Over 15 Ways of Natural Mice Control

Step One: Eliminate Mice By Mouse Proofing Your Home

Make It Harder for A Mouse To Get In Your House.

1. You should be walking around the perimeter of your house and looking for any openings that are larger than 1/4 inch, like caulk openings that are smaller than 1/4 inch...Use copper gauze, medium grade or fine steel wool along with a combination of steel wool and caulking for openings larger than 1/4 inch...Be aware that steel wool can begin to rust overtime and can cause rust stains...A flashlight is helpful and you may need to use a hand mirror for areas that are difficult to see under or behind walls, sinks or basement foundations...Cover any holes that are three inches or larger with 1/4 inch woven or welded hardware cloth prior to patching or refilling...Rodents are very good at gnawing through rough surfaces but the shape of their front teeth make it very hard for them to gnaw into hard smooth surfaces...
2. Check the foundation of you home for gaps where the concrete has crumbled or the siding has separated from the framing...Repair the concrete by sealing the cracks...Stuff medium grade steel wool or copper gauze within the gap between the siding and even the foundation...Be sure to have cracked or crumbling foundations repaired by a professional in that area if necessary to deter mice...
3. Be sure to carefully check around vents for damage or places where vents have pulled away from the house...Repair and replace these if necessary...Check the exhaust vent for your clothes dryer and be sure rodents cannot enter through there...Place 1/4 inch hardware cloth behind cold air returns...It may be possible to cover power vents with louvered metal plates that let the air to pass through but not the mice, so be sure they fit tightly...Check all of this regularly to be sure these screens don't become clogged...
4. Pay attention to any place that a plumbing pipe or electrical wiring enters the house...Your home could settle with age as well as in the spring when the ground thaws, causing an enlarging of any small openings... Mice are experts at gnawing and can enlarge an opening that was previously too small to allow them to enter...
5. Check around doors for any openings that could of occurred over time...During the early part of the day close the curtains to see if you can see sunlight around the door frames...Use any type of weather stripping to close those gaps...If you have an unfinished basement you may need to seal the areas around door frames with some expanding spray foam, a copper gauze, or steel wool...Check the bottom of the door frames and install door thresholds if you have a space 1/4 inch or larger beneath the door...Again, these simple repairs will have the added benefit of keeping things warmer in the winter and should help deter spiders and other insects...We added high quality storm doors to our home and even in the garage that seemed to help deter mice...
6. Check your window screens for holes and tears if there's signs of wear replace them...Make sure that the screens fit tightly in place to avoid having any spaces...We don't have a lot of mice entering that way on the main level or upstairs of our house but have had the rodents gnaw through screens in our basement windows...You can now get metal rodent proof window screens which can help with this...
7. Down the road our neighbors have problems with mice entering through their attic...Check to be sure that the roof joints are tight and remember to be sure there is good flashing in place...Make sure that the mice cannot get in where wires for satellite dishes, antennas, or even internet connections come into the house...
8. Fireplaces and chimneys are other common places where the mice will enter the house, be sure to check and make sure sheeting or metal collars are properly installed to prevent entry...Be sure to check for cracked or missing bricks on rock fireplaces and see that drywall or siding near the fireplaces are closed enough to prevent entry...
9. Drainage pipes and sewage systems are also entry points for rats and mice so make sure that the floor drains have metal grates firmly attached...Make sure the openings on the grates are less than 1/4 inch in space... Should you even suspect your sewage line could have been rat-infested, then you can have a "Rat Guard" which is a one way flap installed into your toilet...

Step 2: Getting Rid of Mice In The House

Some steps that discourage mice from making your home their home too.

1. First of all, if you have a heavy problem with mice consider getting a rodent expert in to to take care of the problem...You'll find all of these services listed under "pest control" or "rodent control" in your phone book...We can tell you from personal experience that they will use poisons and traps to deal with the problem but that may be necessary to get your situation of a heavy population under control...While we don't like to think about using poisons, they may be the only way in extreme cases...
2. If you think there's a mouse invasion happening in your house you should start using traps... Some people like live traps and others like the sticky traps...We still use the wood traps baited with bits of cheese or moist cat food...Other people swear by peanut butter or good old fashion cheese...Despite what you see on the cartoons mice aren't really attracted to the cheese that people try using...If you use some type of live trap be sure to release the mice far away from your house after all they figured out how to get in once they'll figure it out again...Some people may consider it unnatural to use traps but from everything I can see defending one's territory is a part of nature...Mice can present a real risk through the spread of parasites and disease and in my view that requires a strong response to the problem...
3. Do everything you can to make your house uninviting to the mice...Everything must eat for survival so make sure they can't get at any of your food...Glass, metal, and rigid plastic containers are a pretty good for deterring mice and are great choices for flour, cereals, rice or any dry mixes... You'll feel safer about eating your food if you know that the mice haven't taken the first bite, not to mention the mouse dropping they leave behind...
4. Pet foods are a big problem we would often find a mouse's stockpile of our dog or cat food in a shoe, drawer or even on our bookshelf...This is usually the first clue a homeowner gets to alert them to a mouse problem...A pet food bag made of paper is no obstacle at all to a mouse, so better to store pet food in a metal or hard plastic container with a lid...Mice can be really bold about taking food right from the dish and unfortunately some animals seem to co-exist rather with mice and there are some cats that just refuse catch a mouse...Feed at set times and then take the leftovers away if possible...
5. Everything needs water to survive so fixing those leaking faucets or drains won't just save water, it'll create a less friendly environment for mice...Pet water dishes can be an issue but your pet needs access to water so there doesn't really seem to be anything we can do about that part...

Some More Ideas for Natural Mouse Control

• They say that mice hate the smell and taste of cayenne pepper, peppermint, citronella, and cloves...All you need to do is lightly soak a few cotton balls in one of these oils and leave the cotton balls in places where you've had problems with mice...
• Make a few cheesecloth sachets from the dry cayenne pepper, mint, and even whole cloves and leave them in places where the mice seem to be, like maybe under beds and along walls behind your furniture...
• In a bucket or sprayer if you have one put 1 tablespoon of Tabasco sauce and about a 1/2 cup of soap detergent to 1 gallon of water...Spray this outside all around your home's foundation to help repel mice...
• We've read that the sonic or electronic mouse repellants are not very effective, some say that they have limited or temporary use to them...Others point out that the sound waves do not really pass through solid objects so a sonic device in an open space isn't going to be helpful with mice in cupboards, walls, or even the closets...
• Owning a cat can help - or not...We had one cat that had absolutely no problem with mice living in our house, he seemed to enjoy the company...We had another cat that was constantly catching the mice even though he didn't keep our house a hundred percent mouse free...Our first clue to a mouse invasion was when we would see our cat carrying a dead mouse in his mouth...If your cat is catching mice for you be sure to have him wormed regularly since mice have been known to carry parasites...Many people don't feed the barn cats thinking that they will make them more aggressive mousers but all evidence indicates that a healthy cat that is fed regularly is a more effective hunter than a weak one...