Storing an awning in the shed

We store our awning in the caravan too. 

We stored our awning in the garage with no problems.  Just store your awning in the shed and put a couple of old fashioned mouse traps on the floor.  If any mice get into your shed, they won't last long enough to do your awning any harm. 

K  

We keep our awning in the caravan.  But if you want to make absolutely sure it's safe, then buy one of those very large plastic storage boxes with a lid and pop it in there, making sure that it's absolutely dry first and then put it on a shelf in the shed!

As a professional pest controller of some 30yrs, I have to agree with papgeno. Given the right circumstances, mice can, from a single pair , reach a population of 2,500 in a single year! - that’s some gnawing potential. They also carry numerous diseases like leptospirosis which is a killer- they are no friend of man believe me- I’d love a £ for every one I’ve helped out of this world!! 🤣🤣 Use snap traps!!  I would never leave an expensive awning in the garden shed without doing some serious ‘proofing’ first. You are quite correct to be concerned about mice- they can squeeze into a 6mm gap and will do to avoid the winter cold and an awning would chew up just brilliant!! They are some of the best climbers in the animal kingdom. The House Mouse ( (mus domestica) is one of the most successful rodents on the planet. I keep my kit on racking in a store but the store is baited heavily and traps are employed. It is mouse proof. I made the mistake of leaving my caravan cover in our covered drive for a couple of months last winter and now it’s more breathable that the manufacturers intended!! If you have nowhere else to store it then inspect your shed carefully and using metal strips, mouse proof it as much as you can- you should be able to completely seal the shed from rodent ingress. Don’t forget to check the eaves of the shed- they will climb and find a way in at the top if they can. Any gaps can either be plated or stuffed with coarse steel wool. Over and above that buy some good quality bait and traps and employ them as a secondary defence. Don’t have your rack against the wall- mice can jump 12 ins!! and try to make climbing the racking impossible by using baffles! - or you could just stick it in a spare bedroom! 

Nothing to do with trying to eat these items Jen, mice are rodents and as such have to gnaw on anything that comes to hand to keep their teeth from growing too large. Unlike us, the four incisor teeth continue  to grow throughout their lives and they would make it impossible for the mouse to eat if it didn’t wear its incisors down- hence- your chairs and electric cables(often leading to fires) although the modern trip boxes have helped enormously in that regard. The amount of damage these things do each year runs into tens of millions of pounds. Let alone the food stocks they destroy! Everyone- please don’t use ‘humane ‘ traps and think you are doing it a favour by releasing it in the garden- it’ll be back in the house before you are! And don’t drive for miles to release it on to someone else’s land-  it’s an offence against the Countryside and Wildlife Act. Use Snap traps or any of the ingenious traps on YouTube- there’s only one good mouse- a dead mouse! Although a cat seems to be an answer, it’s not- they will IMO catch a very small percentage of mice. The overfed over pampered moggy isn’t having to hunt to survive! 

Yes, they will take prey as large as rabbits but the smell Jen! The smell!!🤣🤣🤣🤣

FC, do you really think your ‘city dwelling Tree huggers’ will be tuning into CT to read the posts about awnings, sheds & mice, really?😂😂😂

Just  make  sure  there's  nowt  in  thee  pocket  then  Roger  !!

Hi there we have just bought a Kampa Air awning and just intend to keep it in the garage of the Motorhome .Have had motorhomes parked on the drive for many years now and haven’t had any visitors so far.I hope that’s not the kiss of death 😳

Brian & Jo

Good idea to put blocks in a rat bait station Brian. Lockable type preferably. Rats (Rattus Norvegicus) or the brown rat or common rat or sewer rat to call it by its other names likes to eat in a covered location because of it’s inbuilt fear of birds of prey, and would take the block back to eat in peace. Rattus Rattus is the Black rat or Roof rat which was responsible for the plague through the fleas it carried. They are very much the smaller and much less common species in this country now and tend to be more a coastal resident, having been oiked out by its bigger cousin. Goodness- the things you learn on CT 🤣🤣🤣. Anyway, well done with the traps which can be got for both Rats and Mice. However, rats suffer with neophobia- the fear of new objects - so don’t be surprised if it takes a few days for any new item placed in the rats ‘territory ‘ to be visited. I always found a 12bore very effective- they never argued! 😂😂

I was down at the storage facility a few years ago, probably cleaning the van. A bloke I know from down there who has one of these really expensive motorhomes, Niesmann and Bischoff is it, showed me a bottle of tomato ketchup with a dead mouse well and truly wedged in the neck of said bottle. 

The moral of this tale? Nothing is safe from infestation.

Yep, absolutely right. No one is safe from the scourge of rats and mice ABM, I couldn’t use a 12bore where I live either, I have a gas 7 shot air Theoben air rifle which has taken many a rat. I would like some night vision kit which can be very effective. The infestation I am thinking about with the 12 bores occurred on a farm and it was running - and I mean running - with rats. Great times were had by my son and yours truly as we dispatched the said vermin. Goodness knows what we spent on cartridges but it was worth it. Finished the job with baiting to clear the last few up- result- totally clear after a week of monitoring. Stay protected-put snap traps and bait your vans and MHs during the winter months. The damage these things can cause is horrendous. Remember to put polythene sheet under the traps for obvious reasons.