Keeping mice and rats out of storage sheds

I have little ground squirrels that look like chipmunks that get into everything!  Antelope squirrels.

I had to build a bunker garden.  Dug down two feet and surrounded it with metal siding.  They still dug under that!  So I dug out all of the garden dirt and put metal wire mesh under the entire thing.  Waiting to see how that works!

I have found that mice and chipmunks can't climb through lemon grass.  I think it is too sharp.  In Arizona lemon grass will survive and thrive in intense heat.  I am starting a lemon grass boundary around my larger garden area to see if this will deter them.

It is a constant battle!  

No more rats this month. I think he was just a hiding straggler. I think it's fixed now.
John S
PDX OR

Cole Tyler wrote:In summary, yes I basically live in a storage shed.

i feel you and this is the vibe homesteading no matter how nice you make it your practically camping we pretty much spend most our time outside excepot for winter so its all about survival & comfort not aesthetics.

on the subject of mice, there is a reason there are conspiracies that believe they are controlling us because they are so darn opportunistic its incredible of all the animals out here in the forest there are somewhere at the top of the food chain lol

human traps become even less humane that regular traps, glue traps should be illegal and i think if your going to resort to any kind of bb gun just usa a regular trap because they work 100% of the time, kill instantly 90% of the time and you wont be spreading blood and guts on your countertops!

our mice are beautiful field mic but they belong outside, in the kitchen its war.

In the garden I get they coming and eating the fresh tops of the seeds when they are sprouting and i really am at a loss for what to do except clean and remove things fro they to take cover under around the garden. I have my seed shed secured and yes honestly you dont want any question about possible gaps because one a mouse gains access and spread it around more mice with come and then snakes and coyotes advertising to the other animals, I had a bear just straight run off with a whole trash can of chicken feed so yeah that is locked down like fort knox.

I had been rat-free for almost a year.  Then with the cold and the storing of apples in the fall, I thought I'd heard something.  I saw apples getting eaten.  I looked at the old, soft plywood floor and noticed a small hole in it.  I blocked it, but the next day, I noticed a big hole in it.  Uh Oh!

I realized I couldn't just put more soft wood there, and the door had to close. It was by the door.  What am I going to do? I went to the nearby restore and bought a cookie sheet for $2! It seemed to work temporarily, but the ends were rounded and it went up on all four corners.  That seemed to beg temptation to the critters to nibble around it.  I got out the hack saw and flattened it and cut the rounded edges off, so it was a rectangle.  That seemed ok, but it felt like it could move.  I put two bricks on the edge of it.  Now I knew they couldn't move it.  

However, the other day, I saw what I thought was a juvenile rat, crawling along the top shelves.  I had trapped him in the tool shed!  I set out mouse and rat traps. Yesterday I think I caught him.  I threw him in the trash and now I'm crossing my fingers that I'm once again rat-free. I've neither heard nor seen any critters since.

John S
PDX OR

Yes, every fall we have rat pressure in a number of places. Which is why I need put, "clean and re-set mouse and rat traps" on my list for tomorrow!

If you decide on traps the tube traps baited with peanut nutter work best for me.

I did catch another one about two weeks ago. I noticed that I hadn't really closed a hole in the tool shed garage door opener.   The rat company is coming tomorrow. We'll see.
JohN S
PDX OR