How do you prevent mice?

[Farrar]

In my experience, the peppermint and so forth are not great for preventing them. Like, sure they don't love it, but it's not a true deterrent. The situations where I think it works is when you have, say, a cold garage and you use it to discourage them and they go find somewhere else. Once they're in the house, the amount you need to spray to keep them away will also make you want to keep away. If you're hoping to keep them away from a particular spot, sometimes that kind of works, but once they're in, they're in. It won't make them leave.

[Moonhawk]

2 hours ago, PeterPan said:

If I put peppermint oil or cinnamon oil in a diffuser would the effect be similar. Where does it need to be to work? All around the space or targeted?

I think it needs to be sprayed directly onto the area or close by, at least with the cinnamon, from what I remember reading the bottle. That way the smell/taste is concentrated to the point they don't want to deal with it. Though the sachets aren't sprayed so idk.

We spray under the kitchen sink, behind the oven and cabinets next to it (all along one wall in the kitchen, which is where they were living). We also spray around the doors to the house and the covered/screened-in porches. They liked those areas too. 

Also, I think the smell makes it harder for them to smell other mice and their trails, which I remember the mouse exterminator saying they'd follow to find their family or friends. No idea if that's accurate.

[PeterPan]

Well I have a little update! I got some of the types of things mentioned here (Tomcat poison stations, peppermint oil which smells so much from the bottle I could probably just plunk bottles places, etc.). My best find was these Victor Quick Kill traps. https://www.amazon.com/Victor-Quick-Mouse-M140S3-mouse/dp/B012ED36QK/ref=sr_1_6?crid=1V7CWWN7EAZ2P&dchild=1&keywords=victor+quick+kill+mouse+trap&qid=1619147394&sprefix=victor+quick+ki%2Caps%2C172&sr=8-6  Walmart has them cheaper. They're easy enough that I can set them, and I followed the tip of someone in the reviews and placed peanuts in each trap. The peanuts are fat enough that the mice can't shake or get them out easily, so they trip the trap struggling. 

Now whether these traps will work, can't say, lol. I'm hoping to have dh put the poison in the crawl space, which is doubtless how they're coming in. I also found a glaring HOLE in the floor coming up from that crawl space. So I'm thinking plugging the hole, poisoning the crawl space, and having traps should be enough. Maybe I'll return the peppermint, lol. 

Thanks!! We'll see what happens. I'm hoping these are just occasional invaders and that this will be enough. 

Edited April 23, 2021 by PeterPan

[Emba]

Outdoor cats are my first line of defense. In the garage we have a few traps, both snap traps and live traps, for any that get by the cats. It helps a lot to have all holes and cracks sealed - in our old house they got in a lot where the plumbing came in under the sinks. We did have one get in the attic somehow, and put poison up there for it.

[Amethyst]

On 4/22/2021 at 9:11 AM, Zebra said:

I have posted about my mouse problems a couple of times.    The first time I had baby mice falling from my ceiling, and we NEVER figured that one out.  (I'm still working on my horror movie screenplay for Hollywood.)  Then, this past summer, I had an infestation.   I put out some little poison cubes for the mice, and our ENTIRE HOUSE STANK TO THE HIGH HEAVENS when a bunch of them died in the walls!    I live in a small house, but still.  There were 4 distinct "stink" zones in our house, which leads me to believe at least 4 mice died in various areas in the walls, and it was a nightmare.  I know you're thinking, "so what, your house was smelly!"  But I am telling you, it was AWFUL.   And it stank for WEEKS.   

So, I called in a professional.   They did find 3 holes that they plugged, they set up a ton of snap traps everywhere.   We only caught 2 mice.   And he said there wasn't much evidence of anything serious going on.   So then they just put out more poison outside around the house.   The mice allegedly won't come in the house to die.   A week after the bait stations were set out, thousands of flies descended onto my house.   And whether it was the mouse carcasses from before or the bait stations I don't know.   I can tell you I first saw a bunch of flies flying out of the outdoors bait stations, and that is when I called to have the bait stations taken away.   But it was too late by then.      

The professional did give me a good trick for snap traps.   Put peanut butter in the trap with a sunflower seed in it sticking straight up.   The mice can kind of lick at the peanut butter without engaging the snap, BUT, if the sunflower seed is sticking straight up they really have to work to get it out.   It has worked like a charm for us.   I have to put out traps the minute I hear any scratching, and just keep on top of the situation.   That seems to be all I can do about it.

And also, the worst times I have had have been August and dead of winter so I don't know about this whole fall/spring thing either...

I am deathly afraid of living in an area with snakes, but I am starting to wonder if that would be better than this!

Oh my gosh this sounds awful!!  Eek!