Your garage is a place for your car, your tools, and perhaps a corner for you to escape from the world. It is not somewhere you want to share with mice, at any time of the year!
Obviously, if you find an issue you’re going to need to call your local exterminators and have them take care of the issue. You’re also probably going to have to replace your favorite chair.
Hopefully, you don’t find out that you have a mouse issue when you take your car to the local garage and they discover them hiding in it, they can seriously damage the inside of your vehicle, click here to find out more about potential issues.
That’s why, if possible, it is better to keep the mice out of the garage in the first place.
Seal It Up
Garage doors don’t generally go right to the ground as they need to open and close. For this reason, you should add weather stripping to the bottom of your door, this will make the gap too small for a mouse to get through.
If they do chew through this then consider replacing it with a rodent guard made of metal, mice cannot generally chew through metal. Alternatively, a rubber or even vinyl closing strip will help to keep the mice out.
It’s not just the garage door that could be an entry point. Take a good look around your garage, preferably from the outside. Any small hole could be an access point for a mouse, the sooner you seal it up the better.
Vents
Any vent is a potential access point for a mouse; you need to make sure they are properly covered with a material that mice will not be able to chew through. It’s a good idea to inspect these regularly for damage, it can suggest a mouse has gained entry or is trying.
Traps
You can place poison traps down or baited traps. A baited trap will spring and should kill the mouse when it tries to take the food. In contrast, a poison trap will allow the mouse to leave, potentially taking the poison back to its nest and killing more of the mice.
If you’re a little squeamish about killing mice you can get a humane trap that will capture the mice without killing them. You’ll then have to dispose of them, make sure they are a long way from your garage or they’ll simply return.
Don’t forget that any trap you use with poison in needs to be kept away from your children and pets, it can be bad for their health too.
It is also important to remember that mice carry an array of diseases, you need to handle them with care, even if they are already dead. Any contact with them can infect you, use gloves and bags.
Mice are also not keen on peppermint if you like the smell you can put peppermint around potential entry points. Or, the ultimate natural solution, is to get a cat! Most cats enjoy hunting mice.
