Share on ThriftyFunThis guide contains the following solutions. Have something to add? Please share your solution!
When trapping mice using the spring-type mouse traps, place in a paper bag. When the mouse is caught, pick up the bag and discard. Also, the first time you set up the trap, add bait, but don't set the trap. The next time, set the trap. This will sometimes "fake-out" the mouse, and it may be more willing to go after the bait in the set trap.
Source: A friend.
By mkymlp from NE PA
This is a guide about getting rid of mice naturally. Using traps and poisons to rid your home of mice may not be something you want to do.
This is a guide about getting rid of mice in an apartment. Getting rid of mice in an apartment can be challenging, particularly since there are common walls and you are not completely in control of the situation.
There are a number of methods used to get rid of mice without the use of poison or traps. This is a guide about using peppermint oil for mice control.
Ask a QuestionHere are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community or ask a new question.
Last night my husband woke me up to tell me that we had a mouse. Now, I don't leave food out, and I consider my house to be clean but some how we have a mouse. So we put out several mouse traps with cheese on them and much to our suprise this morning the cheese was gone but we had no mouse. Now what do we do? Any one have any suggestions?
Shannon in NC
Hard cheese is easily removed by the mouse without getting trapped. Try using squeezable cheese or some peanut butter. The mouse will have to lick it and is more likely to get trapped. The mice come in the house through very small holes in the floor, like where your water pipes come in. Get a can of expandable foam at your local hardware store and fill in all the holes in your floors, walls, etc. ""
You can put peanut butter on the traps instead of cheese. Mice love it and they can't just snag it and pull it out of the trap.
I have killed (with old fashioned wooden spring traps and peanut butter) 4 mice in the last 3 months. I live alone and travel a lot so getting a cat or two is out of the question. I've checked all my closets and cupboards and stuffed steel wool in any place I think they could possible get in. Where else can I check? I'm at a loss and totally frustrated!
By Laura
Check around the pipes under your sinks, and around the electrical or gas pipes behind your stove and pack steel wool or cut a can lid to fit tight around the pipe or gas line or electric cord. That's a place they easily can get into. They can squeeze thru a 1/4" hole.
I have mice again. I've successfully used mouse traps until this year. Ants have invaded the house, too. I have set out ant baits, but the ants still get the peanut butter in the mouse traps before a mouse can even be caught. What mouse bait can be used that the ants won't get?
By M.P.
The question is getting the ants before they get the peanut butter. Terro is a great product that isn't expensive. If you put it where critters and kids can not get it you are better off. But, Terro is made with borax and while in small amounts, is harmless to critters and kids, it should be hidden.
How do I get rid of mice?
By baktus from Canada
Depends on your environment. If you don't have any kids and you have a basement (or the mice are in your shed or barn) acquire a black snake and let him loose (in the basement shed or barn). Tell your friends you are looking for one and to let you know if they find one or catch one for you. This option is nice because the snake takes care of ALL the mice (babies, rats, etc.). And when it is done it travels on to greener and mousier pastures.
Your next option is to use mouse traps. Peanut butter works really god as a bait. Try to get traps that have either holes in the bait tray or a looped end. You want the peanut butter to get into a hard to reach spot or the mice will lick it all off and never set off the trap. Of course this doesn't work if you have kids. The option if you have kids is either get a cat or get mouse traps where the mouse goes in and never comes out. I have never used traps like these but they supposedly work well and are more "humane". But I know the snake, peanut butter and cat options work wonders (unless you get a lazy or vegetarian cat).
Long term effective solution, cats one will do, two are better. Especially if you live in an area where this is going to be a recurring problem. That's why people domesticated cats in the first place vermin control.
The one and only way to get rid of mice is to block the entryway to where they get in. Until you do this you will always have one more mouse. If one can find a way to get in so can the rest.
I got rid of the mice from my mother's trailer in Oklahoma by taking away the food sources. She had a large pantry that had open box, bags, etc. I went to walmart and bought several big plastic boxes with lids and put all bagged and boxed food in the plastic boxes leaving only the canned and jarred food on the shelves. I also cleaned her trailer from top to bottom. She was paying to have her house cleaned weekly but when I flew back to help get her diabetes under control, it was very obvious they were only vacuuming and dusting.
Use steel wool to fill in cracks to keep them from entering the house. I used the glue pads when I had the problem and collected many. When my nephew moved in with 3 cats the mice moved out permanently! I think that's the only way they really go.
www.havahart.com/store/live-animal-traps/mouse
www.themousedepot.com/
www.seabrightlabs.com/mouse.htm
This always took care of my annoying rat problem http://howtofix rid-of-mice.html
How do I get rid of house mice?
By Joe
Old fashion snap-traps seem to be the best. Peanut butter, real butter, or raisins seem the most attractive and effective as bait. Moth balls where they come in will help keep them out. There is a reason they are coming in and one reason may be food supply. Find out if it is shelter or food. If food, also eliminate that supply.
You can try every remedy everyone suggests but until you plug up the hole where the mice get in, you will not solve your problem. Find that hole and plug it with steel wool, or something that mice will not eat and your solution is accomplished.
Peppermint oil on cotton or absorbent material in areas where they go or come in will send them away. A live trap called tin cat is great in that when caught you put them in the woods for nature. Owl food and the like. It becomes fun to catch and release. Use care that they do not stay unattended in the tin cat for too long as they would suffer. Suffering is not nice and comes back to bite you in the butt.
Have you thought of getting a cat.....better yet two.
GG Vi
Aside from putting peppermint oil on a cotton ball, what can we add to the peppermint to make it a new product? We badly need you're answer. It's a big help for us in our S.I.P. Is it possible to add peppermint oil in mice block poison? And it would be effective? And last, what are the compounds/ingredients used in making a mice block poison? 'Cause I can't find it in the internet. Or in this specific website.
By Gabrielle
My answer for getting rid of mice is to get a cat or two. Some are better hunters than others. However, if that is not an option, there are all sorts of traps - standard mouse traps, sticky traps, etc. And there is proper mouse bait. I do not think you should be attempting to manufacture this on your own.
Put potato flakes in one bowl and water in another. Don't let the potato flakes get wet. The mice will eat them and they will swell and kill the mice.
Adding peppermint to the poison would make mice avoid the poison.
What is the best way to catch or get rid of field mice?
Predators, such as cats, are the best way to get rid of them. Barring that, you should trap them. Please do not use poison as this is damaging to wildlife and others' pets.
How do you get rid of rats and mice inside and outside? I want to kill them without a trap. Thanks.
Cats.
Go to a tractor/feed store and get some Ramik bars. These will kill mice and rats and you won't smell them if they die in the house because whatever is in these bars, dehydrates the animal leaving them as flat as a pancake if you find a dead one. We lived near a canal and had problems with sewer rats in our basement and a farmer told my husband about this. I went and bought two packages and we spread a few pieces around the basement. The next day, we found 3 dead rats and NO smell!
I need a recommendation for an excellent remedy for mice. We have a rental apt. in a brownstone and have been plagued with mice issues pretty much the entire time. Landlord continues to use an ineffective NYC exterminator. I have several months left on my lease and I need to get rid of the mice problem once and for all even if I am stuck paying. Please let me know if you know anyone who can get rid of them for good!
Rodents do not like peppermint. I plant peppermint around the base of the house - never a problem with mice. Try spraying crushed peppermint leaves.
What is the best way to get rid of mice? I have set traps and sometimes I catch them, but they seem to come back.
By Marion H
The best way to get rid of mice is with a cat or two. If you are on an acreage, you may need more. Do not starve these animals or expect them to feed themselves. Cats hunt for the sport of it; well fed cats are good hunters. And some are better than others. If the mice get into someplace where the cats can't easily get them, I find that regular traps baited with peanut butter work well. If you have mice that keep getting in, you could try to find how they are getting in, and seal up that spot with something. I have heard that steel wool will work. However, I have little faith in things like peppermint. Mice need such a little space to get in that it is almost impossible to find every little space that they can use.
Will peppermint tea get rid of mice?
By Fae from Australia
I can't honestly say, but you could google it, too. I do know that Mother Earth News once ran an article that said that soda pop will kill them since they have a one way digestive system and can't burp. Give both a try? Good luck!
ThriftyFun is one of the longest running frugal living communities on the Internet. These are archives of older discussions.
How do I get rid of mice?
By S.D. from Syracuse, NY
You can set mouse traps or if you don't want to hurt them call an exterminator to catch them. (11/09/2010)
By SammyClaire
Mice hate the smell of peppermint. Soak cotton balls in peppermint oil and place where mice have been present. They will high tail it out of there. Hope this helps. (11/09/2010)
By ashleybunkin
Honestly, the best thing we've found is Sonic Pest Chaser by Victor. I had a new automobile and when I took it in for it's 5,000 mile checkup the mechanic came back to me and showed me where mice had built a nest in the fresh air filter area. I didn't want to kill anything that I might now be able to reach to clear out. By this time I was seeing droppings inside my passenger compartment. So I asked a guy at our local hardware store and he told me about these. I plugged one into an outdoor extension cord and my problems were solved. The first plug lasted over a year and was still working, but I changed it out, just in case. I live in the middle of the woods out in the country. If these work where I live, I'm impressed. (11/11/2010)
By Gypsy Swan
You can try a hundred things, but until you plug the hole where they are getting in, you will always have another one. (11/11/2010)
By WeeWillie
Get a cat. (11/11/2010)
By louel53
Do you have pets such as cats or dogs that live with you? Or small children? If not, you can use Dcon. They eat it and they can't burp it up so they die, but you don't want a dog, cat, or child to get into it because it can be just as poisonous to them. I only recommend this if you have only adults in the home that know enough to leave it alone. (11/12/2010)
Set a mouse trap with peanut butter (which mice love) under the kitchen sink. I have heard that once you catch a mouse with a trap and try to re-use it, mice can smell the dead mouse and it is almost impossible to catch a second one. Mouse traps are cheap, so when you catch a mouse, throw the trap away with the mouse, then set a new one.
With mouse poison, the mice sometimes go to the center of a room and die on the floor, not a fun thing to step on. That is one of several reasons that I recommend mouse traps instead of poison. (11/14/2010)
By Anonymous
We had a bad mouse problem at our business and after many traps and poison (a lot of smell from dead ones in the ceiling) we put wintergreen alcohol in a sprayer bottle and sprayed all through the ceiling and finally they left. We also used an ozone machine for the odor. It worked miracles! (11/24/2010)
By Lyn
Will boric acid kill mice which have housed themselves outside in our window wells? I thought I could sprinkle it down inside the window well, as I see them running around on the rocks!
By Paula
You must be thinking of borax (a powder) as opposed to boric acid (usually a liquid)? I have never heard of either of them having much effect on animals. Borax does affect insects. I would keep looking for a better solution. (09/28/2010)
By Lizzyanny
I have a plastic container of Boric Acid called Roach Away made by Enoz. The ingredients are "active Ingredient Boric Acid 99% and Inert Ingredients 1%." I think the Inert ingredients are probably to keep the powder from becoming one big hard lump due to humidity. We bought it in 1996 at a hardware store in Tennessee when we rented a motor home in Winston Salem NC that had cockroaches. We sprinkled the Boric Acid powder under and behind everything in the Motor Home and never saw another Cockroach.
My container which is still about 3/4 full is still mostly a powder. Does have a few tiny lumps in it. There is a "keep out of reach of children" caution on it. With a Statement of practical treatment which says immediately contact poison control center or physician if swallowed. If eye contact occurs flush eyes with plenty of water. Get medical attention if irritation persists. It is Manufactured by Wilbert Home Products Inc 404 Park Avenue St Louis Mo 83110.
We use humane traps for mice, and release them in the woods behind our house. Our children always had gerbils when they were young and mice remind us too much of the gerbils so I think that is the reason we can't bring ourselves to kill them. (09/29/2010)
By Kathryen
How do I keep mice out of a house and then kill them when they get in, without using poisons that when the mice die the smell is so bad for a few days.
By Nana from Greensboro, NC
I suppose you don't like cats? It is the best way I know. There is nothing a cat loves more than hunting and killing mice. (08/24/2010)
By Ann Parker
You need to do a few things:
By Beccaj23
A few winters ago we had a ton of mice. We bought those glue mice traps and they worked well. I placed a small piece of cracker in the middle of the glue trap so the mouse would walk to get it-then promptly got stuck! We were going through so many traps though so we ended up pulling the mice off so we could re-use the traps.
Good luck to you! (08/24/2010)
By LisaE2
Get a cat. Even if they don't kill mice, mice will leave. Several years ago, I didn't have a cat. Within a week, I caught 26 mice with wooden traps baited with peanut butter. You could sit several rooms away from where the traps were and hear them go off! I even caught four mice in one trap at once. Last year I was without a cat again. We got a kitten, and caught mice with wooden traps with peanut butter and fed the mice to Silver. He would run to the kitchen when he heard a trap spring anticipating the fresh kill! (08/24/2010)
By angel1954
I am in a situation now that mice are not problem. When I did have to catch them, I used the standard snap mouse trap. My "bait" was a dab of peanut butter with a small piece of uncooked spaghetti sticking out of it. The mice would press on the peanut butter to get the pasta and boom, they were caught. I once caught two mice side by side in one trap. (08/24/2010)
By knitter926
Buy the electronic rodent repellers. They are relatively inexpensive and you plug them into every room, you must keep the outlets clear so the sound emissions will be heard by any rodent nearby. They work amazingly well, I love them. (08/26/2010)
By yoder178
I have always had a cat, but she died a few months ago. I never saw her catch a mouse, but I also never saw any mice. A week and a half ago I discovered there were mice. I have 5 ultrasonic repellers in a 2000 square foot house and I actually saw a mouse sail right past me. I am for traps, pulling up holes, and getting another cat. (09/18/2010)
By sij325
How do you keep mice out of drawers?
How do I get rid of mice in an old house?
How can I get rid of mice?
I have mice in my home. I have tried everything I can, but they are always here. Poison, traps, they know about them. What should I do?
We live in the woods, and recently some field mice have found their way into the house. We need some advice on getting rid of them without danger to pets.
