Your garden or yard could actually offer you the best barrier as far as mice and other rodents are concerned, and you might be surprised to learn that some of the expert tips are actually very simple, won’t cost you anything, and are much more effective than most repellents, deterrents, and other expensive rodent control options on the market.

To be honest, most of it is down to simple common sense ... but only when you know the critter you’re up against.

In order to keep mice out of your home, you’ll need to keep them away from your property. If they’re already hanging out in your yard, they’re probably already inside your home.

Mice need plenty of cover to move around, and they’ll always choose to move around close to walls, fences, buildings, etc. Wide, open spaces are dangerous — other animals (predators) can easily see a mouse moving around in the middle of a wide expanse, especially when you consider that some of those predators are in the air — owls, hawks, eagles, etc.

If there is no ground cover to protect the mouse, it will be less likely to want to travel across the space. That’s the first tip — clean up your backyard!

Make sure that there is nothing in the first couple of feet around your actual property. Plants in beds around the exterior wall can offer plenty of animal protection. Those plants can also be used as a partial covering for a burrow, which means that mice might only be the tip of the iceberg as far as pest control is concerned.

Removing all garden debris not only removes all of the places that a rodent would use to hide and move around, but it also removes the places these animals could create nests in, and also some of their food sources, too. You should ensure that nothing is left at ground level — wood piles, compost heaps, and even chicken coops raised off the ground. This makes it difficult (although not impossible) for rodents to reach them. You should also make sure that none of these areas are too close to your home. They are prone to attracting rodents, and that leads them right to the building itself.