How to keep mice away from your stockpiles

how to keep mice away from your supplies

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In the video above, Ed of Critter Control in Tampa Bay says you can get rid
of mice with moth balls, but there's a catch!

Cats, peppermint oil and moth balls all will help you get rid of
mice on your property, but they won't get rid of your problem.
You need a little more persistence and the following tips can help.

#4: Close off cracks, gaps and holes.
One of the most important things you can do is to make a barrier
between your preps and any crevices in your home. Mice and rats
can get into your attic, basement, garage or home in the smallest
spaces ~ wherever there is a gap or a hole in your wall you will
find mice can get through.

One way to close off your supplies is by using steel wool.
Pestplug Steel Wo ol, pictured immediate right, is a safe and
environmentally friendly product that will help prevent unwanted
pests and rodents from entering homes, buildings, RV's and many
different structures. Because of the sharp fibers in our stainless
steel wool, mice and rodents can not chew through it like many
other products.

It's up to you to survey your home to see where they can get into
your home:

Nooks and crannies. Whether it's the cable, the dryer or hot
water heater, you're bound to have some nooks and crannies
that are entry points to mice and you can keep them away
with steel wool. Mice crawl through unbelievably tight spaces
and steel wool will cut them up if they try to get through,
but they won't. It's an effective barrier.

Chimney. Cover your chimney with a screen.

Foundation. An easy way for mice and rodents to get into
your storage space is through cracks, gaps and holes. You
can fill odd spaces with steel wool or fill them with caulk,
cement or plaster.

Garage door. While a garage is not a good place to store
food, it's inevitable that you may store food there at least
for a short period of time. Mice can easily get under an old
garage door. One way to fix the problem if you don't want to
spend money on a new garage door or fix the foundation, is
to buy a two-by-four in the proper length of your garage.
This will be durable enough to provide a barrier. Of course,
you won't be able to drive your car into the garage easily,
but you probably aren't using your garage if you have the
problem anyway. Keep the garage doors shut!

Vents. Cover vents with a screen. Galvanized wire mesh is
ideal.

Windows. Be sure to seal the windows.

#5: Keep mice out of cardboard boxes.
Another way to keep mice away from your stockpile is to
minimize use of cardboard boxes in your storage spaces.
Cardboard boxes make cozy nests for mice, but if you have them
it's always best to keep boxes on storage shelves. If they are
high up, they are more difficult for the mice to nestle in them.

The solution is to substitute cardboard with glass, plastic boxes,
galvanized steel and other non-cardboard containers. Mind you
the mice can chew threw plastic, but at least they won't make
their home in your wares.

If you need to keep the cardboard boxes there's still something
effective you can do to keep the mice away. Stuff the boxes with
Bounce fabric softeners. Incidentally, bees and other bugs hate
Bounce fabric softener too.

#6: Store pet food in rodent-proof storage containers.
Mice and raccoons especially love dog food, so it's important that
you keep the garage closed and store your pet's food properly.

The best chew-proof storage container to keep the mice away is a
food safe galvanized metal dog food container. An even better
option is the Behren's Locking lid pet food because it will deter
raccoons.

#7: Use Mylar and food grade buckets.
It's important to say that mice can easily chew through buckets!
If they are hungry and they know that a reward is inside, they
will gnaw their way to a meal. Even so, food grade buckets are an
excellent deterrent.

The key to keeping mice away from your stockpiles is to secure
the food first in Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers. When it's
sealed properly in two layers (Mylar and a bucket) the mice won't
smell the food and won't find incentive to chew through the
plastic buckets.

#8: Store seeds properly.
It's important to keep all food sources away from mice and that
includes your survival seeds! While the survival seed vault, right,
will keep your seeds safe and secure from pests, you may have
already started your own seed saving project or need to transfer
seeds saved in Mylar to a rodent proof container.

For these other seeds, keep them safe. Don't keep seeds in paper
envelopes. Make sure to transfer them into a Mylar bag and then
a rodent proof container (glass or metal is best).

Do you have any seeds on the ground?

If you have fruit trees you do! Be sure to pick up any fallen
fruit on your property as these will attract rodents. Trim tree
branches and make sure shrubs don't overhang to the roof.
It's how mice and rats gain access to your roof.

If you have a lawn you do! While most preppers grow food
and not lawns, if you have a lawn you should mow it
regularly as mice use the seeds for food and the grass for
shelter.

#9: Use bungee cords on your garbage cans.
Another thing you can do is to keep mice and rats away from your
garbage cans. This will also keep the crows, raccoons and other
pests away. Use bungee cords to fasten garbage cans in between
sanitary service collection times.

Inspect your garbage cans for holes and replace if necessary.
Another thing you can do is to build a 6-inch platform for the
garbage cans, providing another barrier for mice and rats. Even
though your supplies aren't in the garbage cans, you want to
ensure they are far away from the temptation. Garbage cans will
lure them into your property.

#10: Get mousetraps.
There's more than one way to trap a mouse.

Tips on baiting mice:

Bait mousetraps side by side. Why? There's never more
than one mouse! Why get just one, when you can get the
other? Also, sometimes mice will jump over a trap. If you
have them side by side you can get the jumpers.

Place mousetrap along the wall. Setting traps along the
wall is important because that's the path that mice like to
travel.

A money-saving tip is to re-use the mouse trap. Why?
Because the dead mouse scent actually will attract the other
mice!

Build a better mousetrap.

Keep Mice Out of your Stockpiles
How to preppers control mice

Of mice and preppers...
Of mice and men. It's a parable of what it means to be a prepper.
One of the obstacles that seems to get the best of preppers are
mice. These pesky critters can get into our prepping stockpiles
and cost us hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. Mice bring
disease, like Hantavirus and other problems if you're not
prepared. Here's how to get mice out of your stockpiles...

How to Keep Mice Away from your Supplies
Mice on the homestead will be a problem when the stuff hits the
fan, but you can keep them away. Stop mice and rodents from
getting into your larder

Here's how you can keep mice away from your stockpiles...

#1: Get a cat.
What's tougher than a barnyard cat for controlling rats and mice?
Indeed the oldest method of getting rid of mice and rats is to get
a cat! Barn cats are a necessity if you have a farm; however, we
understand that not everyone wants a cat, nor is it practical for
everyone to own a can, so read on...

#2: Give Peppermint Essential oil a go!
Want to keep mice away naturally? P eppermint essential oil does
the trick. Peppermint oil is almost like poison for them. It literally
burns their nostrils and they will stay away. The good thing is
that it smells nice and it's non-toxic to humans. Peppermint
essential oil is great to have around the homestead if you're a
prepper.

How to use peppermint oil to get rid of rodents: Add a
couple of potent drops of 100% peppermint oil to a cotton
swab. A few well placed cotton balls are all you need. Set
them in the usual places, such as cracks in the wall, along
the corridors of the cement where they may scatter about.
You can also mix a tablespoon of peppermint oil to a cup of
water and spray, but be sure to have those cotton balls in
place as your major deterrent. You will need to keep vigilant
about this as a routine...so do this monthly.

Peppermint oil is also useful for keeping away ants, fleas and
spiders as well as mice.

#3: Try moth balls.
You may have heard that moth balls keep mice away. Do moth
balls really keep mice away? Yes, and they get rid of moths too!
You can keep mice away with mothballs quite easily, but there is
a catch. Find out in the video below. Thankfully moth balls are
inexpensive. You can get four packs of mothballs for around
$11.36 with shipping included.

Here's more about how moth balls can help you get rid of mice:

four packs of moth balls

Gamma seal lids with rings come in a variety of colors

5 Gallon Bucket + Gamma Lid

Gallon Mylar Bag Combo

combo set of mylar bags and oxygen absorbers

Pestplug Steel Wool

Should you eat a mouse or a rat?
There's one famous barefooted survivalist who plans on eating
mice and rats when the stuff hits the fan. We don't recommend it.

Aside from contaminating your food, there are many other
reasons to keep mice and rats away. Through the bites,
droppings, fleas, lice, mites and ticks of mice and rats you and
your animals can get quickly ill. Here are some of the illnesses
rodents cause:

Colorado Tick Fever. While Colorado tick fever is a virus
spread through bites of infected ticks, it's the mice that
infect the ticks. Ticks become infected virus when they feed
on the blood of chipmunks, mice, squirrels or other rodents.
There is no vaccine or medicine to prevent Colorado tick
fever.

Hantavirus. Hantavirus is caused by exposure to fresh urine,
droppings, or saliva of infected rodents. Hantavirus has a
38% mortality rate. The last U.S. outbreak of Hantavirus was
in Yosemite in 2012. Contestants of Alone who lived in
Patagonia were told not to eat the mice, which were plagued
with Hantavirus.

Lyme Disease. While Lyme Disease is a tick-borne illness
caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, but many
people don't realize that mice are efficient transmitters of
the disease. It's the mice that infect the ticks.

The plague. The plague is another disease spread by mice.

Salmonella. Salmonella is a bacteria food-borne illness,
often transmitted by mice and rats that contaminate food or
food preparation surfaces.

It's important to keep mice and rats out of your stockpiles not
only because they can get at your food but because they may
harbor deadly viruses and bacteria. The above are just some of
the illnesses preppers can avoid by keeping mice and rats out of
their stockpiles.

It's only natural you want to get rid of mice and now you can
do it naturally with Fresh Cab.
Frehs Cab is the only plant-based rodent repellent registered for
inside use by the Federal EPA and with a 100 day guarantee to
Work For You. Let down by electronic pest repellers? Sick of the
smell from using poisons? Tired of baiting traps that don't catch
the rodents? Fresh Cab has been used by farmers, truckers, and
homeowners nationwide to provide lasting protection against the
most challenging mouse and rat infestations. Effectively repels
rodents up to 100 days with a woodsy scent that you'll find
refreshing, but they'll find extremely offensive. So safe around
kids and pets, no safety warning is required on the packaging.
Environmentally-friendly - Fresh Cab is 98% biodegradable.

Happy endings...
Of mice and preppers there's one thing for certain: they don't
belong together. You'll be happier not having mice and rats
around, and now you know how to get rid of them.

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For Coronavirus information, please see the Centers For Disease Control Website s