When it comes to BBQ everybody loves it and enjoys it. But sometimes it becomes really hard for the person to maintain the gas grill and keep it safe from the mice. A gas grill is the best place for mice to live in winters because it can provide everything that mice need to survive. It saves the mice from the hard weather along which it has burned food attached to the grill. It also saves the mice from many predators so it is very likely to find mice in your grill especially during winters.
Other than being gross the problem with mice is that their urine and other droppings carry a lot of diseases. These droppings can be found anywhere on the grill including the cooking area and cause a lot of harm to the people that eat from the infected grill.
The severity of the infestation determines what kind of remedies you need to apply to get the grill in the best condition for cooking.
If there is a nest present in the grill it is better to get a new grill or otherwise you’ll have to make a lot of effort to get the grill back into the cooking condition. In other cases, if you just find the droppings in the grill you can just clean it up with care and you are good to go. During the cleaning stage, it is highly recommended to wear gloves and mask to avoid getting infected from any disease. The question that arises is how can we keep these animals out of the grill?
Here are some remedies for the problem.
Remedies:
Keep Clean the Grill
Food is the prime reason of attraction for the mice. In order to prevent the mice from getting into your grill make sure to remove all the food remains from the grill using the scrapers. Make sure to clean the cooking section first and then the rest of the grill so that any kind of smell of the food can be eliminated from the grill. You can also put the grill in the open air to get rid of any food smell that is remaining after the scrubbing of the food remains. This will prevent the mice from getting their attention towards the grill.
Physical Barriers to close off access to the Grill
There are few tips and tricks to make the grill hard to access for the mice by building some barriers such as using wood to block the access holes etc. Here are a few of the physical barriers that you can build to make the grill difficult to access.
- Try not to use a BBQ cover. This technique will make the grill not so better place to stay for the mice as there will be no protection from the weather and wind. If you want to use a BBQ cover for any reason then try to go for a zippered BBQ cover because that makes it difficult for the mice to climb up.
- Move the grill away from any kind of fence and wall. Most of the time mice use the fence or the wall to leap into the grill so moving the grill away from any of these things makes it less likely for the mice to get into the grill.
- Create wood barriers in the holes that are not likely to heat up. It is impossible for the mice to cut there way through the wooden barrier so blocking off any of the major holes using the wooden barrier can significantly reduce the chances of mice getting into the grill
- Store the grill inside the house/garage after use. It becomes very hard for the mice to get into the house or garage so storing the grill there can protect the frill from mice. But before storing the grill inside the house make sure to clean the grill properly and remove any kind of burned food from the inside of the grill.
Using Repellents
Repellents make it difficult for the mice to stay in the place. So it is a good idea to use repellent in order to get rid of mice. Few of the repellents are mentioned below
- Mouse Repellents: These repellents are available in commercial markets and are very effective.
- Cloves: It is reported that the mice hate the smell of cloves. So using cloves as repellent can be a very good idea but you need a good quantity of cloves to make the grill fill with there smell
- Cat Fur: Cat fur can also act as a repellent due to the smell. The smell makes the grill an uncomfortable place to stay hence making it less likely for mice to stay.
- Mothballs and Camphors: These can also act as repellents but they are not the best ones due to the hazards that they can cause.
- Poison: You can use poison to keep mice out of the grill but it is not a good option if you have other pets in the house or maybe kids. These poisons can be very harmful to other animals as well so be very cautious while using these.
You should be very careful when using repellents. Make sure to clean the grill before and after the use of repellent. Cooking the BBQ before removing off the repellent can ruin your BBQ experience.
Traps and Ultrasonic Pest control
You can use traps to catch or kill the mice depending on the type of trap you use. It is recommended to use the Live mousetrap or the mouse snap trap to catch or kill the mouse. Avoid using the mouse glue trap which glues the mouse and traps them until they starve to death which is not a pretty sight.
Ultrasonic pest control is also a very better option to go for. These devices generate ultrasonic sounds waves that are very irritating for the mice but these waves are outside the audible range of humans. It is also a pretty better solution to the problem.
You should heat up the grill properly before using it to cook. According to a report, a temperature of 150 F can be enough to kill most of the bacteria and viruses on the grill. Grilling the chicken between 150 and 160 F can also kill most of the bacteria without sacrificing the quality of food.