How to protect your garden sheds from pests and vermin

Having garden sheds can be great. They are a wonderful place to store your tools, pet food, and heavy equipment that you can’t find room for in your home. They also keep your valuables safe from break-ins and pickpockets. However, if you think your items are safe, you may be in for a big surprise. Human intruders aren’t the only problems you need to worry about with your garden shed. You also have to worry about non-human intruders.

Pests and vermin in your shed

While you may have your shed protected from the usual burglars, your biggest problem could be bugs and animals. These intruders are sneaky and will enter your shed without a care in the world. However, instead of grabbing your stuff and leaving, they’ll set up shop and make themselves nice and cozy in their new home.

Not only can this be aggravating, but it can also cost you a lot of money. These pests can damage your shed and the valuable interior. So how can you prevent this kind of thing from happening? Here are some steps you can take to protect your garden sheds from pests.

• Put any pet food you have stored in your shed in plastic containers. This type of food can attract pests like rats, mice, raccoons, and stray animals in the neighborhood. If you don’t want it to sneak into your shed and hide, it’s best to store this type of food in a container that eliminates the smell of the food and that can’t be chewed.
• Use insecticides in and around your shed. This will keep your shed free from a variety of insects. If the shed is made of wood, insecticides can prevent damage from termites, carpenter bees, and carpenter ants.
• Birds and bats are great for the environment. They eat insects and get rid of smaller pests. However, if they take up residence in your shed, they can be extremely annoying. With bats, there is always the possibility of rabies, so it is important to stay away from them. Prevent birds and bats from using your shed as their new home by keeping the doors closed at all times. Also, place colorful yard items around the shed and motion-generating items to scare birds and deter them from creating nests in and around your shed.
• Chipmunks are cute little creatures that love to dig. While they eat smaller creatures like salamanders and insects, they can also make your beautiful shed look bad by digging holes under it. Prevent these critters from living in or under your shed by surrounding it with gravel. If they still manage to sneak past you, you may need to use live traps so they can relocate to a different area.
• Groundhogs love to dig up and eat fresh vegetables in gardens and are often seen around garden sheds. Just like chipmunks, they will dig holes under the shed and make themselves at home. You can control the population of groundhogs by placing your garden shed away from your garden and surrounding it with gravel. If the groundhogs dig a hole under the shed, you can try to get them out and place a large rock over the entrance of the hole.

Humans aren’t the only intruders to worry about in your garden sheds. Take the time to protect yourself against pests like insects and animals.