Composting has several benefits for your garden and the wider environment, but it is a gardening habit that can attract pests.
A long list of compostable ingredients can prevent unwanted visitors from nibbling plants and crops, though many of the same ingredients could have the opposite effect—like enticing rats.
A pest control expert has warned that these furry creatures are known for seeking food sources, and your compost heap may be just that to hungry pests.
Rocky from Quality Affordable Pest Control revealed that the problem lies in carelessly composting items from your kitchen waste.
He said: “Rats are omnivorous and will eat almost anything to survive. When searching for food, rats are attracted to areas with a readily available food source, such as rubbish compost piles or improperly stored food.”
As for the offending ingredients in your compost heap, many people constantly compost food waste like egg shells, apple cores and root vegetable peelings.
Rocky urged, “Eggshells on their own don’t usually attract rats to compost unless there’s significant egg residue left on them.
“But if your pile has other food scraps like fruits or veggies, the smell could draw them in, and they might check out the eggshells too.”
Of course, ditching potato peelings and egg shells, which are particularly attractive to rodents, is one way to ward off rats. However, there’s an easier fix that means no food goes to waste.
Rocky suggested: “To lower the risk, try covering food scraps with leaves or grass”. Many gardeners know the importance of balancing the green and brown materials in their compost heap; this is a prime example.
Green materials include fruit and vegetable scraps, while brown materials contain dry leaves and straw. This balance helps to keep compost hot and less attractive to rats.
The Royal Horticultural Society suggests 25 to 50 percent of your compost heap should be soft, leafy green material, and the other 75 to 50 percent should be chopped-up woody, brown material.
Arranging your compost with food scraps buried in the centre of the pile, topped with a layer of finished compost or soil, will also work wonders for warding off rodents.
Rocky noted the importance of using a bin with a “tight-fitting lid to keep rodents out” and regularly turning compost. He said: “This will also help by cutting down on string smells that could attract pests.”
Many gardeners swear by this method, like a Mumsnet user named Mamhaf, who raised their compost bins to deter rodents.
Replying in a thread to a fellow forum member who has rats in their compost, they wrote: “Our solution was to take it [the bin] up (it’s a green Dalek-type one) and put chicken wire underneath it, then make sure the hatch at the front is always completely closed and the lid on firmly. I’ve stopped putting in eggshells, too. I don’t know if that makes a difference, but DH always said something about those attracting rats.
“Haven’t had a problem since – and I’ve just dug out two huge containers of lovely crumbly compost which I’m planning to mix with rotted horse manure and plant my geranium cuttings from last autumn in….so it’s worth persevering.”
