How to Keep Mice Out of Your Garage – Tips for mice prevention in garages, sheds, and campers. The best mouse traps and ways to keep mice away – especially in the winter months. You don’t even have to pay an exterminator.
How To Keep Mice Out of Your Garage – The Struggle
If your garage, pole barn, RV, or shed has even a minor heat source or a tiny food source in the winter, it’s likely mice will seek it out and try to make it a home for the winter. Every fall when the temperatures dip, the mice flock to my garage and shed. Even the most sealed buildings are no match for a mouse that is desperate for warmth (or food). If you live in a rural area, you can bet mice will be creeping at the signs of the first frost through the first few major freezes or snowfalls.
If you have a rodent problem, here are some great tips on how to get rid of them AND keep them away.
How To Keep Mice Out of Your Garage – Winterize
- Do a thorough cleaning of your floorspace in your garage or shed.
- Store items in plastic, sealable containers and stack them high in an effort to leave as much open floorspace as possible
- Store any pet food or bird seed in air tight cans or buckets. A bag with a chip clip on it won’t do it. I use a white feed container with a clamping lid for my birdseed. The white lid easily shows any mouse droppings so I know whether or not I have a rodent problem.
- Keep the corners of any structure as clear and open as possible. Give mice as few places to congregate as possible
- Garage refrigerators are magnets for mice. Not only is the smell of food around, the warmth of motor and residual condensation are a source for heat & water.
How To Keep Mice Out of Your Garage – Removal
If you’ve got droppings, you’ve got mice… and it’s hard to tell if you have 1 mouse, or dozens of mice. You have to eliminate them. Fortunately, this is very easy. Decent traps, when properly baited, lure the hungry mice out from the shadows very quickly. Use any of the following traps (placed in corners of your structure) and keep changing them out daily until there are no mice. If done properly, this shouldn’t more than a few days unless you have a serious infestation.
These are my favorite mouse traps
- Glue Traps – like this one – They fold into little tents so once caught, they are easy to dispose of without touching. You’ll rarely even see them outside of a tail sticking out. Simply fold the tent and bait it with a piece of chocolate or dab of peanut butter in the middle of the trap. Place the trap in a corner or where you notice droppings. You likely won’t have to wait long. If you don’t get your mouse/mice within a few days, move the glue traps to other parts of the shed / garage / RV / or basement. The downside is that this isn’t not a quick death for the mouse.
- Traditional Traps – like this one – are just as effective, but a bit gruesome. On the plus side, they’re reusable and affordable.
- D-Con Bait Station & Bait Blocks – like these – are a great way to eliminate mice if you don’t necessarily want to see them. Simply bait the included trap with these green blocks and place the traps in corners. If you see nibbles, you’ve got mice (or a mouse). If the whole block is devoured overnight, you have many rodents. The downside of this trap is that this bait is often a “last resort” for mice. If there is a better food source, they will attack that and not the poisoned bait blocks. D-Con block poison is NOT a quick kill either, the mice succumb to the poison after 2 or 3 days. Also, a poisoned mouse COULD make its way outside to be devoured by a bird of prey (like an owl) or a cat which will then also be poisoned (and suffer) in the process.
- Mouse Bucket Traps – like this one – are most effective if you have a large infestation and gives you the choice of killing the rodents or releasing them. All you need is a 5 gallon bucket and this kit. The mice roll off the bait tube into the bucket. A bucket filled with 3 inches of water will kill them. If you use an inch of water, you can catch & release them humanely. Bucket not included.
How To Keep Mice Out of Your Garage – No-Kill Mouse Traps
Using humane, no-kill traps like a bucket trap or this kind of trap are very effective… but there’s a drawback. The mice prove to be very easy to trap, but inconvenient to get rid of. You can’t just drop the mouse off outside your garage or pole barn, they’ll find their way back in nearly immediately. You have to drop them off nearly a mile away to ensure they won’t find their way back. Also, these traps must be checked frequently. Mice will become trapped and dehydrate and die in the trap within 36 hours if they aren’t released which defeats the purpose of a no-kill mouse trap.
How To Keep Mice Out of Your Garage Sheds, Mobile Homes and vehicles – PREVENTION
Now that you’ve eliminated the mice, how do you keep them from coming back? Here are some tried and true (and creative) methods to prevent mice. And… some methods that don’t.
- Peppermint Oil Spray – Rodents HATE the smell. This an easy, safe, humane mouse deterrent. The down side is that the spray scent doesn’t last long and you’ll have to spray often. Also, it’s a relatively expensive option – even if you make your own. If a mouse has to choose between smelling peppermint and freezing to death outside, it’ll opt for walk through peppermint oil. Not very effective.
- Peppermint Tea Bags – Same as above. Mice FLOCK to vehicles parked outside in the late fall/early winter months. Brew some tea and use the bags in your vehicles glove box to prevent mice from nesting in your car. Think of it as a bonus car air-freshener BUT… it’s not super effective.
- Talk Radio – Tune a cheap clock radio into a talk radio station at moderate volume. This actually works! Rodents don’t want to gather where they think humans are. But… it won’t work if you already have mice. It also won’t keep them away forever as temperatures outside plummet. Music stations aren’t nearly as effective.
- Tougher Than Tom Repellent Pouches and Spray – Place these odorous bags filled with all-natural ingredients in various spots that haven’t been infected yet and it will keep mice away. NOPE! Wow! These were a disappointment. Tougher than Tom doesn’t work to keep pests away, no matter what they advertise. Neither do other suggested methods like scented dryer sheets.
- Ultrasonic Rodent Repellent Devices – I’ve had a great experience with these so far, particularly this one. Devices like these use sound frequencies and strobe lights to drive mice out and then keep them away. So far, I have yet to see mouse droppings near my birdfeed storage containers or any mice in my already baited bucket trap (see above). Keep them near floor level to drive away mice. There are many types of ultrasonic mice repellents. Some plug directly into outlets. In addition to the floor model, I use an outlet rodent deterrent as well that plugs-in to higher wall sockets that are also effective at driving away flying pests (moths, bees) and climbing pests (carpenter ants, spiders).
How To Keep Mice Out of Your Car
This might be more difficult than figuring out how to keep mice out of your garage. This is where I would try the peppermint oil, dryer sheets and even Tougher than Tom. Focus on placing these smell deterrents under the hood and in the glove compartment. These safe-for-humans repellent options only have a chance at being effective if you routinely change them out.
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I hope you find these tips for how to keep mice out of your garage helpful.
