Rodent infestation of garages is a widespread problem in Southern California and across the United States. If you’ve found yourself facing the problem of a mouse or rat infestation n your garage, you may wonder what strategies are most effective when it comes to eliminating these varmints. There are different techniques you can use to eliminate rodents from your garage.
Eliminating Rodents From a Garage: Be as Proactive as Possible
You need to be highly vigilant about the prospect of a rodent infestation in your garage. The fact is that rodents in your garage nearly always means that mice and rats will be inside your home – if they are not already.
Proactivity when it comes to keeping rodents out of your garage is inspecting the interior and exterior of your garage on a regular basis for any evidence that rodents are about. “Regular basis” translates to monthly. Moreover, between concerted inspections of the interior and exterior of your garage, you need to continually be mindful of the signs that you’ve mice or rats on the grounds of your residence or inside your garage itself. These signs include:
- Rodent droppings
- Greasy trails (particularly near walls but even across the lawn leading up to a garage)
- Gnaw marks
- Scratch marks
- Squeals
- Scratching noises
- Scurrying noises
- Rodent nests
- Dried rodent urine
Mechanical Devices and Rodent Elimination
Mechanical devices remain the most widely recommended methods for a layperson to eliminate rodents from a garage. Of the mechanical devices that are available on the market today, the most effective is one that has been around for well over 100 years: the T-bar snap trap.
The T-bar snap trap is efficient in the manner in which it dispatches rodents that have infested a garage. In addition, this form of exterminating rodents actually is considered among the most humane methodology available. The T-bar mechanism results in the immediate death of a mouse or rat.
Poisons and Rodent Eradication
There is an array of different types of rat poisons on the market today that are suitable for use in a garage in some circumstances. At one end of the spectrum there are rat poisons that use arsenic as the underlying chemical to dispatch rodents. These types of poisons result in the near immediate death of mice and rats.
At the other end of the spectrum there are anti-coagulants. These poisons impact a rodent’s blood clotting abilities and will result in the death of a mouse or rat within about a week following ingestion.
The risk of poisons that act virtually immediately is that they can also be fatal to children and pets. Thus, if you have children or pets in your residence, these types of poisons are not recommended for use when your garage is infested with rodents.
Anti-coagulants are not as risky to children and pets. They can be harmful and their use are not really recommended when there are youngsters and pets at your residence, near your garage.
Dealing With Droppings: Fully Restoring Your Garage
Once rodents have been eliminated from your garage, the final step in restoring it to a safe and sound condition is rodent dropping cleanup and the removal of other waste left in the aftermath of a mouse or rat infestation.
Rodent droppings can be toxic because they have the capacity for containing bacteria and viruses that have the potential for causing illness in humans, including serious and even fatal conditions. Thus, when it come to fully restoring your garage following a rodent infestation, the rodent dropping cleanup process begins with the use of appropriate personal protective equipment or PPE. The only way in which a person who cleans up rodent droppings can ensure his or her safety and the safety of others is by donning this necessary gear.
Once rodents are out of your garage, and PPE is in place, the first step in the rodent dropping cleanup process is saturating feces with a sanitization liquid. You can prepare this solution on your own or purchase a commercial product. You make your solution on your own by combining 1-part chlorine bleach with 9-parts water.
The sanitizing solution can be sprayed on the feces (as well as on rodent nests). Once saturated, the droppings and nests should be allowed to soak for about 20 minutes. At that time, the droppings and nests can be cleaned up using rags or paper towels. The droppings, nesting material, rags, or paper towels are then disposed in a durable plastic bag. You need to confirm that your community and garbage collection service permits the disposal of this type of waste in the regular flow of garbage.
Once the droppings and other waste are removed, the sanitizing solution should be applied to the contaminated areas once again. In this instance, the solution can be allowed to dry where applied.
Finally, there may be an issue with foul odor in the aftermath of a rodent eradication in your garage. As a result, you may need to utilize a commercial-grade deodorization agent.