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If the odor of peppermint oil is a repellent for mice, then wouldn't using an air freshener with peppermint fragrance do the same thing?
By Gayle Buck from Alabama, Gulf Coast
The cleanest of houses can get mice inside, especially in very cold or inclement weather. A good strong peppermint gum chicklet would last longer than a spraying of air freshener. It will deteriorate some and that is when you would replace it with another one.
Mice will get inside for any number of reasons..especially in the fall, no matter how spotless you keep your house.
I have read that using Bounce fabric softer sheets will repel them so I am putting some in my cabinets and behind my appliances to test that theory.
You could put the peppermint oil on some cotton balls, put the cotton balls in small lids and stick those in cabinets, under appliances. in crawlspaces, etc. The plus side would also be the nice, clean smell.
Short answer: No, not at all. How do I know?
I spent $20+ on two 4-oz. bottles of 100% pure peppermint essential oil. Saturated about 30-35 cotton balls and spread them around inside my 1800-1900 square foot house, especially in the kitchen. Used a whole bottle. The house reeked of peppermint, but it was a good reek. I thought this was going to be great.
During the first five days, I'd occasionally hear a mouse-like sound, or see a furtive movement out of the corner of my eye, but I did not see a mouse. I convinced my self that the noise was my own stomach and that the movement was only a reflection in my glasses. On day six I opened the small kitchen drawer that holds our flatware. New mouse droppings everywhere inside it--including next to the cotton ball I had saturated and put inside this small drawer, which still was giving off potent peppermint odor.
Later that day I saw a mouse come out from behind our clothes dryer where I had tossed two saturated cotton balls. I opened the second bottle of peppermint oil and tossed two more heavily-saturated cotton balls behind the dryer. The next morning I watched a mouse come out from behind the dryer, do an amazing acrobatic act for about 30 seconds, then turn around and go back behind the dryer again. So much for peppermint repelling mice.
I think the people on this site who tell you that 100% peppermint oil works are either: (1) wishful thinkers; (2) people who just spoke too soon; or (3) people who work for companies selling peppermint oil. Even if my second application of peppermint oil had worked for another five days (and I don't think it worked in the first place), $10-worth of peppermint oil every five days comes to about $750 a year. But since it doesn't work anyway, what does that matter?
I have mice, I put peppermint oil out and yes, they did come out of their hiding spots, but I was ready with the bated sticky pads and raid mouse traps and I caught and killed 9 in one weekend. I put the peppermint oil (100% essential oil) in my mop water and clean the floors with it. Before I did this, some of the mice were so bold as to jump into my dogs food and take a piece while I was 5 feet away.
It works, really. Please make sure you are using a pure peppermint essential oil and that you are using the right amount of it. I'd hate for you to pass up on this remedy. I used it on a clients home. I worked 7pm to 7am as a private caregiver and the clients home had mice bad. I use oils at home so I used it throughout her home on cotton balls, I bought her a $15 diffuser on amazon and started burning the oil and the client loved it. helped to clear to breathe better, was refreshing thru the entire home and the mice left within a few weeks. I just kept seeing less and less evidence that they were still around.
We saturated cotton balls with 100% peppermint oil last winter and placed them all around the house where we noted mice traffic. It did nothing to run the mice out. Even saw them running back and forth across the cotton balls. Almost ran us out of the house though.
