting certain areas. Certain powders, by utilizing fear-inducing scents that raise a rodent’s instinctive awareness, such as the scent of a predator’s urine – the scent used in marking or claiming a territory - will prevent rodents from nesting and chase them away from current nests once they think it has been claimed by a predator. These types of approaches are humane and are generally safe for human contact, although they may not last long and may need to be repeated often to keep rodents away.
Ultrasonic
Another humane approach to prevent rodents from occupying a certain area or to chase them out of a current one is to use an electronic rodent repellent device. These types of electronics use a high decibel signal that rodents cannot tolerate and are relatively inexpensive to purchase.
Toxins and other chemicals may be effective to repel rodents, however many have a strong odor that people cannot tolerate, are environmentally dangerous and may even be illegal in some states due to their high potency and potential danger to humans and non-target animals.
One of the best rodent repellent methods is the preventative measure of rodent exclusion. Rodent exclusion is the process of eliminating all openings around a structure that are larger than a certain size – usually ½ inch for rats and larger rodents and less than ¼ inch for smaller rodents such as mice. Rodents can still get into a structure through pipes, open doors and windows, so the structure will need to be maintained for rodent extermination; however prevention may be the most humane method of rodent repellent.
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Ultrasonic Electromagnetic
Ease of use: 9.5
Value for money: 8
Performance: 9.5
Overall Score: 9
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Ultrasonic Electromagnetic
Ease of use: 9.5
Value for money: 8
Performance: 9.5
Overall Score: 9
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Spray
Ease of use: 9
Value for money: 8
Performance: 8
Overall Score: 8.3