Are mice sneaking into your shed and making themselves at home? Keeping your shed free of these unwanted visitors can feel like a constant battle, especially when they slip in through tiny gaps or holes.
The good news is that with the right approach, you can keep mice out for good. Here’s a guide on how to prevent them from entering and how to remove them if they’ve already moved in.
Table of Contents
How to get rid of mice in the shed
So, you’ve discovered mice in your shed – annoying, yes, but totally fixable. With some patience and the appropriate technique, you may send them packing and prevent them from returning. If the little intruders have already established themselves, here’s how to deal with them in an effective manner.
- Use humane traps – Once you’re certain there are mice around, use live-capture traps rather than deadly traps. Place them along walls and in areas where you have spotted droppings. Peanut butter and chocolate are both excellent bait options. Check the traps every day, and if you catch one, release it at least a kilometre away – somewhere open, such as a field or in the forest. When handling traps or mice, always wear gloves to protect yourself and avoid leaving your scent behind on them.
- Avoid poisons and glue traps – It might be tempting to go for an easy fix like using poison, but that can be risky for pets and children – and it causes a lot of unnecessary suffering for the mice. On top of that, poisoned mice often crawl off and die in hidden corners, which means you’re left with awful smells you can’t track down. Humane traps are a much kinder and far more effective option all round.
- Check around the shed – Don’t forget the outside. Have a look for places mice might be hiding – compost heaps, log piles, or overgrown areas are favourites. Clearing these up makes your shed far less appealing to any new arrivals.
Check also:
How to Get Rid of Mice in Your House
How to keep mice out of the shed naturally
Once you get rid of the little rodents, you need to keep them out. Mice are resourceful animals that can squeeze through even the smallest openings to enter sheds. When it comes to keeping mice out of your shed, prevention is vital, and there are a number of practical ways to do this.
- Seal all entry points – The first step is to check your shed for possible entry points, as mice can fit through holes as small as a pencil. Look closely for any cracks or breaches in the floor, walls, roof, and door frames. Mice cannot chew through materials like caulk or expandable foam, so use them to seal minor openings and steel wool or wire mesh for larger holes. Because these are frequent access locations, pay close attention to the places where cables or pipes enter the shed.
- Keep your shed clean and organised – Mice have plenty of hiding places to build their nests in a cluttered shed. Remove anything you don’t need from your shed and put the rest in airtight plastic containers to declutter it. Avoid leaving stacks of paper, cardboard, or wood since mice love these materials for their nests.
- Remove food sources – Food attracts mice, so be sure your shed isn’t drawing them in. Store birdseed, cat food, or other foods in your shed in airtight metal or thick plastic containers. Right away, clean any spills; avoid keeping fruit or vegetables in your shed for long lengths of time.
- Use natural scents to deter mice – Peppermint and chilli oil, mothballs, cloves and cayenne pepper, all repel mice. You can also put some used cat litter in a corner. It doesn’t sound too pleasant, but it’s positively threatening to the mice, which won’t enter for fear of a cat.
- Use mothballs to keep mice out of your shed – Another great approach to discourage mice is mothballs as they smell strong and rodents find them unbearable. Put mothballs around kept goods, near doors and in corners. Still, one ought to use them sensibly. Keep mothballs out of reach for kids and animals since they include compounds that, in big doses, could be dangerous for consumption or inhalation.
- Wash away scent trails – Mice leave smell trails leading other mice to their location. Wash the inside of your shed with water and bleach or a strong disinfectant mixture to stop this cycle. Along with removing the scent traces, this kills germs and other pollutants the mice left behind.
- Attract natural predators – If you’re willing to welcome animals into your yard, drawing natural predators like owls will help to regulate the mouse count. One excellent approach to attract these useful birds to dwell close by in your garden is to install an owl box. A pet cat can also be a useful deterrent for a more hands-on option; nevertheless, keep in mind that keeping a pet is a lifetime commitment.
These techniques taken together will help you keep mice out of your shed and guard your possessions from damage. See a mice control specialist to fully handle the issue if the infestation lasts despite your best efforts.
Check also:
Are you dealing with a pest infestation?
You don't have to be alone in the battle against pests. Hire a professional pest expert!
Call usAnimals that live under sheds – the signs
If you’re concerned that you are dealing with one of the many types of animals that live under sheds, there are a few signs to watch out for.
Actually, seeing them is the first and most obvious one. Motion sensor cameras can help you spot nighttime visitors, too. Another common sight is damage like gnawed wood, vegetables that have been snacked on or holes in the ground.
You might also be able to spot paw prints, droppings and other signs of unwanted animals’ presence. Try dusting a little sand around the area if you want to make spotting tracks easier.
How to keep animals out from under your shed
When it comes to how to keep animals out from under your shed, there are a few ways to go about it. Trap and release methods rarely deliver good results for you or the animal in question. If you want to humanely remove animals living under your shed, call in a professional. Or you can try:
- Making some noise – Leave a radio playing under your shed or find some other way of generating noise that stops that place from sounding so inviting to visitors!
- Using some light – Similarly, that dark, sheltered place will look less appealing if you can get some strobing or flashing light in there.
- Utilising the power of smells – Apple cider vinegar and other strong-smelling solutions can drive off pests. Try to spot the kind of pest you are dealing with to make sure you can find something they don’t like.
On top of these humane removal and repellent methods, you can keep other animals out from under your shed by answering some basic questions about how it is constructed.
Check also:
How high should a shed be off the ground?
It’s generally suggested that a shed should be at least 4 inches (10 cm) off the ground to allow air to circulate. If you live in an area with soft soil or heavy rainfall, you might want to up this slightly. But you don’t want to raise it by too much more as this can lead to instability.
Unfortunately, this is the ideal height for some animals to find the space under the shed appealing.
How to get animals out of walls
Getting animals out of walls really is a job for professionals. You can take some of the steps above to remove things like sources of food or easy access points to stop them from coming back. But the actual removal really needs an expert hand.
Takeaways
- It’s a good move to put preventative measures in place before you even notice pests.
- Safe and full pest removal is often a job for the experts, especially if you have major infestations or issues with wild animals on your hands.
- Removing sources of food is important so as not to attract all kinds of pests.
Need to know more about preventing pests from entering your shed or greenhouse?
Comment below and get some friendly advice. Alternatively, book our pest control services online or by directly speaking to an expert about your garden shed pest problem, which will be professionally taken care of for you.
Leave a Reply