We had mice problem in our house while ago, while the I wanted to get rid of mice without killing them. Like any vegetarian, animal lover and compassionate person I was stumped on ideas how to do that as most solutions were somehow did not appeal to me, specially glue traps. I wrote about it in how to how to get rid of mouse naturally. before in detail post here at heart and mind.
While cold and rainy season started, I thought of seeing mouse sighting again after long time, so I had to learn more about mouse in general and repeat the compassionate process of getting rid of mice again. I think and hope this is last of we see any mouse in our house.
Learning about Mouse
Mice have been living along side of human for ages. There are so many type of mice and rats. One of the common problem many people have in city or in rural setting is having a mouse or rather large mice problem. Before you learn how to get rid of mouse, learning a bit more about them would be useful thing to do.
Mouse and Rats are some mammal that belong to order of rodents. There are so many type of mouses, the most common is called “house mouse”, field mouse and white footed mouse along with other types.
Some kids and school have kept mice as pets at home or in science lab. Mice’s natural enemy are cat, fox, snake, some dogs and bird of prey. Many pet store sells infant mice for food for pet snakes as well.
Mice are naturally nocturnal, meaning most active during night time. They have bad eye sight but they keep them self by keen hearing and smelling talent from predictors. Unless you have a mouse as pet, it is not funny to open up a kitchen cabinet to find mouse jumping or running over you. No one is immune to having a mouse in house, not even Prince William and Princess Kate, all of us can have mouse problem sometimes or the other.
Top reasons you do not want mouse or mice in your house:
They damage the furniture, electronic wires and walls in your house.
They eat and damage the food in your house such as from seeds to crackers and more.
They spread dies ease to human through their feces and parasites.
They multiply very fast, meaning in no time you can army full of mice in house if not properly taken care of.
How To Get Rid of Mouse Naturally
There are many ways to get rid of mouse from your house. Instead of cruel glue traps and poisoning them, we can get rid of them humanely and naturally as possible.
Here a few ways to get rid of mouse naturally:
1. Seal Entry to the house.
2. Fill wall holes with steel wool, as mouse can not chew through it.
3. Try humane live traps to catch and release in wild.
4. Try peppermint oil or mint for detterent.
5. Some people have success using moth balls as mouse do not like its smell
6. Get a cat in house.
7. Try electronic pest beeps to keep them away.
8. Cover and seal all food in tight lid containers.
Have you seen a mouse up close? When you are least expecting it? It happened to me once, as I was cleaning out a shelf in my garage, something black and furry jumped over me. I was startled and screamed like any girl would do. That was small tiny mouse, who hid behind the shelf quickly. That was the first time I ever saw a mouse up close. For days, I thought he (don’t ask me why, I thought mouse was “he”) stayed in the garage but one day, and I thought of my self kind enough to co-exist as long he stayed in the garage and did not bother me or kids inside the house.
One day, I saw a mouse running behind sofa in the living room and then I saw another in the kitchen. So, I knew I had two mice at least. I thought it was okay if they stayed in garage, but not inside the house as I am so scared of mice and cockroaches. But once they moved in the house and started running around my counter and behind the shelf, I was out of my wits. I had to found some solution fast with compassion.
Looking for Solutions:
I got my brave self out during day time to do research on how to get rid of mouse in house. I was shocked to see many cruel and inhumane ways to get rid of mouse and that did not appeal to me. I wanted to get rid of mice naturally, live and without hurting them. Was it possible? Yes, I found a few ways to get rid of mice naturally. Will it keep them out? I am not sure, but I am hoping it does.
I am sure, I am not the only one with mice in house problem and want to get rid of mice naturally, so I thought of sharing my research and finding here to help those you are in similar situation.
I have 2 years old and 6 years old boys at home, my 2 years puts almost everything in his mouth so whatever I find has to be safe, non toxic and contain in box.
I myself did not want to kill the mice, so I had to find natural ways
Cheapest thing I found was glue traps. Please do not use them, it is horrible and cruel. Mouse gets trapped in glue and can not escape and snap trap sometimes does not kill them instantly and it is horrible to any living being.
There are poison tablets or poison in food for getting rid of mice but sometimes they die inside the wall and you will have a stinky house and fixing and finding that odor with breaking down walls would be very expensive and inconvenient to say the least.
When I called the pest control to find natural ideas, they were no help. They suggested that I should “tent the house” as I said I have 2 mice, they concluded that I had a large mice infestation. It is similar to getting termite tenting where they put toxic chemical in your house under tent to kill anything living. The cost of tenting was about $800 and they did not guarantee that mice will not be back. Even if cost was free, I would not have done it as I did not want toxic chemicals and killing the mice.
So, did I find any solution? I sure did.
Natural Ways To Get Rid Of Mice
After unsuccessfully trying to find solution to get rid of mice from the house, I have a few sure ways to get rid of mice naturally and not come back. There are two important ways to do this, one is prevention and other is taking care of mice naturally without killing them.
1. Finding Entrance:
First of all, you need to find out where the mouse is coming from. House mice are tiny and they can get inside the hole as large as end of pencil rubber. The best way to prevent any future mouse coming in is to seal up all tiny holes from inside and outside. Many of these places can be found around the water pipes, heating pipes or cable wires are coming in or out.
We (Zenguy actually) used inexpensive Caulking tube to do the job. If you are sealing the hole around bathroom or water pipe area, you may want to use water proof or pool sealant to make sure it stays on.
2. Use Humane Mouse Traps
There are many types of rodent humane traps, here are two types that I like, pick the one that works for you. Sometimes buying 2 types of humane traps works. Why? Mice are smart creatures and once one is caught in one type of trap, other mice will avoid it and will not fall for it. So after some research we got 2 different types of humane mouse traps to catch mice before they got used to it and avoided it.
Benefit of Humane Traps: This humane traps are great for animal lovers. It keeps mice alive, it is humane and there are no toxic chemicals or dead mouse to deal with it. It is safe around pets and kids as well. Endorsed by humane societies and animal rights organizations in the U.S. and worldwide. How it works? It is very simple, we put some food that mice like to eat inside. Contrary to belief, mice does not like cheese, it is only in story books. What I found worked the best was peanut butter or chocolate chips (Yes, we also think we had sweet teeth mice at home!) and place it along the sidewalls where mice like to venture in to. Check it daily to see if you have caught a mouse as we do not want to keep scared mouse inside for too long.
Although it is not necessary, we also left little water and few shredded paper inside for little mouse. Once you know you caught one, you can take the trap wooded area, away from other homes to set him free. You can wash the trap and reuse it, until all mice problem is gone.
3. Fill the hole with Steel Wool:
Mouse can chew through almost anything, including plastic, boxes, clothes and so on, except metal like steel. Steel wool pads will prevent mice from using the hole to get back into your house. It will be also hard for mice to chew through it. Steel wool pads are one inexpensive and permanent solution to fill the mice holes around your house.
While there are instances where clean house have the mice inside it, generally keeping the house and kitchen area clean will prevent any mouse from coming and staying in. Put all food including seeds, pet food, grains and flour in tight lid container where it is not easy for mouse to get the food. If mice does not find food to survive, they will not stay inside longer and move on.
5. Keep your Trash enclosed
Our house was relatively clean but we found mouse droppings near our open trash cans where we may have some food leftover. Mouse can have strong smell of food and it will attract them near it. Empty your trash can everyday while you have mouse in a house or keep the trash can with lids where it might be hard for mouse to get to it.
Keep in mind, mouse can climb up with little help to counter top and closet cabinet as well, so do not think just because you have kept food high up, mice can not get to it. Keep everything securely closed.
Believe it or not, mouse does not like the smell of pepper mint oil as it is deterrent. The smell is simply too intense for rats and mice and they will try to avoid going near it. Another benefit of peppermint oil is, it masks the smell of other food which mice are attracted to.
Just remember to buy 100% natural peppermint oil and not the sugary synthetic one (that does not work). Just use a couple of drops on a cotton ball and put it under aluminum foil and poke tiny holes all around it. The reason for doing it is that once peppermint oil smells goes off (in week or so), mice will come and grab cotton ball for nesting material but mouse will not take it if it is wrapped inside a aluminum (metal) foil.
The best place to place these cotton balls are near heat vents, along the walls, behind furniture and so on. You can buy 100% pure peppermint oil at most health food store or amazon. I had hardest time finding it so I bought it here, and my house smelled like Christmas for weeks! It is a good idea to get little bigger size, as you may have to replace the cotton balls once the smell evaporates.
Other people also suggested using fresh mint to deterred Mice from house.
Electronic Pest Repeller AC powered Deluxe Electronic Pest Control Systems emit a child and pet safe variable soundwave pattern of ultrasonic frequencies to help remove pest such as mice rats chipmunks and squirrels. Satisfaction ensured. This is easy-too-use electronic pest control without hazardous chemicals or traps that get Rids home of mice, rats, and roaches by sending electronic impulses through home wiring. One unit is effective for 1 level of the average size home and it is humane way to get rid of mice and other pests. You can find more about it here.
If you have tried all the tips and you just simply want to get rid of mice for once and all then humane electronic zapper does the killing the mouse electrically in micro second. It works on the batteries and when mouse is caught, it blinks red light. You can catch small mice to large rat inside it. Smaller electronic trap is good for one or two mice, if you have large mice group like I did, then larger electronic mouse trap might be better as it can catch multiple mice in one time.
9. Get a Cat:
All though I was not going to get a cat for mice problem, it seemed to be working for many people who swear that having cat in the house has prevented mice getting inside the house for long. You make the call.
10. Moth Balls
Mouse somehow does not like Moth Balls Smell and they go away. This is natural solution that does not harm the mouse. It did not work for me as my house mice seemed to do okay with moth ball smell. It started to bother me and I discontinued using it. However, this solution has worked for many others so try it out as moth balls are inexpensive for trial.
Additional Products for Getting rid of mice naturally:
