5 Best Rat Repellents Reviewed for 2021

Struggling with a rat problem? In this guide, I’ll review and compare the top 5 choices so you can pick the best rat repellent.

Quick Overview: The Winner

The best rat repellent is the Eco Defense Repellent.

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What Is Rat Repellent?

There is no simple answer to this question. Simply because a market has been established for so long, opening up a myriad of ways to assist you in ridding yourself of rodents. This makes navigation to your solution that much more painful.

So to break it down here are subgenres of what you can expect to find:

  • Ultrasonic repellent 
  • Rodenticide (poison)
  • Traps 
  • Repellent spray
  • Natural remedies & tactics

All of which, aim to assist in keeping your environment pest free. Although each may do this to a different avail. 

You have two options, which may not be completely yours alone to choose depending on your situation.

The first, if you’re lucky and using foresight, is a passive repellent, which is what we will cover here. For the stray critters wandering into your home this will do its job quite nicely.  The number of methods devised for pest control by man is quite impressive.

These range from futuristic ultrasonic emitters to corporate made sprays, all the way down to what would be referred to as a natural remedies, using a natural repellent such as peppermint oils.

But for anything more than a lost scoundrel…

Well, that is your second option, to use once you have lost suffrage on the vote, to who or what may occupy your environment.

Which is Culling. Using any technique you have available. Because if you lose your foothold, they will take over.

What to Consider Before Buying Rat Repellent?

Your best asset to help you choose your method of attack? Your own intuition. 

Ghoulish overkill with pesticides may create more problems than they solve. But on the other end of the spectrum, a soft passive attack upon a small bubonic army won’t even scratch the surface of your problems.

So let’s break it down…

Ethics

Your moralities around this subject may hinder your ability to successfully do the job. Simply because, it may be at the stage where you no longer are able to just repel rodents, and action must be taken to rid the pests for good.

With this being said, we must try and identify when it might be necessary to take it from repelling to culling.

If you don’t see any problems in the horizon of a potential infestation, using repellent as a means of maintenance will be adequate. This means that there are no troubling signs of rat population increasing, such as droppings, nests or gnaw marks. Once these marks of the beasts become more prevalent, then may be a good time to escalate your action plan, as they will be thriving without your approval. 

So as they go, repellents will do their job. But if push comes to shove, they will have to be left in the rudimentary stages of prevention rather than the solution.

Collateral Damage

Tying in closely with the theme of ethics, how might the use of a certain repellent effect the rest of the delicate ecosystem in which the rats are just a part?

Using a naturally produced repellent can be a great way to not compromise your environment and its other inhabitants, not to mention undermine your own efforts. 

Using rodenticides is a juxtaposed position to trying to keep your environment clean in some senses. They must be made attractive so the rodents will risk it for the biscuit, but what is to stop other animals, pets and even children from getting into contact with them?

With this in mind, it is commonly advised that the use of them should be towards your last options. So, if permissible, leave the heavy artillery until it is needed, and use natural remedies and tactics for a win from the start. 

Environment 

Are your furry foes invading your home or garden?

Or both…

Do plug sockets naturally grow in your garden? As much as that would be a handy evolutionary factor, I can’t see it happening anytime soon. So just buying an ultrasonic repellent for indoors may keep them out of sight, but simultaneously you are permitting them to congregate elsewhere, to increase in population and habitat, somewhere you just haven’t found yet. 

When going to put your faith in a product to protect you from infestation from tricky and treacherous beasts, understand that it is more complex than just one solution. It may take a combination of products to secure your position of owner of the land.

Using products for different regions of your environment is a sure way to continue living rat free, without spraying chemicals everywhere and having to look for a plug socket to ensure your safety. As you will see below, there is a different variety of product for each environment. A solution to each problem.

Insanity

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

You’ve surely heard that one before.

 Just as you wouldn’t eat food that made you repetitively sick, why would you spend money on a product that doesn’t work over and over again to no end.Using repellents unfortunately isn’t a one time job. It is a constant battle of maintenance in some cases. 

To make sure that your getting what your paying for, it is always best to have a look at the market before plunging in, as false advertising has been a plague on this industry in the past, until tighter legislation, with added scientific regulation has forced the companies producing these products to be more thorough and honest about their product.

So before you go to the local discount store and buy the dusty offering they have on the dimly let shelves, consider it may be an impotent, cheap alternative to what you’re actually looking for.

Guaranteed Results

Any amount of marketing of a product can successfully sell that product. 

However, what puts the proof in the pudding? For me, it’s the manufacturer putting their money on the table, and providing a money back guarantee. Granted, you have to do some observation and analyse what the reaction to your input has been, but it does mean that a little effort will go far, and if all else fails, you can get your money back to try another product. 

No harm, no foul.

If You Want A Job Done Right…

Now, to put all your faith in these products alone will demonstrate the futility in outsourcing to an incomplete, utopian methodology. 

In the same way as buying a gym membership won’t make you fit, using these products aimlessly, without attacking some of the sources of the problem will just cause frustration.

When using repellents, also look at what may be attracting these pests to your environment, then in conjunction, restructure the potential habitat for them with the use of repellents to ensure that there is absolutely no reason for them to remain.

Simple solutions to utilise:

  • Rat proof structures to stop them entering your home
  • Reducing the availability of sustenance 
  • Keep your garden clean and trim
  • Secure garbage
  • Prune trees close to your property

Keep it clean and secure, don’t give them an inch.

5 Best Rat Repellent Reviewed

So with all of that freshly learned knowledge prevalent in your memory, let’s look at the cream of the crop, so you can make an educated decision.

1. TBI Pro Ultrasonic Pest repeller

Coming in at the top spot in both price and technological romanticism, is the TBI Ultrasonic Repeller. Its rhetoric is an idyllic, modern solution to the problem. Claiming to work on all sorts of pests not just rodents, this versatile offering may be a great precautionary measure, or a plaster to an amputated limb. 

This is where you decide if it is appropriate for your needs. 

Personally I see this as a comforting reassurance for your peripheral vision that you did that job you were nagged to do, without any conviction, done nevertheless.

Relating back to the point mentioned earlier, I feel as though this is not a necessary tool for your arsenal against rodents, although I wouldn’t completely discount its merit, as again they have many reviews praising the product, fallacious or not.

Although the list of palpable pros may be short, its contents are very valued to those who are looking for such things in a product. So in its defence, for newly formed families with children and/or pets, I could praise its safety. 

Pros

  • Incredibly easy to set up
  • Pet and child safe 
  • Cost effective
  • Highly rated

Cons

  • Must have electrical supply
  • No way of knowing if it works due to its subtlety
  • Small scale solution which wouldn’t handle bigger infestations
  • Doesn’t attack any specific source of pest
  • Higher price range

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2. Eco Defense Rodent Repellent – Organic Spray (Top Pick)

Now hold your horses, we too saw the name of this product (as we thoroughly researched each product on this list!). But they do claim that it does not discriminate between mice and rats, and is suitable for all rodents.

This organic spray is a much more direct approach in my view. Asses the areas being infested, aim, and fire! 

Of course, keeping the home safe should be the main goal of any endeavor of home betterment, otherwise you may be unravelling your own efforts continually. With that as a framework to rely on, items like this are a great first line of defence against pest invasion.

My own greatest conviction praising this product is the 60 day money back guarantee. That speaks volumes for me. Any, knowingly or not, unsuccessful product offering such a package is sure to be lost by natural selection.

Pros

  • Money back guarantee 
  • Only natural oils used, safe and eco friendly 
  • Reppells against all rodents
  • Versatile use for outdoors and indoors

Cons

  • Will not deter the braver rodents, so may not work in every case
  • Oils may stain certain finished materials such as wood
  • May require frequent application

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3. Victor Scent-away natural rodent repellent packs

On the more traditional side, we have age old repellent packs. Composed of natural ingredients, including the key ingredient of peppermint oil, these short life packs may be all you need to rid yourself of a potential infestation. 

We do not see that using these alone will rid you of all pests, but if strategically placed in areas of high activity it may be a great addition. 

With this being a method used for a long time there is a lot of sense to put the notion of viability on this product, although we have furthered technologies being sold alongside this archaic method. 

But a very common review of this product is that rather than repelling rodents, they have been attracting more. As popular as a product may be, awareness of the full picture of user reviews will help you see into your potential future.

Pros

  • Cheap
  • Packs of 5 or 10 bags to spread around an area
  • Natural repellent 
  • Safe for pets and eco friendly

Cons

  • Only works for 30 days
  • Weaker solution which won’t solve most problems alone 
  • Brave rodents may just use it as sustenance to further thrive
  • Strong scent 

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4. Exterminators choice – Vehicle Protection for Rodents

These beasts know no bounds, and will chew through wires like candy floss. Using a traditional spray or repellent on an electrical system may backfire, leaving the rats having the last laugh. But never fear, because Exterminators Choice have got this one.

They have created a safe spray that not only can be used in delicate areas such as vehicles wiring, which rats love,  but also around all other areas of the house, down to it also being a product made from natural products and oils.

If you are in industrial farmer and have these problems on a grand scale, whilst having to maintain large, expensive equipment, using this product in my eyes is a no brainer.

Pros

  • Good for use in delicate wiring areas
  • Versatile and can be used in the home also 
  • Natural Ingredients
  • Easy application

Cons

  • Higher price range
  • Reports of strong smell
  • Not as highly rated as other products on our list

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5. Zovenchi Ultrasonic

And to finish off the list we will head back to another technologically advanced solution. This Wall-E looking character is more of a complete deterrent to all pest, so if you have pets or are trying to clean up a small scale rodent operation, we wouldn’t particularly advise its use. Its method is the same as the first, ultrasonic soundwave to scare away animals, although this fancy piece of kit contains an infrared motion sensor. 

This all terrain vehicle also is solar powered, weather proof and non discriminatory to its enemies, willing to face up to any challenge thrown its way. 

Also set up couldn’t be easier, just plunge it into the high activity area you wish to protect and you’re all set.

Who said life wasn’t easy? 

Well there is one spanner in the works to all this wonderment offered by the company, that being the lack of any review given of the product above 3 stars…

If that isn’t a major discening feature to sway your decision making, then I have nothing further to add.

Pros

  • Easy to set up and use
  • Wireless and solar energy powered
  • Infrared sensor to save battery power
  • Claiming to repel all rodents, as big as dogs 

Cons

  • Not pet friendly
  • May be a detriment to all wildlife
  • Very scathing review in contrast to its offering

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Which Is Best?

After checking out the trop picks, the Eco Defense Repellent is the best rat repellent

There are many factors in ridding yourself of this complex and cunning mammal. Believing in any one promise of salvation from the long tailed oppressors would go to show how unaware you may be of the task ahead.

It’s a good idea to look at all the factors and considerations listed above, create a personal blueprint for your needs, then create that specificity in your arsenal. You don’t need a tank to win a thumb war.

The smaller scale, naturally made options are perfect for families just trying to keep the enemy at  bay, but this passive stance of security will not suffice for a farmer on the brink of all out warfare, where more drastic measures must be taken.

My final meditation on the matter, if you expect more than just the occasional visit from one of these pests, then the reality is that only culling, without mercy, is your only way to free yourself of the burden.