In this post, I’m going to show you how to get rid of mice naturally. You’re not going to believe some of the clever ways I share with you, but they actually work!
How is it mice look so cute in cartoons and at Disneyland, but they are so gross and creepy when they are scurrying across your floor?
Not to mention the disgust at finding mouse droppings in your kitchen near your food! Oh my gosh. I cringe just thinking about it.
If you don’t want to use an old-school mousetrap or a glue trap, this post will help you solve your mouse problem. I do have to tell you though that most (not all) of these natural remedies will kill the mice.
Get Rid of Mice Naturally
If you have a soft heart for these tiny rodents, and I totally get it if you do, I’ll mention whether the mouse will die as a result.
1. Steel wool.
It’s cheap and when you pull it apart and stuff it into any of the tiny places mice are getting in, that will be that.
Mice can’t chew through it, try though they might. It also doesn’t feel good on those little teeth, although a mouse has never actually told me that himself.
2. Powdered chocolate milk mix.
You’re shaking your head and laughing right now, aren’t you? Hear me out!
Add the powder to dry Plaster of Paris, mix it up well, and leave it out someplace you’ve noticed mice or their droppings.
They will eat it up quick because CHOCOLATE, and then the Plaster of Paris will make them thirsty.
As long as you don’t leave water out for them beside their chocolate treat, they’ll head out to look for water elsewhere. The mice will die.
3. Mashed potatoes.
Before you head to the kitchen to whip up some Yukon Golds with a little butter and milk, I’m talking about instant potato flakes!
Sprinkle them wherever you’ve seen a mouse. They’ll eat them, their stomachs will expand and it will kill them. (Please don’t use this method if you have fur babies in the house.)
4. No cat? No problem.
Do you have a friend who has a cat? Ask for some of their used cat litter. I know! What a weird conversation to have!
Think about it. If we’ve learned anything from cartoons, we know mice are afraid of cats. Spread the used litter anywhere outside where you think mice are entering. They’ll stay away.
5. Onions will repel mice.
Put an onion out wherever a mouse has left droppings. According to experts, mice hate the smell.
Remember to change the onion for another one as they decompose. Also, make sure your fur babies can’t get to them.
6. Baking Soda
Cut a hole in a box of baking soda that is large enough for a mouse and place it in suspected areas. This will produce gas inside their stomachs when they eat it and cause them to die.
Those are clever ways to get rid of mice!
Hey, if it works and it doesn’t involve having traps everywhere, I’m all in to try it. What about you?
How do you get rid of mice?
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113 comments on “6 Clever Ways to Get Rid of Mice That Actually Work”
Raw sweet potato forms a cyanide reaction in a rat’s stomach; hence, mixing them with any of your food is a good natural rat repellent. … It blocks the digestive system by aborting the necessary vitamin A and enzymes needed for the rats to digest the protein and starches.Dec 23, 2014 copy and pasted.
another one that works really well, is cayenne pepper. I sprinkle it around my house on the outside, then around the water heaters, furnace, any holes, doors ways ECT…
I have used peppermint oil and they don’t like that n it’s safe for everyone and they take off somewhere else. I’m going to try the onion I just found a new one left his calling card.
Putting out small bars of Irish Spring soap in areas you think mice are coming in. The scent deters them. I cut full size bars in half, which is not easy, I admit. They need to be replaced each season.
IN OUT SIDE STORAGE AREAS OR WHERE YOU KEEP FEED OF ANY KIND MOTH BALLS SEEMS TO WORK GOOD FOE ME. I DONT HATE THE SMELL, WOULDNT WANT IT IN MY HOUSE, BUT DOESENT SEEM BAD IN OUTSIDE SPACES. FOR GETTING RID OF MICE!!!!!
I have used some of these tips at one time or another, I do have other fur babies do consider. The steel wool works in most areas but mice were still able to find other ways in. Peppermint also works to ward them off they don’t like the smell. Altho I have not used the things the mice injest, I have had mice going off to die on their own, is the smell of a dead mouse afterwards. My home was built in the late 1800’s. It still has the original transom windows above the doors and porcelain door knobs. Unfortunately it also has all kinds of books and crannies for mice to get in, or to die in and smell for days afterwards..
As cute as they are, mice and rats were known to spread bubonic plague, I have several methods because I live rural, closer to the mouse front. From peanut butter mixed with poison under the house to live traps, mothballs and when needed glue strips. I do have a great mouser so don’t like to chance too many poisons. Thank you for the information and I will give them a try.
I’ve tried 10s of thousands of dollars on Poisen, snap traps, sticky traps, catch and real ease boxes, homemade farmers tricks, they are so smart! The jump snap traps and usually get the bait without snapping the trap, even when you bend the pin to a hair trigger. If you don’t change Poisen constantly they won’t eat it anymore (weird) like they’ve had it before…? Outside Poisen boxes, they get off the sticky traps, I’ve bout 4 of the 50.00 shocker traps, they get out, I have a Siamese who acts like he’s terrified of them! Will a mouse fight a cat and hurt then? I’ve done EVERYTHING, most days that’s ALL I get done is cleaning up and trying to think of ways for them not to piss on all our cloths, which has a horrible odor. You can see where rhey have went right behind you the min you turn around cause they’re be a sign of something they dropped that I know I just scrubbed clean! The ultrasonic wall removers are an absolute waste! Catch and release they can get out of. I’m telling you they are smart ass holes! They terrorize my autistic son who is hypersensitive to their movement. He’s non verbal but when he doesn’t want to go in his room, and the cats acting like a weirdo, they are getting in and I’m realized rhe only solution is new Poisens I caught one on a sticky trap still alive and had to beat it’s brains out but with the terror and trauma they have put me and my son theough I actually didn’t feel bad at all actually got out a little frustration and got a sick enjoyment out of killing one. If you had seen how they terrorize my poor son, believe me you wouldn’t mind so much. Nasty disease carrying cable chewing death trap makers for us when they start a fire and I’m supposed to feel bad for not wanting them chewing and pissing on everything they can destroy? Not if I can kill them first! And I don’t care HOW!!!! People care more about a nasty rodent than an instant human baby these days! I say OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!!!! LITERALLY IF I CATCH THEM!!!! Nasty little disease carriers!!!!
I’ve had a problem with mice in my garage. For me, the most effective method was, purchasing the old style mouse trap(s) and placing a small amount of peanut butter on the trigger mechanism. Then, I carefully shred some newspaper over the top of the trap, so it look like a small tent, so to speak. Works every time!
Dont waste money calling pest control they DO NOT HELP YOU and advise you to go get your own traps ..(for mice,&,rats)
I found that to be the case also. The trap and bait given me by the exterminator were ignored by the rats.
Oh, I really appreciate your tip to stuff places where the mice are getting in with steel wool. Still, that doesn’t get rid of the mice that’ve already found their way in. I’m thinking of hiring a pest control technician to come out and get rid of the ones that have infiltrated my home.
Thank you for the tips. We live on a farm I will be trying probably all of the tricks But for those who are offended, please come and try your Pied Pipery. Save as many as you can.
Really?? Let’s not torture a living creature? They are mice. They carry diseases. I bought the biggest box of potato flakes I could find.♀️ Sorry, my health and the kids health come first. I am not catching the things to release and have them crawl back in…for Pete’s sake.
I live in a rural area too. Being rural means my garden regularly floods and both field and house mice occasionally come indoors in order to survive. I’d never kill any animal without a very good reason, especially when the methods outlined on here are tantamount to torture.
I’ve used humane traps for years and I relocate the mice to under my shed at the bottom of my garden. They only come back in the house if they are released individually, so the best idea is to put them in a high sided bucket (with food and water of course) and wait until you’ve caught them all before releasing the whole family at the same time. If you take care with food hygiene and storage in your kitchen it’s highly unlikely that they will want to come back indoors.
It’s not about saving… it’s about not being cruel. “A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.” (Proverbs 12:10)
Thank you! Someone with common sense!( which is less and less common these days..worse with each passing generation..starting w millennials)
Exactly.
Yes!
This is the most gruesome, disgusting thing Ive seen in months, only made worse by your amused cavalier tone. I can NOT believe you would slowly blow up a living creature, letting them bleed out as their…no. I dont even believe you. I think you just looked up how to torture tiny animals for fun and profit. Clever? Its unconscionable. You are twisted. You might as well get hooker to go stomp them, you sadistic freak. You evil, soulless ogre.
Thank you for having compassion. It’s a rarity to find someone who actually has empathy now at days.
I agree! You two are good people.
Guess youve never had these little bastards invade your home to the point of insanity! Daily cleaning trying to get rid of mouse poo while listening to mine and my daughter cough steadily worsen because of their filth! I love animals I really do but when it comes my or my child’s health the animal will always take a back seat! Priorities!
It’s downright creepy how many of you are okay with torturing animals to death. Imagine if someone decided to treat stray/feral cats this way. Most of y’all would throw a fit. Rodents are just animals being animals – like literally any other animals. Just buy some snap traps if you’re too lazy to deal with the problem without killing someone in the process. You’re a psychopath if you consider “death by exploding stomach” to be an acceptable way to deal with someone you don’t like.
You should make it your personal endeavor to start a business and go to everyone’s home and do your humanitarian thing a catch your precious nice and rats, then take them all to your house, feed them and let them multiple in your house, and when you have no more food left to feed them,, your precious will start to feed on you… please tell us all, how your precious and you will continue to live then!!!!!!
It’s hilarious how angry and out of control people get when someone mentions having compassion on a small animal who’s just trying to survive as best it can, like them. So predictable and typically American.
Judge people’s goodness by how they treat the little things, and you’ll never go wrong.
Downrgt creepy that you would say that if you read my other comment about them actually feasting on flesh of helpless babies.. but it’s all the spoiled ppl who always had mommy daddy money..then marry for money and never lived in less than perfect places that never saw a newborn w sores from nice bites..or a sm puppy literally eaten alive.. but perhaps karma..will someday show you by way of someone you love( someone..who isn’t wealthy enough to live in perfection.)
I’m sure if you dealt with a rat and mice infeststion, with children and pets in the house and the tiny cute little creatures ate bait of the traps to only leave the still set trap but no food or rats decided to make their home inside your mattress and you get poked by their claws every time you roll over one at night, all the ways you try to get them out fail over and over again, you would change your mind. A friend of mine had 6 pet mice and 3 pet rats when we were in jr high, they were the cutest and smartest little cute things to ever live but the wild rats and mice have a completly different way of living. They not only eliminate waste as they walk or run, they will attack u or your kids, pets if they feel threatened or scared. Grow up do some research, invite about 50 of each kind into your home… They breed and give birth very frequently so it will triple in less than a month, by that time you will feel differnt about all the ways to kill them, u can’t do live traps to only release them outside, duh they are going to laugh and go back in your house. You can’t live trap them then release them far from your house, thats not their environment and they aren’t with the rest of the crew and something wild will eat them or injure them to suffer a painful death. Cats wont work, mine will catch the mice but they havent messed with the rats, which btw some are roof rats (black) and some are sewer rats or norway rats (Brown or grey) dont forget the roof rats can climb and live in trees, sewer rats will come up your pipes into your toliet. Smh!!
It’s a rodent that invades homes… these people are talking about rodents, not actual people. Mice have the ability to carry many health risks. Gaslighting people under this comment section is quite sad. They have their reasons. And please use terms correctly, they are not being psychopaths for wanting to keep their child safe. These are wild rodents, not pets.
Olbas oil (the strong smelling stuff people use for clearing blocked noses), Peppermint essential oil and fresh mint plants has always worked for me, The smell is too strong for them and it doesn’t harm them.
Thanks for your help I actually hate them I have a heater in my room now I don’t know if that is good or bad and it’s close to my bed it’s on the bottom shelf of my drawer my drawer is close to my bed I’m scared
Dasia, please be careful putting a heater by your bed, dear. Blankets are combustible. And dont be afraid of the mice. You have to run them out. That is your space! Dont give the little buggers an inch! Just dont take it personally. Theyre cold, theyre hungry, theyre mice doing mouse stuff. Dont fear, youre the boss of things!♡
Will any of these have a secondary impact? Like if a cat or bird ate the mouse? If I used the instant potatoes where only a mouse could eat them but then they go outside. Thank you
Leann, please, please dont do that. Its immoral to torture helpless animals. Can you imagine a worse death than slowly ripping open? Oh my lord, what has become of humanity. You must get them out, no doubt. But there are live traps that can catch a dozen at a time, or you can give ’em hell for two or three hours with all the peppermint you can find, and chili powder, and get some horrible heavy metal and blast it for a couple hours and they will beat feet. Then seal their accesses with steel wool!
Anything upon entering uninvited (be it ants mice possums or people) lost their “poor thing” privelige.
Seriously?.. apparently you haven’t had every part of your life effected by these little assholes… they are germy RODANTS so if killing them to save a human is what needs done then so be it! What trap them and take them outside?? Your a few French fries short of a happy meal aren’t you? They will only come back! They have gotten into the bottom of my oven and guess what I turn the oven on and cook the little jerks and enjoy every second of it knowing that one won’t be damaging the wires in my home causing a fire for my small children to possibly be harmed .. get out of here you weirdo must not have kids to act so stupid
It’s bizarre how personally you’re taking the natural behaviors of animals, as if they had enough emotional intelligence to even be aware of your feelings regarding them. And how rabidly you’re attacking someone you don’t even know. It seems like you may want to invest in a professional exterminator and some therapy if you’re life is so inconvenienced by the issue and your truly so outraged over a stranger’s comment on the internet. That’s just not how normal, well adjusted adults express themselves. I don’t know why you would bring up someone’s child-having status as if it’s some sort of insult and call them a weirdo and stupid over something so benign other than not having adequate control of your emotions, but as you have made it clear that you do in fact have children (congrats, I guess, I mean quite a few of us do…), it’s concerning what sort of example you set for them in how to treat people, and how you react when they do something to trigger you the way this apparently has.
I get it. They are in my walls chewing on my wiring! I am terrified my house will catch fire… and in the walls and attic first! that’s a death sentence to whomever is in the house. Kill the little bastards any way possible. Not to mention all the disease they spread!
You are sick in the head, little psycho who speaks like a 12-year-old. Go take a xanax.
Who has time for all that?! Dying clearly had to be in its calling if its in my place!
I feel sorry for anyone who has to interact with you irl. You clearly have some unresolved issues that must make your existence (and the existence of those around you) miserable. Couldn’t imagine getting this angry about animals trying to survive and some stranger’s comment on the internet. Seek help, buddy.
Wow, seriously? Guess you’ve never been poor and had newborn or small children.Nor fur babies… In fact, my ex husbands dog had pups…ALOT of pups. So many that she just couldn’t keep up with nursing them all. So when his father took sick suddenly( God rest) he couldn’t find anyone to look after the momma n pups. He made puppy formula and put a few saucers down. Upon coming back the next day…you…person who so loves animals…would change your mind about poor little rodents. 2 pups were eatin, 1 half of it was gone.. obviously it was dead…the 2nd was barely still alive, can u imagine? Both rear legs and tail had been eatin by a rodent…and a 3rd had lost half of it’s left rear leg. Imagine those poor babies. Being eaten alive by your buddies.. now if you ever have a baby..picture waking up to find her/ him having both back legs chewed off. Don’t talk to me with your poor little rodent B.S. I bet you’ve never had to live in a dilapidated mobile home w holes in the floors just to keep a roof over your kids head..u probably either hv a well off mommy daddy or hubby…or would rather take government money.
I second this.
Yes. Here is a person who has humanity and a brain that knows how to solve problems in ways other than throwing a grenade on the situation. You can protect your space without being a soulless, heartless jerkoff. It just takes a little more thought, research and effort.
To actually answer your question about the instant potatoes, instead of arguing over things that GROWN ADULTS should easily be willing to “agree to disagree” about, yes the instant potato flakes may harm other animals like cats or birds depending on how much the mouse ate. It’s better than the poison that also makes them thirsty I suppose. & FYI dryer sheets, moth balls, peppermint spray and loud noises will never ever get rid of mice for good. Ever. Sorry but when you have small children then you have to pretty much kill the mice. But I would do it in a way where they don’t suffer. Old school snap traps & the electric shock ones that kill them instantly. Not those evil glue traps trust me. Steel wool does keep them out! It’s the best thing to use to make sure they don’t return.
How about some tips for Rats?
Good luck, terminx set wooden rat snap traps with peanut butter. Rats ate it off and the trap never went off.
Sprinkle Cayenne pepper at entry points and that will keep them away also.
I was advised dryer sheets in an unused car
moth balls works for mice in our storage sheds and outside buildings and i dont know what it does ,the smell i supose.but it has been working for a good many years now
I’m going to try these. I’ve just started getting little visitors. Poison is not working!! I think they are getting wise to it.
Many thanks for the info.
Pamela
I have many mice in the basement and that is where the litter boxes for my 3 cats are. Cat smell will not deter mice at all!!! The mice even took some wall insulation and made a nest in a clay pot sitting on the floor!
Do these tips work for getting rid of squirrels or do you have tips for sqirrels too?
Who would want to kill squirrels? If they’re in your attic, just put something up there that makes a lot of loud noise, like a stereo, and the noise will scare them out, then you just close up the holes. Mice infest your entire home and loud noises don’t bother them, but squirrels, you can effectively chase them out by disturbing them. It’s exactly how they humanely remove them from homes in the UK.
spray peppermint oil around where the squirrels are they don’t like the smell I did this around the outside of my house to keep spiders out and the squirrels would not go near it
Peanuts….lol Just kidding. Trying to lighten the mood in here. But I do know for mice (and I think squirrels too) go and get Peppermint Oil and just a couple drops is the corners of each room or where you can hear them chewing. Just repeat if or when they come back. If it’s in the walls soak a Qu-tip and either find or make a screw hole through the drywall and push the Qu-tip through it. Either patch the hole or fill it or just hide it with a picture in case you need it again. BUT don’t use to much because it will be very over powering and you will have just kicked yourself out of that room until you air it out. I was fed up and just spashed it in all 4 corners and the baseboard where they chew and it got so strong I couldn’t go back in there for like 2 days, so just a couple drops here and there is good and the smell is very pleasant. Hope this was helpful. Oh for attics or garage or shed/storage puts some on cotton balls and toss them in. To detour them from coming in just plant(or buy) peppermint plants near doors and windows they can reach or get in to. Remember to wash your baseboards and where they walk as often as you can because they rub their scent on all of it and use it like a road map and use that same route all the time cause it shows them the fastest way back to safety. I also just love the smell of the oil and it’s harmless for everyone and thing it makes them change their own minds on being your roommate… And it hasn’t ever hurt my feelings once…lol