What Will Keep Mice Away?

The best way to control mice at your home or business is to be proactive and keep them away in the first instance. There are some specific strategies you can employ to keep mice away. There are effective strategies that do not involve the use of potentially dangerous chemicals.

Keep Your Home or Business Clean

One of the most prevention strategies you can employ when it comes to keeping mice away is to maintain a clean home or business. Mice tend to be drawn to a residence or business in search of food. If you maintain a tidy home or business, mice are far less likely to enter the premises and remain.

A key component of this strategy is keeping food in airtight containers and away from potential access by mice. In addition, keep trash in tightly sealed garbage cans (both inside and outside of your home or business).

Peppermint Oil

You need not resort to potentially dangerous chemicals to keep mice away. Rodents do not like the sell of peppermint and will go to great lengths to avoid it. In addition, peppermint oil gives a fresh, inviting scent to a home or business.

Strategically using peppermint oil to keep mice away is easy:

  • Place a couple of drops of peppermint oil on a cotton ball.
  • Place cotton balls in locations at which mice are most apt to enter your home. (Do not forget the garage.)
  • Peppermint oil cotton balls should be replaced about once a week.
  • Consider growing peppermint plans near entryways to your home or business.

Dried Snake Feces

Rat and mouse droppings can be hazardous to your health. This is one of the key reasons why you need to keep rodents out of your home or business. The same cannot be said of snake feces.

Snake feces are a natural deterrent to rodents. Place snake feces near entrances to your home or business and at other locations where mice appear to travel or congregate.

As an aside, keep snake feces ways from kids and pets. You do not need a large number of snake feces to ward of mice.

Ultrasonic Sound

There are units available on the market today that emit an ultrasonic beeping sound that rodents despise, at least initially. Some rodents grow used to the sound over time and the device stops keeping them away. These devices are available online and at many home improvement stores in the brick and mortar world.

Commercial Organic Mice Deterrent

Many garden shops sell commercial organic mice deterrents. (These products oftentimes contain peppermint oil.) These products do not kill mice but repel them. Intended for use out of doors, they can create a perimeter around your home or business that keeps mice away.

Get a Cat

Theoretically, a cat can be an effective means of defending a home or business from mice. With that said, not any cat will do.

In order to be a “mouse,” a cat really needs to be trained by its mother to hunt mice. A kitten born to an indoor cat is not likely to be trained in this manner by its mother.

If you do not have mice in your house or place of business, the presence of a cat in and of itself may be more than enough to keep mice out in the first instance. In other words, even an indoor cat with no interest in being a mouser repels mice even when the feline is asleep.

Keep Trashcans Far Away From Your Residence or Business

The smell of garbage is attractive to mice. Another strategy to keep mice away is … keep garbage away. In other words, keep trashcans as far away from your house as possible. (In other words, don’t keep trash cans in your garage. Keeping trashcans in your garage only serves to invite mice to enter into the structure.

Birds of Prey

If you live in a less urban setting, attracting birds of prey to your yard can create a solid mice repellant. By placing appropriate nesting boxes on your property, you may be able to attract a bird like a barn owl to the area of your home or business.

Block Holes in Walls

Begin by sealing any interior holes you find in your home or business. This prevents mice from entering further into your residence (beyond the walls). Do not block exterior holes at the same time you address the interior ones. If you block them both at the same time, you eliminate a way for mice to escape the premises once the interior holes are eliminated. You most definitely do not want to contend with mice dying within the walls to your home or business.