Do cats frequent your garage that often? Well, you’re not alone. Most people are struggling with the same problem and need help finding a permanent solution. And it’s a good thing you’re here to acquire knowledge to fix the problem.
The garage is the perfect place for stray animals. It’s calm most of the time and has several places animals can hide from street predators.
However, allowing cats to live in your garage isn’t a good idea. The cat might give birth to kittens there and make the garage uncomfortable for you. It’s also dangerous to have cats moving around or give birth in your garage.
The cat or her kittens could die, and you know how hard getting rid of a decomposing animal can be.
The good part is you can prevent this from happening. You can make it impossible for cats to enter your garage.
In this article, you’ll learn how to keep cats away from your garage and more. Keep reading!
Read: 15 Clever Ways to Keep Birds Out of Your Garage (And Why Birds Like Garages)
Why Do Cats Like To Hide in the Garage?
Not only in garages. Cats can hide anywhere. They have the habit of hiding in places considered safe and calm. That’s why you’ll often find them curled up under your bed, closet, and drawer, cardboard boxes left idle for long and other weird places.
Here are reasons why cats enjoy hiding in the garage.
Cats like the quietness of the garage
Cats’ admiration for quiet places is no secret. When they come across a quiet place, their instinct quickly tells them that it’s safe.
You might not be visiting your garage that often. Most people only enter their garage occasionally.
Cats don’t joke with their sleep, and that’s why they enjoy hiding in quiet places, such as the garage. Hiding in a quiet environment will allow them to relax or sleep properly.
A Handy Tip: Cats are not a fan of noise. When exposed to noise for a prolonged period (over 95 decibels), a cat can develop a hearing issue. A sharp and short noise, over 120 decibels, can damage the animal’s hearing ability too.
Garage feels empty and abandoned
Try removing all the items in your abandoned garage or room. Chances are you’ll encounter one or more stray animals. It could be a snake, rodent, or cat. Stray animals enjoy living in abandoned places.
What defines an abandoned place? It’s the nature of the materials left in there. For instance, if you have a car parked in the garage for months or years, it will start getting dusty. When this happens, insects and rodents might start to invade the car.
Cats can get in too. So, if you have an abandoned garage with numerous collections of items placed on top of each other, it’s time to tidy up the place. If you don’t, get ready to welcome cats and other animals into your garage.
Cats have a reputation for hiding most of the time. It’s their behavior. The garage provides diverse hiding places for them too.
The garage is a haven for rodents
If there’s a rodent colony in your garage, cats are one of the several guests that might visit you soon.
Cats are great hunters and enjoy testing their predatory skills from time to time. Domesticated cats may only hunt for fun most time. But you can’t say the same thing for a stray cat.
So, cats may prefer to hide in your garage to hunt rodents.
The garage feels safer
Whether domesticated or stray, all cats have a habit of hiding. A cat might also choose to hide in the garage for several reasons. A cat might choose to hide from predators or strangers. There’s a possibility that the cat isn’t feeling well too.
These creatures hide if they’re feeling sick. Why? They possibility do not want predators to find them in such a bad shape.
Cats hide in the garage to give birth
If you study cats carefully, you’ll understand that they don’t deliver anywhere. They have to observe and familiarize themselves with the environment before delivering.
After delivering, cats can leave their kittens to hunt for food. When they return, they want to find their young the way they left them. Thus, the best way to ensure that is to give birth to the kittens in a more secure environment.
7 Amazing Ways To Keep Cats Out of The Garage
Finding cats, rodents, etc, in the garage can be very annoying. You could be working under your car, and boom, the cat might run across you, causing a shock. There’s also a possibility of a heavy tool falling on top of the cat, leading to death.
Clearing a dead cat from the garage could be quite a chore. Even if the cats occupying your garage happen to stay alive, their poop will constitute a great mess and threat to your health. So, you must keep cats away from your garage.
Here’s how you can prevent cats from entering your garage.
1. End rodent invasion
If your garage is a den for rodents, such as rats, vermin, and mice, it will be difficult for cats not to show up. Cats hunt and feed on rodents. So, it would be impossible for them to stay away once they discover that your garage is an ideal place to search for food.
So, if you want to keep cats out of your garage, get rid of rats, mice, and vermin. When the cats come around and don’t find food, there’s a slim chance they would want to return to your garage.
2. Keep garage door shut always
If you’re fond of leaving your garage door opened or don’t always check to see that it’s properly closed before entering the house, be ready for a cat invasion soonest.
Most people are fond of doing this. They drive in, hit the garage door button, and enter their home while the door closes on its own. They don’t have time to wait and watch the door closing down gradually. And that’s literarily where the biggest mistake happens.
When you walk into your house without waiting to see the garage door close completely, cats could sneak in and hide in your garage. The best way is for you to stand right there, especially after pressing the button for the garage door to close.
Since you’re there, no cat would want to sneak in. Even if a cat does, you’ll be aware and know what to find it.
Additionally, it would help if you always inspected your garage door regularly. Don’t leave any loose ends. If you find out that the door isn’t closing properly, ensure you have it fixed before leaving for work or traveling out of town.
Read: How To Clean Sawdust Out of the Garage? (Steps to Follow)
3. Make your garage a bit noisy sometimes
If there’s one thing cats hate, its noise. Cats value their peace a lot, as noise poses a threat to their listening ability too.
At 120 decibel, even if the noise is short but sharp, it could damage a cat’s listening ability. No animal wants to trade its hearing ability for shelter when there are tons of places they can stay in.
So, if you want to keep cats out of your garage, don’t make the environment too be quiet. Cats adore quiet places. It promotes good sleep and relaxation.
How do you keep your garage noisy without breaking a sweat? Get a noise oscillator. You don’t have to single, shout or jump around. This equipment will produce the noise level that will send the stray cat in your garage packing.
4. Make the garage look occupied
Cats are unique animals, and they enjoy living quiet lives. These creatures are territorial. Thus, if they have any slight idea that their kind has occupied an area, they have no choice but to pull back, in almost every case.
So, make cats feel they’re stepping into another cat’s domain when they step into your garage, even in your absence.
How can you make this happen? It’s simple.
Get the poop and waste of other cats, and place them in your garage strategically. When the intruding cat finds these items from another cat, it will stay off your garage.
5. Deploy cat repellant
Cats’ smelling ability is far better than humans’. Unfortunately, this complement is their undoing. It’s the reason you can send cats in your garage packing without breaking a sweat.
When any intruding cat smells the repellant, they’ll run away. You can use scent-based repellant, as it happens to be the best at troubling cats’ nostrils.
6. Seal any opening leading to your garage
When was the last time you inspected your house? Perhaps, it has been long. That’s why you can’t even remember.
Today, create time to inspect the house. And if you encounter any opening leading to your garage or main house, have it sealed.
Please seal all openings, regardless of size. Cats can squeeze themselves through small holes or the most unimaginable places.
7. Dismantle any shelter around your yard
Cats are smart creatures. They may hide somewhere nearby, observe your movement, and look for any possible way to gain entrance into your garage.
If a cat is in the shelter or a den around your house when you drive in, she could speedily enter your garage and hide before you step down from the car.
So, ensure you don’t have any shelter around your yard that could harbor cats and other stray animals.
Conclusion
This article details how you can keep cats away from your garage, including why cats have the habit of hiding in garages.
So, if you’re battling cat invasion now and then or have stray cats roaming your yard, use the techniques highlighted in this post to keep them away from your garage.
Letting cats stay in your garage could be dangerous for them and you. However, if you find a stray cat in your garage, you can send it away or take it to an animal shelter.