Anyone with a garden urged to sprinkle black pepper outside in March

As spring approaches, experts recommend sprinkling black pepper in your garden to help deter key rodent from destroying your plants.

Anyone with a garden urged to sprinkle black pepper outside in March(Image: Oscar Wong via Getty Images)

March brings a lengthy to-do list for gardeners, and experts reckon there are several crucial additions you should be making to your outdoor space ahead of spring. Three pest control specialists have revealed that scattering black pepper across your garden can effectively repel troublesome rodents such as rats and mice, keeping them well away.

This should be carried out before spring arrives to protect your cherished plants from being ravaged. What’s more, you needn’t wait until the mice or rats turn up before taking action to send them packing.

More often than not, the most effective approach is prevention before an issue even develops.

Black pepper contains piperine, a compound that researchers have found to be lethal for rodents. Piperine functions as an antibacterial agent and provides pepper with its characteristic taste.

Rats find black pepper aroma unappealing (Image: helen Reid via Getty Images)

This substance may also suppress appetite in female rats, diminishing their inclination to reproduce and limiting the number of young they produce.

Rats also find black pepper and more pungent pepper varieties like cayenne deeply unpleasant, according to Ricky Young, a pest control specialist and proprietor of Young’s Pest Control.

He explained: “Rats dislike the strong scent of black pepper, so sprinkling black pepper around areas where rats are can help to keep rats away.”

Pest control professionals at Buzz Boss described black pepper as a “potent rat repellent” that activates the pain receptors of rats and other mammals, “causing them to sneeze, cough, and scurry away”.

Specialists at Bioactive Pest Control echo this view: “Black pepper has a strong, pungent smell that can deter rats.”

Their guidance states: “Scatter ground black pepper near suspected rat activity zones to disrupt their sense of smell and encourage them to leave.”

Black pepper can be deployed on its own or combined with cayenne pepper for a stronger impact.

The drawback of this deterrent technique is that the tiny pepper particles are readily swept, knocked, or rinsed away, particularly in outdoor settings.

If you’re keen to give this method a go, you can use larger peppercorn pieces to form mounds or fill nooks and crannies.