Can I Shoot Rats on My Property? (Legality & Rat Prevention)

Rats are associated with uncleanliness, and no one wants to share their property with a rat pack. There are various ways to get rid of rats, but some methods are more humane than others. The most popular question we get asked is whether or not it’s legal to shoot rats on your property?

In most states, shooting rats with firearms is considered illegal. However, some states do allow the use of airguns to shoot rats on your property. It’s always best to check with your local state laws before taking action, as the laws around this differ widely from state to state.

While shooting rats may be an option in some cases, it’s important to remember that this method of pest control does come with some risks. In this article, we’ll look at some other rat-control methods and the legalities around shooting rats on your property.

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Shooting Rats

In rural areas, shooting rats and other small animals are quite normal and effective as pest control. What about in more urban areas?

Technically you can shoot a rat, but not with just any firearm.

Can You Shoot a Rat?

If you have a rat problem on your property, you can shoot the rats with an air rifle. Most counties in the United States allow rat shootings in order to control the rat population and prevent the spreading of diseases.

An air rifle is considered the best rifle for shooting rats. This is mostly due to the limited power of an air rifle. It greatly reduces the risk of ricochet, which is usually a disadvantage – except in this situation.

Air rifles are ideal to use in confined spaces or close to livestock, as you do not need to worry about a ricochet injuring you or your livestock.

The legal limit of an air rifle is 12ft/lb. This limit makes it the perfect weapon to use when shooting rats.

Can I Shoot a Rat in My Garden?

You can shoot rats in your garden with a firearm or an air gun. It’s much easier and safer to use an airgun, and almost anyone can buy it. Thankfully, you are allowed to use air guns on your property for pest control.

When shooting rats in your garden, be sure to have a sensible backstop – like a concrete wall or an open field.

Even though airguns are not extremely dangerous, they can still cause injuries if shot at a close enough range.

Is It Legal to Shoot Rats With a Pellet Gun?

It is legal in most states and counties to use a pellet gun for pest control on your own property. You need to be sure that you have an adequate backstop, though, like a wall, to prevent other people or animals from getting injured.

You could use a FAC power air rifle, but a sub-12 ft/lb airgun is still the best option to prevent other animals or people from getting hurt.

You could also add a silencer to prevent your neighbors or livestock from getting spooked.

You might also enjoy our post on If You Can Shoot Snakes on Your Property

Is It Legal to Shoot Rats With a BB Gun?

It is legal to shoot rats with a BB gun, although BBs can be quite dangerous. They tend to ricochet a lot and can hit you in the eye or injure another person nearby. It’s not recommended to use a BB gun in a confined space.

Pellet guns are a lot safer since their pellets are much more aerodynamic and ricochet less. You’ll also get a more accurate shot from a pellet gun.

When using a BB gun, you should wear safety glasses to protect your eyes.

Can You Shoot a Rat With an Air Rifle?

Air rifles and airguns are an excellent choice for shooting rats. The limited power of the air rifle is perfect to use in confined spaces and in urban areas where you usually would not dare fire a firearm.

When air rifles are modified, they can become more dangerous. So it’s best to stick to the legal limit of 12ft/lb. Compact air rifles are also easy to use when shooting multiple rats.

It’s the perfect weapon to use if you have a rat infestation on your property.

Laws and Hunting

Just because hunting, shooting, and killing rats are popular, is it legal? In this section, we’re going to discuss the legal matters surrounding different methods of killing rats.  

Can I Kill Rats in My Yard?

Most counties across the United States allow you to kill rats on your own property. Rat poison is probably the best legal option to kill rats on your property. However, if you own dogs, rat poison is not a good option for you.

Traditional rat poison is highly toxic to dogs and causes internal bleeding. However, there are natural rat poison alternatives that are safe for pets.

Alternatively, you could shoot the rats with an airgun if you live in a rural area.

Is It Illegal to Kill Rats?

In most states, it is completely legal and even encouraged to kill rats if they are a problem. Since rats can reproduce at a staggering rate, they often cause an infestation, and a state will encourage the killing of rats.

However, you should check with local law enforcement before attempting to kill nuisance rats. In Washington, the use of snap or glue traps is illegal.

You are instead required to contact an exterminator for a humane rat trap.

You might also enjoy our post on If You Can Shoot Raccoons on Your Property

What Is the Best Time to Hunt Rats?

The best time to hunt rats is at night since rats are nocturnal animals. They sleep during the day and are most active at night. When shooting rats at night with an air gun, you can expect to shoot quite a few rats.

If you’re using traps, you can set them up right before dusk. The next morning after dawn, you can check and empty the traps.

Rats don’t usually walk about during the day, so it would not be necessary to set traps during that time.

When setting snap traps, put them along the rats’ regular pathways. These are the areas where they travel to find food and water. You can identify these paths by looking for droppings, tracks, or rub marks.

Another way to find their pathways is to place unset traps in different locations around your property and see which ones get sprung.

Do Rats Hunt at Night?

Rats are active at night but particularly during dusk and dawn. This is when you will see the most rats running around. Interestingly, rats rarely hunt. They prefer to scavenge for food and eat nearly everything and anything they find.

This is particularly true in big urban cities where a lot of food gets thrown out or dumped on the ground.

In more rural areas you might see rats hunting insects at night, but they definitely prefer scavenging for food.

What Is the Best Way to Kill Rats Outside?

Baiting and poisoning rats are preferred as the best way to kill rats outside. Although, the bait would have to be placed in a box that only allows a rat to get in. This is to prevent pets from eating rat poison.

Instead of poisoning the rats you could simply capture them in these boxes and relocate them to a different area.

However, this might not solve your problem if you have a rat infestation. Instead, you would need to kill off some of the rats or call an exterminator.

Poisoning rats is the most common and effective method to kill them. This is because rats are constantly eating and will eventually die after eating enough poison.

They’ll also take the poison back to their nests, which will kill more rats.

How Do I Kill a Rat I Caught?

To humanely kill a rat, you should strike it on the head with a heavy blow. Something that will instantly kill the rat. A good shot is more humane than poisoning since a single shot can immediately kill the rat.

If you don’t have access to an air gun or rifle, simply stepping on the head of the rat will also do the job.

That’s not always as easy as it seems, so you can also call an exterminator to humanely kill the rats for you.

You might also enjoy our post on If You Can Shoot Coyotes in Your Yard

Rats in My Yard

Rats are a part of every city in the whole world. So it won’t be long until you might find some in your yard. Luckily there are a few methods to get rid of these unwelcome guests.

Let’s dive into the details!

How to Get Rid of Rats Outside?

The easiest way would be to shoot the rats with an airgun. However, not everyone wants to shoot a bunch of rats. Alternatively, you could throw dry ice into burrows that you see around your house.

Dry ice creates carbon dioxide, which will put the rats to sleep and eventually kill them. It is quite humane since they do not suffer at all.

If you reside in a rural area, you could build an owl house to attract owls to your property. The owls will scare off any rats on your property.

What Should I Do if I See a Rat in My Garden?

Rats carry diseases and are generally not clean, so you should immediately try to get rid of any rats that you see in your garden. The first task is to determine what is attracting the rats to your garden.

Rats are attracted to the smell of food, albeit human or pet food. Rats also follow the smell of rotten food.

So if you have old food in your garbage outside, it will most likely attract a rat to your yard and garden.

Why Do I Suddenly Have Rats in My Yard?

If your garden is a hospitable spot for rats, sooner or later, they will start to make your garden their home. Your garden offers food, shelter, and lots of water. It’s everything that a rat needs to survive.

You should attend to a rat problem as soon as possible before you have an infestation. Rats reproduce at a remarkable pace.

Install traps all over your garden with bait. This might take a week or two, but it should do the trick.

What Do I Do About My Neighbors Having Rats?

Keep your yard as clean as possible, don’t give the rats a reason to migrate onto your yard. Clean up your trash frequently, eliminate any food sources in your yard, and set up live rat traps.

Food sources could also be pet food and water that you keep outside. It might be best to feed your pets inside while your neighbors have a rat problem.

You can set up rat traps near the property line to discourage rats from coming onto your yard.

How Do I Keep Rats off My Property?

Do a quick survey of your yard and determine what is attracting the rats. Water, food, and shelter are some of the common reasons rats occupy a yard. Once you determine what is attracting the rats, remove or limit it. 

Remove any junk or clutter from your yard that could act as a shelter for the rats. Also, remove any food sources such as pet food or water.

If you suspect your garden is attracting rats, set up live traps near your plants to catch and kill these rats.

Is It Okay to Have Rats in My Garden?

Rats do not hold any benefit to your garden and should be removed as soon as possible. Rats are considered vermin because they carry and spread serious diseases. So it is never okay to have rats in your garden.

If you are not comfortable with setting up traps, you can contact an exterminator. An exterminator will remove the rats in a humane manner, either relocating them or euthanizing them.

The process is different in each state.

You might also enjoy our post on If You Can Shoot a Deer on Your Property

So Many Rats

Rats travel in packs, and sometimes those packs merge into colonies with hundreds of rats migrating together.

That sounds horrifying, we know, but let’s look at some other information about rats that you might not know.

Are Rats Important to the Ecosystem?

Rats are known to hoard seeds and spread them around. This promotes the growth of new trees and vegetation. Even though rats are seen as vermin, they do play an important part in our ecosystem.

The EPA states that rats and mice play an important role in the health of grasslands and forests in North America.

Rats are also a food source for many other predators, such as owls, foxes, hawks, bobcats, etc.

Does One Rat Mean There’s More?

Rats are social creatures, meaning they are always found in packs. So if you see one rat, the others can not be far away. You should immediately start setting up traps and baiting the rats to prevent an infestation.

Rat bites can cause serious health problems in humans, but rats also spread diseases through their droppings.

If you do have a rat problem in your garden you should not allow your dog or cat to sniff around in the yard.

Will Rats Return to the Same Place?

Rats will return to a nest if it is undisturbed. So if you discover a nest, you can carefully plant some traps. This will probably work, and you’ll be able to trap and poison quite a lot of rats.

Rats are also quite territorial, so if they establish a territory, they are not likely to leave. Unless they are threatened by another animal like a dog or cat.

If you have a recurring rat problem, you should contact an exterminator to take care of the infestation.

Does Dog Poop Attract Rats? 

Surprisingly, dog poop does attract rodents like rats and mice. Dog poop can be an excellent source of food for rats, so they are often attracted by the smell. Rats have an exceptional sense of smell.

If you don’t want a rat problem in your garden, you should not leave dog poop in your yard.

Picking up your dogs’ poop and disposing of it is another way to minimize the risk of rats infesting your property.

You might also enjoy our post on If You Can Shoot Bears on Your Property

Related Questions

Can I Shoot Squirrels With an Air Rifle?

Air rifles are ideal weapons to shoot squirrels. They are extremely accurate but not as dangerous as firearms. They work exceptionally well in urban areas where it is illegal to fire a firearm for no reason.

Air rifles are excellent for hunting small game, like squirrels or rabbits. They can also be used for hunting rats and mice.

Be sure to research your state laws on air rifles before firing in your neighborhood, and always practice gun safety.

Is It Illegal to Drown Rats?

It’s not illegal to drown rats, but it is certainly not the most humane way to get rid of rats. More humane options would be to shoot a rat or set up traditional snap traps. These methods ensure that the rats do not suffer from their injuries.

Even though there is no law against drowning rats, it’s not a method of killing that we would recommend.

If you do not own an air rifle or snap traps, rather contact an exterminator to humanely euthanize the rats or relocate them.

How Far Do Rats Travel From Their Nests?

Rats don’t like to travel extremely far from their nests. Usually while hunting they will travel within a 300 feet radius of their nest. If your yard has food or water, the rats might establish a new nest in your garden. 

To prevent this from happening, you should keep your yard clean at all times. Remove any food or water sources and clean up any dog poop.

Also, make sure there is no junk in your yard that the rats might use as a shelter.

Final Thoughts

You can shoot rats with an air rifle on your property, although you should double-check with your local state laws.

Also, inform your neighbors if you plan on shooting some rats. It will put their minds at ease if they hear something in the middle of the night.