Mouse Prevention Tips For Your Garden Shed
Your garden shed can be like an extension of your home during the spring and summer months, especially if you love to work in your yard. A mouse invasion can ruin your garden work station. The best course of action is prevention first. If mice still find their way into your garden shed, you can then work towards elimination.
Tip #1: Seal Up Your Seeds
The main thing that attracts rodents to a garden shed are seeds. Garden seeds, grass seed, and even bird seed provide an excellent and easy food source for a hungry mouse. You can still store seed in your shed, if you prefer, but it needs to be kept in a mouse-proof container. Heavy duty plastic buckets with tight-fitting lids, or a metal or glass canister, work well. Any other possible food source, such as pet food or chicken feed, should be stored in a similar fashion.
Tip #2: Close Up Any Openings
Mice can fit through openings the size of a dime, and sometimes even smaller openings are possible entrances. If a mouse can fit it's head through an opening, the body can follow. Cover vent openings with a tight metal mesh so that mice can't squeeze through or chew a hole. Replace weather stripping, particularly around door thresholds, to prevent entry. Any other holes or cracks should be covered with mesh or stuffed with steel wool and then patched appropriately.
Tip #3: Clear Away Debris
Debris piles, both outside and inside of the shed, can attract nesting mice. Clean up dead weeds, overgrown grass, fallen leaves, and brush piles from around the exterior of the shed. If you have landscaping, trim the plants and pull back the mulch so it doesn't rest right up against the side of your shed. Inside the shed, avoid leaving stacks of newspaper and seed catalogs. Rags and other items should be stored away neatly. Small lidded trash cans work well for confining things like rags or the newspaper you use underneath mulch in your garden beds.
Tip #4: Bring In a Pro
It's a good idea to keep a trap or two set inside your shed. You can use snap traps or humane traps, as you prefer, just make sure to check them often so any trapped mice don't suffer. These traps allow you to monitor for mice. If you end up with a mouse in a trap, it's time to call in a pest control service. They can quickly handle the issue so the rodents don't multiply and spread to other parts of your yard, or worse, to your house.
Contact a pest control service in your area for more assistance.
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