During the colder months, mice and other pests like to find areas to stay warm. There is no better place for these rodents to hide than pole barn homes. Many of these pests carry diseases and can destroy parts of your pole barn. They will tear through electrical wiring, and can even start fires.
Once you have pests in a building it can be very hard to get rid of them. The best thing you can do is to prevent this from happening in the first place. Here we will go over some of the best ways to prevent unwanted guests from entering your pole barn.
Eliminating Entry Points in your Pole Barn
The first things first are to make sure your pole barn is locked down. Rodents can climb and jump. They can even squeeze through holes, smaller than a dime. This is why being thorough is very important. Walk around the perimeter of your building and look for light coming through. This is a great way to get started. The most common place to find holes is near the floor of the building, doors, and windows. To take care of the gaps you can do the following:
- Add weather stripping to plug holes around your doors and windows
- Caulking or using expanding foam to seal around doors, walls, windows, and the foundation.
- Apply a sealant to cracks in the floor and walls.
- Caulk around your drains, pipes, and vents.
- Stainless steel hardware cloth can be a great barrier if added around the perimeter of the building.
If everything above does not work, plugging holes with steel wool is often effective for keeping out larger pests. They will be unable to bite through it, and it is very irritating on their skin.
Keeping your building clean
There are two things that pests are looking for when they enter your building. Food and shelter. The more things you have in your building the more places pests go to hide. Keeping your building clean is the most effective way to avoid pests entering your building. Get rid of firewood piles, cardboard, storage boxes, and other piles of junk.
Also, eliminate anything that can be considered food from your building. The first thing to eliminate is the food you would eat, any snacks or food storage should be taken out of the building immediately. On top of that, however, is anything else a pest might consider a meal. Things such as grain, feed, or bags of rice. Even seed, nuts, or pet food can be potential meals for a pest. If you need to store this food in your building, consider sealing it using totes, or plastic storage containers. These will be difficult to bite through compared to plastic bags.
Build with prevention in mind
If you are looking to build pole barn homes, or storage sheds, contact the pole barn experts at Tru-Bilt builders today. We would be happy to help you build the perfect building to fit your needs!