How Do I Keep Pests Out of My Garage?

Short answer: Your garage is the easiest way into your house, and most of what draws pests there is fixable in an afternoon. Check the door seal, get stored items off the floor and out of cardboard, and put anything edible in a sealed bin.

Think about how your garage actually gets used. The big door opens and closes all day. Stuff gets stacked against the walls and left for a year. The trash cans live there. It is warm, dark, and quiet, which is exactly what a spider, a cricket, or a mouse is shopping for.

Start with the big door

Lie down on the floor of your garage with the door closed and look at the bottom edge. If you can see daylight, so can the bugs, and a mouse can use that gap just as easily. The rubber seal along the bottom wears out, cracks, and gets chewed. It is a cheap part and a quick swap. Check the side and top edges too, plus the small door if you have one.

Cardboard is a hotel

A stack of cardboard boxes on the floor is about the nicest place a roach or spider could ask for. Cardboard holds moisture, gives them tight spaces to hide, and mice love to shred it for nests. Plastic bins with snap lids fix most of this. Get them up off the concrete onto shelves if you can, and leave a few inches of space between the stuff and the wall so you can see what is going on back there.

Watch the food

People forget that the garage often holds more food than the pantry does. Pet food, birdseed, grass seed, a spare freezer, and the recycling with sticky cans in it. Everything edible goes in a sealed container. Rinse the cans. And when you roll the trash out, wipe down the can and the spot where it sits.

The ten-minute garage walk

• Look at the bottom seal on the main door from inside, with the light off if possible
• Check where pipes, wires, and the water heater lines go through the wall
• Move one stack of boxes and look behind it for droppings, webs, or shed skins
• Fix any leaky hose bib or drip, since damp corners bring roaches and crickets
• Keep firewood and mulch a few feet away from the outside wall

If you find droppings or gnaw marks, read about how mice get in during the fall before you start sealing things up.

When the garage keeps winning

Sometimes you do all of this and still find spiders by the window. That is normal, because a garage is never going to be sealed like a living room. The goal is fewer, not zero. A good residential pest control plan treats the outside edge of the garage so the bugs have a harder time getting to your door at all.

Garage turning into a bug zone?

We will walk the outside of your home, including the garage, and tell you straight what is going on. Call or text us at (205) 855-7975.

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Why are there so many spiders in my garage?

Garages are dark, quiet, and full of hiding spots, and the insects spiders eat wander in through the door gaps. Cut the clutter and seal the door and you will usually see fewer.

Should I store things in cardboard boxes in the garage?

Plastic bins with tight lids are better. Cardboard soaks up moisture, hides roaches and spiders, and gives mice nesting material.

Can mice really get in under a garage door?

Yes. A worn or missing bottom seal leaves a gap that is easy for a mouse to squeeze through, so check it first.