How should I store my range cooker in the garage without a family of mice setting up their family home in it?

[Igloo71]

We moved house a couple of months ago to a doer upper in the countryside and brought our range cooker with us. It's currently in the garage and we'll probably need to store it there for at least a year, maybe up to two years, whilst we do some building works and renovations.

But the mice! I'm sure they'd love to scurry all over it, maybe build a nest in the grill pan, poo all over the hob. So after I have it professionally cleaned, I want to wrap it up in something mouse-proof. Any suggestions?

If you're moving to an older house - from the sound of it - in the countryside, you'll likely have rodents of all descriptions a-plenty everywhere. I'd be aiming to bring them under control and to have the cooker professionally cleaned and serviced again before/during its final installation. You can wrap up the cooker during its time in the garage but then you'll just have the rodents elsewhere instead.

You could try putting some cotton wool balls soaked in peppermint oil in it. Might mean your roast dinners taste a bit minty afterwards though...

Thank you both. The mice are being dealt with and we'll be keeping up to that over the winter and beyond. I was wondering what would be appropriate to wrap up the cooker in? Thinking now maybe wrap initially in a layer of brown paper/card, then shrink wrap it? Shove a bit of peppermint oil cotton wool pads in for good measure!

Not an answer to your question but - we live deep in the French countryside and a mouse got into the back of our range cooker, chewed through a wire and fused the electrics (the mouse wasn't very well afterwards either). The technician who came out said, "Oh don't worry, it happens in all the best restaurants".
I have used the smelly things you put in a tumble drier to keep towels soft to deter the mice and always set proper traps that kill them straight away.
I would think that the heavy-duty plastic covers for garden furniture would work for the cooker.

Cleaning the thing properly will be half the battle. Mice like places which are relatively undisturbed and which provide food and/or a nest. A dirty grill pan or oven, for example, would probably provide a mouse (well, a family of mice!) with enough nourishment for a very long time indeed.

Would you likely be in the garage regularly and could quickly check it?