Does peppermint oil spray really work to curb mice problem in home?

[399083453]

I use cotton balls with peppermint oil and put them around my mower engine to keep the mice away. The shed smells like peppermint for weeks. Smell is overpowering. No way I would put it in my house. Too strong.

But it does keep the mice away. So it works.

[pikabike]

Mothballs repel pests of all kinds. Be careful how you use them, though.

[KayAnn246]

I've had a problem with voles in my basement. I use an oil warmer and add spearmint or peppermint oil to it. I have a Wemo timer that I set the oil warmer automatically on in the morning until evening. It makes the basement smell good, it's stronger than cotton balls and it last longer. I add enough oil to cover the bottom of the warmer, add a few drops every couple days and refresh it every 2 weeks. It has worked.

[Corn-fused]

Yes, 100% pure peppermint oil does work because the smell is so pungent to them that they will eventually leave the area. You also need to make sure to continually replenish the peppermint oil.

However, do NOT use peppermint oil around cats. It can be very toxic for them.

The most important thing is to find all of the areas where the mice are getting in and plug them very tightly with steel wool or patch up the holes completely. Make sure to check inside cabinets or other areas where water pipes are coming in and patch those areas up as well.

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by irootoo

The oil did nothing for our mouse problem. We ended up using traps and stuffing steel wool where we thought they were coming in, and that worked. I hated using the traps though.

Like you, we tried other "more humane" ways to deal with our sudden mouse infestation about a year ago (within a few weeks of our cat dying, the mice appeared - apparently he was doing his cat job and we didn't even know it!).

We ended up just going with the cheapest mouse traps (they were also the most effective) and we also found where we thought they were coming in (dryer vent) and we replaced the vent with a new one that's supposedly mouse proof, and apparently it is.

Note to OP - you CAN get the sticky traps, which I generally think are very inhumane, but if you catch a mouse on one, you can get them off by pouring corn oil on the trap and the mouse can then get free. You can take the mouse far away from your house to let it go. I mean, honestly, it's a lot of trouble and you have to check the traps often or the mouse will sit there stuck on it for a long time which is cruel - much more cruel than a sudden and swift death while he's happily munching on some peanut butter.

Another thing that I've used in the past, which does work, is that mouse food with the poison in it, that dries them up so they don't smell bad when they die. But yuck.

Actually all of it is yucky. Good luck and I'm sorry you're dealing with this.

[CatwomanofV]

Originally Posted by Corn-fused

Yes, 100% pure peppermint oil does work because the smell is so pungent to them that they will eventually leave the area. You also need to make sure to continually replenish the peppermint oil.

However, do NOT use peppermint oil around cats. It can be very toxic for them.

The most important thing is to find all of the areas where the mice are getting in and plug them very tightly with steel wool or patch up the holes completely. Make sure to check inside cabinets or other areas where water pipes are coming in and patch those areas up as well.

I was about to post this but you beat me to it.

We had problems with mice-even with 3 cats. The only thing the cats do with the mice is play with them until the mice are so exhausted and we catch them and put them outside. I have a video of one of our cats with a mouse and it looks like she is petting it while another cat is just sitting there not doing anything. We put out peppermint oil BEFORE I knew it was toxic to the cats. They acted like they were on catnip.

What we did was get those electronic devices. They seem to work.



Cat