Mice live naturally outdoors, but sheds offer them with a place to hide from predators and poor weather. These pests however risk damaging your shed by chewing through the walls or gnawing on what’s inside. Once in a shed, mice will multiply quickly and leave a hazardous mess of grease and feces that could make you very sick. Luckily, there’s lots you can do to keep mice out. If you need help mouse-proofing, give Mouse Control Toronto a call.
The house mouse and the deer mouse are the two most common species of mice in Canada. While the house mouse is grey or brown in colour, the deer mouse is two-toned as it has a brown back and white belly. Both mice grow up to 10cm in length, with tails just as long. The average mouse’s lifespan is only about a year long, but mice that live indoors can live up to 3 years. Mice are known to breed quickly. One female mouse can produce as many as 60 pups within a year.
Mice are nocturnal mammals that are prey to many animals such as cats, owls, and snakes. To stay safe, they like to live in areas that provide them with many places to hide, like an overgrown yard or cluttered shed. Things like weeds, shrubs, fencing, piles of wood, and scrap machinery will attract mice to your property. As omnivores, mice are drawn to any food that is left out. This includes fertilizers, bird seed, garbage, vegetable gardens, and fruits that have fallen from trees. Sheds often make ideal housing for mice as they are close to these sources of food.
To mouse-proof a storage shed, you should first organize the contents of the shed to reduce clutter. Keep any organic material in sealed containers so that it is inaccessible to mice. Then, check the shed for any gaps or holes in the structure that could let mice in. It only takes a hole one quarter of an inch wide for a mouse to get in. Look along the sides of the ceiling and the bottom edges of the shed for any places where the structure may have warped over time and created gaps. Seal these up with silicone caulking, mesh wire, sheet metal, or concrete. On the outside, keep trees, shrubs, and firewood at least 4 feet away from the shed. Keep the yard tidy.
If you’re dealing with a mouse infestation in your shed, mouse-proofing is absolutely the first thing you should do to get rid of them and make sure they don’t come back. Once you’ve made the shed less attractive and blocked their entry, set snap traps along the walls of the shed and check them regularly. The mouse population should then decline. Remember that professional help is always available. Mouse Control offers effective mouse removal and mouse-proofing services. Call Mouse Control today (647-496-0492) and ask us about our warranties.
