Mice love to live in garages for so many reasons. If you have a garage at home, then you may have already encountered problems about mice infestation in your garage as well as in some other areas in your home. If you are faced with this problem, then it would help if you learn some tips on how to get rid of mice in garage. The good news is that there are actually several ways on how you can resolve the problems you have with mice. And indeed, there are various ways on how to get rid of the mice in your garage and this article will talk about these various ways.
Mice in Your Garage
Garages indeed are filled with places for mice to hide and this explains why you are seeing lots of mice in your garage. If you have that typical American garage at home, then aside from cars, you certainly have several other things hidden in there such as the tools, workbench, toys, boxes, bicycles and several other unused things. Aside from nibbling on your stuff, mice love to climb up on any surface. They love jumping up to one foot up in the air while walking across thin bridges like ropes and wires.
All of the objects stored in your garage will give the mice the opportunity to climb up and sneak through to various hiding places. In fact, even neat and well organized garages are also filled with mice since they have a lot of spaces where mice can find shelter. The inside walls of the garage are among the most favorite places for mice to hide.
Their Appearance
It is also important that you know how to detect the house mouse. Basically, the house mouse is that small rodent that often grows to as much as four inches long and usually weighs about ten ounces. They are often gray and brown in color and sometimes, they have a mixture of pigments as well as black coloration and sometimes, they have a complete loss of pigmentation or those that they call the albino. The tail of the house mouse is covered in fine fur and often has equal length with that of the body. Both females and males have the same appearance and have no obvious differences except if they are closely examined.
Behavior and Habitat
It is normal for mice to dwell on human dwellings. They just love to live on places where humans also live. Their ability to coexist with humans is not merely about opportunity. By nature, house mice have a huge source of competition for food which comes in the form of small mammals as well as other mice species. The survival rate on these situations is just small and this is why it is more advantageous for house mice to just dwell inside the homes of humans.
Some of the mice will choose to live out of a structure, but will always be closer enough to be able to enjoy the benefits of having a huge amount of food sources. Within the walls of a house, most especially in your garage, few predators are an issue, but rats usually kill mice and will take over the mice territories. Indeed, house mice are territorial. Their groups often consist of male and as much as three females. The males will not get into a territory of another except if it has been abandoned. Learning the behavior of the mice is important if you don’t want them in your house.
Mice are sensitive to light and these animals are often active only during dimly lit hours and most often during night time. However, within the walls of a home where light is an issue, the nice can be active at any moment in the day. Pathways that are created in a territory will be marked with scents and pheromones that are produced through feces, urine, as well as tear markings.
In detecting the presence of mouse, you can rely mainly on the smell as well as the ultrasonic sounds which they use to communicate. Furthermore, mice make use of smell and ultrasonic sounds when communicating and they also use their sensitive whiskers in navigating through obstacles and when sensing air currents.
There are certain climates where the house mouse love to reproduce all year round. During this time, each of the female is said to have as much as ten litters and each litter will bear up to 40 offspring. This abundance of the offspring is the reason why the population of mice increases very quickly.
Fiet
Another thing that you need to know about the mice is the diet of these pests. You should know that house mice are herbivores and as such, maintain a diet that is mostly made of fruits and grains. In situations where house mice live near humans, they eat mostly edible and non meat substances. Veggies and fruits are the staple of diet of the mice and their proper nutrition will not be complete if they do not have enough vitamins and minerals that are associated with such vegetation.
Nuisance
For most rodents and that includes the mice, chewing is not mainly a means of creating nesting site or burrow. Mice needed to chew in order to keep their teeth filed into a certain length. Teeth that grow too long will keep the mouse from eating well enough and will eventually lead to starvation.
The need to chew makes the mouse to become a particularly nuisance species. They love to chew on almost anything they see and will never stop. That includes wires, such as electrical cords, drywall, cables, as well as support boards. Aside from chewing, mice have a tendency to leave behind urine as well as droppings and serve as markers for other mice. This waste abundance can lead to contamination of food and spread various diseases.
Diseases
Mice are well capable of spreading of spreading diseases. One of the diseases that mice bring is called the Tularemia. This is due to the bacteria that are spread by mice. This disease can be fatal and is characterized by skin lesions, fever, as well as lethargy. In addition, mice also spread leptospirosis, a bacterium that could affect the kidney function. Another disease is called the Rickettsialpox, which is like the chickenpox. Although nonfatal, it can bring utmost discomfort and is truly inconvenient.
Indeed, rodents are often responsible for a huge number of diseases although most of these are secondary and are due to contact with ticks, fleas, as well as other external parasites. It is thought that the mice are responsible, whether directly or indirectly, to most of the diseases among humans.
Getting Rid of Mice
So now that you know a lot of important facts about mice, you are probably too eager to chase them out of the house. As you know, they can destroy your garage walls and cause electrical fire if they end up accidentally chewing through the electrical wiring. And as stated, the droppings and urine of the mouse could make your family to be sick. And while it is easy for these pests to get to your house, it is a bit difficult to get rid of them, so here are some tips to help you.
- First of all, you need to keep all of the food sources in the house in an area that is not easy for the mice to reach. Basically, the key to stopping mice infestation is to stop feeding them. Or else, they will end up sharing your house and your food with you as well. Keep the food in sealed containers and make sure that they are very tightly closed. Above all, never leave foods in paper packages as the mice can easily feed from them.
- Keep your house as clean and tidy as possible. Even just a couple of spills that are on the table after dining can attract mice. These spills are an appropriate dish for mice so make sure that you clean off the table well right after eating. Never leave clothing in any corners of your home since this can make a perfect nesting place for the mice.
- Make use of peppermint oil to scare the mice away. The peppermint is just too intense for the mice and they will not get closer to any of it. The best way to this is to spray peppermint on cotton balls then place the cottons on your garage where the mice often love to dwell. You can also grow peppermint out of your house. This will sure keep the mice away.
- Close all of the possible entries of mice in your garage. As you know, mice are very tiny creatures and they can easily get into the small holes that are usually less than half an inch. You have to also make sure that there is absolutely no means for the rodents to get inside your garage or else, you will have to deal with mice infestation problems in your garage over and over again. If there are small holes, make sure that you cover these with the aluminum netting or perhaps, stuff the holes with steel wool.
- You can also consider using poison to keep the mice off your garage. This method is really effective but it is not advisable if you have small kids or pets in your house. Mice poison can be detrimental to the overall health of the pets and small kids.
- Make use of traps. Make sure that you choose appropriate traps since there are plenty of them. If you do not want to deal with mice corpses then you can make use of other traps. These traps catch the mice in a box. They can still get in, but they cannot get out of the trap.
- You can also make use of repellants to keep the mice out of your garage. But just like with traps, there are lots of mice repellants that you can find in the market today so make sure that you choose the most effective repellant.
- If you love cats, then go ahead, adopt one! Cats are certainly a big help against mice. Having cats at home can help to prevent mice infestation in your garage.
Using Traps
As stated, make use of traps. In fact, a lot of people use traps in capturing mice in the garage. There are several different kinds of traps that you can use and two of these are the spring traps and the glue strip traps. The spring traps however are hazardous for kids and pets so you have to be careful with using them. With this option, you will also need to dispose the mice and you might find it uncomfortable to remove dead mice from the trap.
The glue strip straps are the kind of trap where it will hold the live mouse until such time that you remove it. You need to either kill the mouse or transfer it to an area that is far from your home or garage. But if you are someone who does not want to hurt the animals, even if they are pests, this method may not be ideal for you as it causes the mouse to suffer. But for most homeowners, this is not an issue.