Clearing Critters Out of Your Gate Operator

The inside of a gate operator with a mouse nest inside

As the seasons change, the insects and animals are moving into or out of your gate operator box. A few of the pests that could be plaguing your gate operator include mice, ants and wasps.

This is important to keep in mind as you’re heading out into the warm sunshine to work on your gate operator. You should take some precautions, such as grabbing some wasp spray, ant killer and dry leather gloves. The wasp spray and ant killer are self-explanatory, but the dry leather gloves may not be.

Keep Yourself Protected

Mice are often drawn to your gate operator in the winter due to its heat. One of the reasons the gloves are important is that if there are any mice still inside your operator, they might try to protect themselves by latching on to your finger or hand. The second reason the gloves are important is that while the mice were in your operator, they may have chewed through the coating on the wires. If your bare skin touches an exposed wire, you could be in a lot of trouble.

An exposed power wire inside a gate operator that a mouse chewed on

Before trying to relocate any pests that have taken up residence in your automated gate operator, you should always turn off the power to your operator and any other electrical boxes that could have exposed wiring. After you remove any inhabitants and debris, inspect the wiring for any bare spots or disconnected terminals.

Call in the Experts

Getting rid of these pests can be a very daunting task to do yourself. If you’re are not completely comfortable with doing this process yourself and are afraid of getting shocked, you should call in some professionals. Professionals will also be able to make sure that no wires are missing, because if even one is missing it could arc on board or anything that may need to be replaced.

A large wasp next at the top of the inside of an automated gate operator

As you or your professional open the operator enclosure, there may be pests inside other than mice. Remember the wasp spray? Those nasty insects may also have decided your operator was the best spot for their hive. Whenever you’re opening your gate operator box after a long period of time, anticipate that you might not be happy with what you find. Luckily for this customer, it was early enough in the year that the creators of this impressive next weren’t swarming around yet.

The key takeaway from this is to be careful when removing your operator cover for spring maintenance. You never know what may have moved in since the last time you worked on it.