Garage Invasion — a True Crime Story

by Robert Mumby

We moved from a high-rise building in Honolulu to a newly built home in a Phoenix, Oregon subdivision east of the freeway and had to learn subdivision living. In the summer the garage got very hot. I noticed our neighbor across the street didn’t fully close her garage door and decided that was the best way to reduce heat in our car’s home.

 Some weeks later our car was acting up. We took it to the dealer and the mechanic found some of the insulation on wires was stripped by chewing. He also found a mouse nest on the engine.

Our house was on the edge of the subdivision; behind was an irrigation canal, then a small hill with one of Phoenix’s water tanks on it. Next to our lot a maintenance road to the tank crossed the canal and went up through abandoned farmland with oak trees, bushes and grass. The road and bridge provided perfect access to the critters on the hill who came down to forage in the subdivision, the wetland and small stream that ran through the area. Some mice had moved into my garage, which I verified with a trail camera (see below).
                                                                                                                                  This is more open than ours was; a person could crawl in.

I bought a non-lethal mouse trap from the Grange Coop. Mice were caught and released the other side of the canal. Then I got careless and didn’t check the trap each morning. This gave the mice time to learn how to pull down the ramp blocking their escape. I returned to the store to purchase two lethal traps.
The corpses were left up the hill for the scavengers and in one
case given to a raccoon who enjoyed the meal.

                                                                           Deer Mouse in the garage caught by trail camera.

It took two weeks to clear the garage of mice. I asked my neighbor if she had a mouse problem in her garage. “No,” she said, “my cat is an excellent hunter; he has brought home mice, juvenile ground squirrels and birds. He always has access to the garage.”  Some of the other neighbors who also had opened their garage in the summer and/or had pet doors reported visits by raccoons, skunks and even by roaming cats

                             

This is a fancy solution to cooling their garage.

Fortunately, our garage had a side door. I added a screen door for ventilation, but there are other solutions. Some RVM cottage residents have placed a long screen between the door and the driveway. One even added a fan.

Cool garages are nice, but there can be risks involved.  Rats and mice can cause major damage to a car’s wiring or upholstery, and it’s pretty obvious why you don’t want a curious skunk exploring your garage.  In addition to the other critters roaming the RVM campus, keep in mind that a gap of a foot or more is enough for a person to squirm through — and screens that will keep other species out may not withstand a human intruder.

                                         

That looks interesting. Should I go inside?