Cheap and Easy Ways to Repel Mice Naturally

For a tiny critter weighing less than an ounce, just one mouse can certainly cause more than its weight in problems. If you're trying to get rid of mice, you've probably already noticed that many common ways to get rid of mice bring their own problems. Poison is dangerous to have around children and pets and traps mean having to touch a possibly disease-infected mouse in order to get rid of it. Even live traps create the risk of injury or disease. Ultimately, the easiest way to avoid problems with mice is to force them to leave on their own four feet. There are a number of ways to go about this.

Make you home less mouse-friendly
One of the easiest ways to get rid of mice is to get rid their reasons for coming. It's not just dirty, cluttered houses that attract mice; they only need a little bit of food and nesting material to make themselves at home. To discourage mice, remove all their food sources by storing grains, pet food, and other dry goods in metal containers. Make sure mice won't find nesting material by storing all soft, fluffy material like fabric, rugs and blankets in heavy plastic or metal boxes. Mice will even chew up cardboard, paper and lightweight plastics to make nests, though, so be sure you don't leave any lying around.

Herbal mouse repellents
Mice are said to hate the smell and taste of cayenne pepper, peppermint and cloves. Lightly soak some cotton balls in oils from one or more of these foods and leave the cotton balls in places where you've had problems with mice. Another option is to make cheesecloth sachets from dry cayenne, mint, and whole cloves and leave them in places where mice are, such as under beds and corners.

Ammonia
Ammonia is thought to get rid of mice because it smells like the urine of a possible predators. Fill caps from plastic bottles with ammonia and leave them out anywhere mice might be tempted to enter, such the pantry or under the sink.

Bounce fabric softener sheets
Although it may sound like the ideal stuff for mice to use in nest, apparently mice abhor the scent of Bounce fabric softener sheets. To use these to get rid of mice, just tuck the a few of the fabric softener sheets into crevices where mice are likely to enter the house and in food storage areas.

Annoying noises
There's a wide variety of electronic devices that produce ultrasonic sounds or create electromagnetic fields that are supposed to irritate small rodents so much that they run off your property screaming. In tests, though, these devices seem to get rid of mice only for a few days at most. That said, a lot of people claim to have success with them, so they may be worth the effort.

Commercial mouse repellents
These are typically quite similar to some of the natural mouse repellents you could make at home, but have concentration levels or combinations that you might not be able to come up with yourself.

Mouse Away Concentrate
Mouse Away Concentrate made by SomaTherapy is a blend of pure peppermint and spearmint oil. The company claims to have found just the right combination of the two to drive mice away as fast as possible. In any case, Mouse Away is one of the top natural mouse repellent products on the market.

Shake-Away Rodent Powder
Shake-Away Rodent Powder from the Shake Away company takes a different approach. Instead of using smells that are merely unpleasant to mice, Shake-Away uses smells mice have reason to fear. This natural rodent repellent makes use of scent of the fox and bobcat, the mouse's main predators, to scare mice from your property.

Fresh Cab
Fresh Cab made by Crane Creek Gardens is designed to keep mice out of small, enclosed up areas like R.V.s and boats, but works in closed-up areas around the home, too. The scented pouches are made from natural materials that produce a mouse-repelling scent for up to three months. The woodsy scent of the pouches is pleasant for humans, though, so Fresh Cab not only helps get rid of mice, but keeps the air and your stored items smelling fresh.

If the poisons and traps commonly used to get rid of mice don't appeal to you, there are still plenty of safe, clean alternatives for solving a mouse infestation problem. First, experiment with some of the homemade mouse natural repellent methods like mint and ammonia at try. If those don't do much to help you get rid of mice, give one of the commercial natural mouse repellents on the market a try.