Garages attract mice. They provide warmth, protection and are usually easy for these cunning creatures to get in. Typically, garages are the first places mice and rats go to before they get to your household.
And, if left unrestrained, some mice can become full-blown rodent infestation within a couple of months.
The guide below will teach you how to seal your garage well to ensure you keep mice and rats out of your garage and car how to get rid of any mice and rats that may already be living there. Read on to learn more!
Why Do Mice Love To Live In The Garage?
There are a couple of reasons why mice may be living in your garage.
- Warmth–Mice search for warmth and shelter when the weather gets chilly. Your garage provides a haven from icy temperatures.
- Clutter – Most garages have clutter and, this provides mice with numerous spots to hide away from predators.
- Access to Dog Food, Birdseed, and Other Comestibles–If you’re like many homeowners, you possibly stow your birdseed, dog meals, and other eatable food items in your garage. However, if you don’t store them well, mice can gnaw into cardboard containers and bags.
- Nesting Materials–Your garage serves as a goldmine of nesting materials for mice such as leaves, rubble, paper, cotton, cardboard, and other materials.
Now that you understand why mice like garages, there are steps you can take to get rid of rats and mice in your garage.
Steps to Take to Keep Mice Away from your Garage
Seal Access Holes
The average will fit through a hole that’s only a ¼-inch in diameter. Check your garage for fissures and holes leading into your home or outside. Close any cracks in your garage floor or wall materials.
Get Rid of Desirable Resources
It’s one of the best ways of stopping rodent infestation. Clean and arrange your garage frequently. Restrict the amount of storage in your garage, and stow food in airtight containers.
Instead of keeping other items in cardboard boxes, store them in plastic bins. Ensure the garage is cold during winter. Around the garage, make sure shrubs and trees are pruned. After doing this, rodents won’t have any cover to come near your garage.
Set Traps
If you have an area in your garage that’s unprotected, take into account setting traps there. If you decide to use a poisonous or spring-loaded trap, make sure that kids and pets are away when they’re in use.
If you opt for more humane traps, you have to free the mice more than a mile from your home so that they don’t turn around and come back.
How to Find Mice Nest in Garage
In a garage, mice usually construct their nests in calm, confined places, comprising:
- Wall Voids – Mice will gnaw through drywall to penetrate to those silent, concealed spots.
- Drawers – An unused sliding drawer full of paper offers the ideal spot for a mice nest.
- False Ceilings – Bad-smelling mouse litter will imbue and destroy panels when mice nest inside those places.
- Refrigerator engine chambers and voids beneath other kitchen appliances–Mice will frequently gnaw cables and lead to damage and, therefore, you’ll incur high costs during repairs.
How to Get Rid of Rats in Garage Naturally
Getting rid of rats and mice in your garage and car is a hard task under ideal circumstances. Ensnaring mice and rats or annihilating them is tedious, chaotic, and potentially risky for kids or other animals in the home. Or, perhaps you don’t want to kill rats and mice at all.
Nonetheless, if you want to take the low-impact technique, you have several rat removal options. As a bonus, they appear to be low-effort and low-investment. Check out these steps on how to get rid of mice in garage humanely.
Through Chemistry
Putting mothballs in the attic or places where rats are common will drive them away. However, don’t touch them using bare hands or put them around your house.
You can also prepare a mixture of ammonia using two spoons of detergent, a small glass of water, two cups of ammonia, and put the bowl close to where mice hang out. It’s a toxic mixture and, therefore, ensures that your pets won’t get to it.
Cheat Them Out
For rats, owls are natural predators, and rats keep away from owls. Put owl feathers close to nests or rat holes. They’ll run away. A bit of used and desiccated cat litter does a similar thing.
Get in Touch with the Cat-Astrophic Police
To persuade rats to keep off, what’s better than kitty litter? A real cat. Fluffy can be a purring ball of fur for you, but, cats aren’t renowned as the perfect predators’ nature has to offer for no reason. If the cat isn’t pursuing the rats, be assured that they’re giving them a wide leeway.
Smell
Rats and mice are prone to certain odors due to their highly developed sense of smell. Castor oil, peppermint oil, and citronella oil keep rats away. Utilize cotton balls immersed in these oils or sprinkle a little oil around where the rats are, and they’ll leave for less pungent climates. Onions and crushed pepper will also do.
Keep Mice Out Of Your Garage and Car
The fact is mice like garages. They make for excellent nesting places as they’re accessible. Garages are easy to encroach on because homeowners don’t notice holes and access points for a long period. It’s enough time for mice to camp in.
Luckily, there are numerous methods of keeping mice out of your garage. Although it’s wearisome, it’s crucial to go through the checklist for possible reasons why mice are getting into your garage and car to keep them away.
The best method of keeping mice away from your garage and car is to cut off things that may allure them and find ways to keep them outside.
Pros and Cons of Insulating Garage
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