Mouse proof your garage

7173Mustangs.com

Help Support 7173Mustangs.com:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Feb 2, 2014
Messages
376
Reaction score
124
Location
Canfield, Ohio
My Car
1971 Mach I
OK guys, if you are into cars, I sure that you have a garage or workshop were you store / keep your cars.  With that said:

1) Have you ever had mice in your garage?

2) Short of placing a cat inside full time, how did you get rid of the little devils?

Any and all suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks!!

Mac

 
step one - find and seal all possible entry points. Mice can enter via very small holes. Stuffing steel wool in the hole works great as the mice will try to chew through what you put in the hole and the steel wool will cut them up and they wont come back.

step two - traps, I use the sticky kind with a little bait on it and have them in corners and such.

step three - don't leave doors open

I live in the country near several farms and the mice come running for shelter in the late fall and the steel wool is the only thing I have found that keeps them out, I tried expanding foam but they eventually chew through that.

hope this helps out

 
We have to use rat / mouse poison every year in the fall or we get over run in the house & garage. I don't really like the idea, but it is the only thing we found effective. Traps of any kind just don't cut it. We live in teh country and as soon as it starts to get cold they move in.

Worse part is that we usually have at least one that will die in a wall, or closet, or somewhere else that really stinks up the place for a week.

 
I use the steel wool and sticky traps as well. I try to avoid poison that they eat as mudbilly indicated they end up dying somewhere and stink the place up as well as often time stain the surface they die on. Do not want them dyng in the car.

 
I use the electronic repellents and I keep corn for deer in garage and no mice yet. Garage is 4,000 sq. ft. and I have doors open a lot so they can just run in behind my back, lol.

There is a quite effective mouse / rat trap that is free. If you go to youtube and search for mouse trap or coke bottle mouse trap there is video showing. You need a large bucket maybe 5 gallon, steel rod or tube, old plastic coke bottle and peanut butter. The rod is inserted through the cap on the coke bottle then the bottom of the bottle and the rod inserted in hole in the bucket. It needs to be able to turn free. Peanut butter on the bottle a ramp for the mice to go up. When they go out on the rod and bottle to get the peanut butter it turns and they fall into the bucket. Can put water in the bucket so they drown and can catch a bunch in one night, no reset.

If I do use a regular mouse trap I tie a rubber band on the trigger and put the peanut butter on it. They pull on the rubber band and WHAP.

I had more trouble with ground hogs had to take out 7 this year. I caught a couple by hand when they were small. Just grabbed them like you would a rabbit on back of neck. They go crazy. Will go see if I can get the link to the video showing the coke bottle trap.

Try this link.

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=yfp-t&p=coke+bottle+mouse+trap#id=2&vid=9c6b28ef0c6121ccbb8696b50f642b86&action=click

 
Last edited by a moderator:
The sticky traps are nice but I hate it when they are still alive when you check them. I use peanut butter on my snap traps. Use a very small amount or they trip it and don't get caught and then eat the rest.

I put dryer sheets in my car and in different areas around my garage. In the trunk, engine compartment, inside under the dash, on the seats etc. I also will cut up a bar of Irish Spring soap put it in plastic cups and put that in the same places. Supposedly mice don't like the smell of the dryer sheets or the Irish Spring soap.

I don't use the poison because I have dog's. I'm afraid they would get into it and it would kill them.

The upside to the dryer sheets and soap is it makes the inside of your car smell great for the winter [emoji16]

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

 
The sticky traps are nice but I hate it when they are still alive when you check them. I use peanut butter on my snap traps. Use a very small amount or they trip it and don't get caught and then eat the rest.

I put dryer sheets in my car and in different areas around my garage. In the trunk, engine compartment, inside under the dash, on the seats etc. I also will cut up a bar of Irish Spring soap put it in plastic cups and put that in the same places. Supposedly mice don't like the smell of the dryer sheets or the Irish Spring soap.

I don't use the poison because I have dog's. I'm afraid they would get into it and it would kill them.

The upside to the dryer sheets and soap is it makes the inside of your car smell great for the winter [emoji16]

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk
Another concern........... when the mouse eats the poison bait if a critter its the dead mouse it can die or get really sick as well.

 
I would think they would. I do not use the poison since my pup comes to garage with me a lot. I have to keep an eye out for antifreeze also.

If you read my previous post I use the electronic ones that you just plug in an outlet. I leave the trunks to my cars open and have had the garage for almost 5 years now. I keep the corn for the deer and turkeys and knock on wood never a mouse. 

The bucket of water with peanut butter on the coke bottle works and you do not have to reset. 

I do not think the dryer sheets works. My clothes dryer started taking forever to dry the clothes. I pulled the hose off and mice had built a nest inside coming from the outside. I use dryer sheets in every load and did not stop them there.

I have a huge snake in the old garage must be over 5 feet long. I found a skin last year and now I spend more time looking for the snake the the part I need. It keeps the mic eaten up I am sure.

 
My only dislike with the glue traps is when you get something friendly caught in them, particularly lizards or one of the good types of snakes. Then you have to take cooking oil to free them.

I do appreciate finding crickets, spiders and scorpions in them. Haven't caught a rattler in one yet, but people do.

 
I would think they would. I do not use the poison since my pup comes to garage with me a lot. I have to keep an eye out for antifreeze also.

If you read my previous post I use the electronic ones that you just plug in an outlet. I leave the trunks to my cars open and have had the garage for almost 5 years now. I keep the corn for the deer and turkeys and knock on wood never a mouse. 

The bucket of water with peanut butter on the coke bottle works and you do not have to reset. 

I do not think the dryer sheets works. My clothes dryer started taking forever to dry the clothes. I pulled the hose off and mice had built a nest inside coming from the outside. I use dryer sheets in every load and did not stop them there.

I have a huge snake in the old garage must be over 5 feet long. I found a skin last year and now I spend more time looking for the snake the the part I need. It keeps the mic eaten up I am sure.
I guess I'm going to have to invest in one of those electronic types. The dryer sheets and Irish Spring seemed to do the trick last winter? Seems I only get mice in the fall when it starts to get real cold.
All I ever get in my sticky traps is mice. I'm in Michigan so no lizards or scorpions. Although years ago my German shorthaired pointer jumped up on my bench to get a mouse that was stuck in the sticky trap. It wasn't pretty. The motor that I was working on had parts laid out in a specific order. When he was done they were spread across the entire garage floor.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

 
Had a similar situation with my Yorkie. I was told they were bred to get mice and rats? I believe it cause she wont give up getting anything that looks like one. She (LUCY) grabbed a mouse in the glue trap. She was proud as Heck to show me what she got. with the trap stuck to her head. Took forever to clean that  glued hair. She tried to get it off with her feet so.....they were glued to her head as well.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I use the electronic repellents and I keep corn for deer in garage and no mice yet. Garage is 4,000 sq. ft. and I have doors open a lot so they can just run in behind my back, lol.

There is a quite effective mouse / rat trap that is free. If you go to youtube and search for mouse trap or coke bottle mouse trap there is video showing. You need a large bucket maybe 5 gallon, steel rod or tube, old plastic coke bottle and peanut butter. The rod is inserted through the cap on the coke bottle then the bottom of the bottle and the rod inserted in hole in the bucket. It needs to be able to turn free. Peanut butter on the bottle a ramp for the mice to go up. When they go out on the rod and bottle to get the peanut butter it turns and they fall into the bucket. Can put water in the bucket so they drown and can catch a bunch in one night, no reset.

If I do use a regular mouse trap I tie a rubber band on the trigger and put the peanut butter on it. They pull on the rubber band and WHAP.

I had more trouble with ground hogs had to take out 7 this year. I caught a couple by hand when they were small. Just grabbed them like you would a rabbit on back of neck. They go crazy. Will go see if I can get the link to the video showing the coke bottle trap.

Try this link.

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=yfp-t&p=coke+bottle+mouse+trap#id=2&vid=9c6b28ef0c6121ccbb8696b50f642b86&action=click
Which electronic device are you using? There are many out there and I'd like to compare what I found to what you've had success with.

 

Latest posts

Back
Top