No one wants to share their living space with mice. If the breeding rodents roam around the garden or house, they can quickly develop into a plague of mice. Hobby gardeners who are close to nature do not condemn the uninvited guests to death, but instead scare the pack away, never to be seen again. Read this guide on how to successfully get rid of mice without poison. This is how you can do it outside and inside using natural means.
How can you get rid of mice without poison?
To get rid of mice without poison, use natural remedies such as peppermint oil, vinegar, turpentine, used cat litter and hot spices. Remove food sources and close possible access points. In the garden you encourage natural predators such as mouse weasels and birds of prey.
- Mice in the garden invade the house, where they are not tolerated as feared food pests and disease vectors.
- Animal lovers drive away mice using a combination of smell, manual methods and home remedies, instead of subjecting the fur-bearers to martial snap traps and a painful poison death.
- Getting rid of mice without poison and comprehensive preventative measures on the house, terrace, garage and garden shed are the best option against an infestation.
Get rid of mice – overview of where and how
Which strategy you use to get rid of mice forever depends on where the rodents have nested. Outside in the garden, on the balcony and terrace you can counteract the rabble with harder bandages than inside. If the furry gang besieges your house in the wall, under the roof or in the false ceiling, the immediate proximity to the family requires a modified approach. Some effective deterrent methods work equally well indoors and outdoors. The following table provides an overview:
| In the garden | In the house |
|---|---|
| with turpentine smell | with peppermint smell |
| Avoid food sources | with vinegar |
| used cat litter | Eliminate food sources |
| Thuja manure with castor oil | used cat litter |
| butyric acid | Pepper, chilli powder |
The general term garden includes a variety of nesting places for mice. These include compost, wood piles, birdhouses, tool sheds, garden sheds and densely leafy ground cover. Locations in the house that are often used are no less diverse, such as the basement, attic, roller shutter box, false ceiling or in the wall.
Get rid of mice in the garden
Mice are cute, but not welcome in the garden
Mice in the garden are tough opponents and are active all year round. Affected home gardeners cannot play for time and hope that a cold winter will put an end to the hustle and bustle. When temperatures drop in autumn, wild mice look for warm winter quarters and march into the house at night and in fog. Sometimes the rodents make themselves comfortable on the balcony or terrace and then set off from there on nightly forays into the house. Getting rid of mice in the garden is therefore closely linked to well-thought-out preventative measures in the house and apartment. This is how it works:
Get rid of mice - home remedies in the garden
The silver bullet against mice in the garden has yet to be invented. After all, generations of troubled home gardeners have accumulated a we alth of experience in how to get rid of mice without poison and with effective home remedies. We have summarized tried and tested deterrent methods for you below:
- Soak rags with turpentine and lay them out on walkways
- Distribute used cat litter in suspicious places and replace it regularly
- Distribute hair from people, dogs and cats in the bed
- Make manure from thuja twigs, add some castor oil and dump it on walkways
- Move compost frequently, do not cover it and water regularly
- Close garbage cans with lids as possible food sources
- Place plants in the ground as potential food sources in the vole basket
Small hills in the garden signal an infestation with voles. These mice dig tunnels to nibble on the roots of flowers, perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees. Since the pests travel underground, affected hobby gardeners can use one of the most hideous smells as a repellent. Butyric acid stinks badly to sensitive vole noses. However, the nauseating smell requires special safety precautions when using it, which must be taken into account according to the manufacturer's instructions. Furthermore, butyric acid should not be used extensively and above ground in order to avoid trouble with the neighbors.
Preventive measures
The best preventative measure against mice is cats
When you get rid of mice in the garden, you can never be sure that the gang will escape towards the terrace, garden shed, garage and apartment. Voles generally avoid residential buildings. Field mice and feral house mice, on the other hand, have no qualms about making themselves unpopular as intruders. Before you use the recommended home remedies in the garden, please carefully examine the outdoor area of adjacent buildings. Mice are gifted climbers, can swim and squeeze through tiny gaps.
Carefully seal all potential entry points. These include cracks in the masonry, open basement windows, cable ducts, door gaps, open supply pipes and a poorly insulated, leaky attic.
The trend is towards peaceful coexistence with mice in the garden. Especially in a natural garden with a balanced ecosystem, pests and beneficial insects are in balance. Where pesticides and artificial fertilizers are consistently avoided, mouse weasels, martens, foxes and polecats can be found who like to eat mice. Deciduous hedges with native bushes, piles of stones, dry stone walls, hollow tree trunks and heaped leaves invite the natural predators of mice to linger. Bird of prey perches attract hawks, buzzards and falcons to hunt mice in the garden.
Get rid of mice in the house
The offspring are booming in the kingdom of mice. Just two mice in the house are enough to be a potential source of a real nuisance. This is not an exaggerated horror scenario, but rather an important reason to take immediate measures to scare away mice at the first sign of mice in the house. The following lines explain how to recognize the presence of mice and act correctly:
Identifying mice in the house
Mouse droppings are small and elongated
As a rule, house residents are confronted with the question in late autumn and winter: How can you get rid of mice? The shy rodents only look for a way into the apartment when it gets too cold outside and the food supply dries up. You can tell whether mice have nested in your home by the following signs:
- Mouse droppings: spindle-shaped, 3-8 mm long, dark brown,
- Noises: at night in the wall, in the attic or in the false ceiling
- Smear marks: greasy traces of body fat and dirt particles
- Footprints: under the roof and basement in dusty places, prints of mouse feet
- Smell: strong smell of urine in the house, in the attic and in the basement
- Naw marks: Feeding damage on furniture and carpets as parallel grooves 1-2 cm apart
If you find dead or live mice, it's high time to take countermeasures to prevent an infestation. If mice are already running over your feet in broad daylight, you are fighting a losing battle if you try to evict them. In this case, we recommend consulting a certified exterminator.
Eliminate food sources
Mice reproduce in proportion to the food available. If the menu in the house only includes the occasional spider or beetle, you will be spared from a plague. A richly laid table, on the other hand, encourages the rodents to multiply explosively. By specifically eliminating all potential food sources, the nutritional crisis will drive all mice out of the house by spring at the latest. How to do it right:
- Store supplies in glass or metal containers (plastic is easily chewed through)
- Empty and clean the dog or cat's food bowl after every meal
- Use a trash can with a tightly locking lid
- Do not leave food lying around openly, for example as a fruit basket or biscuit bowl
- Remove all kinds of crumbs promptly
Mice are omnivores. Expulsion through food deprivation has the best chance of success if you consistently remove food, leftovers, animal feed and kitchen waste from the rodents' access. By combining this procedure with other home remedies, you can put an end to the pests. The following sections explain in more detail which non-toxic remedies these are.
Repel mice with smell
Fine noses are vital for mice when searching for food. To drive the unpopular mob out of the apartment, turn the tables and use your highly developed sensory organs against the feared tenants. You can do this by attacking your sensitive sense of smell with the following scents:
- Peppermint oil
- Vinegar
Filled in small bowls or as an oil-soaked cloth, peppermint oil does its job as a mouse repellent. Use vinegar as a cleaning agent or add a good sip of vinegar essence to any cleaning water to use this smell to drive mice out of the apartment. Other smells have been shown to be ineffective against mice in the home. The stench of turpentine cannot be used as a repellent in living spaces. At most, you can really spoil the mice's stay under the roof, in the basement or in the garage with rags soaked in turpentine.
Get rid of mice - home remedies for indoors
Smell of cat keeps mice away
Repelling mice with smell is not a patent solution, but it can of course increase the effectiveness of other home remedies. To ensure that the storage pests actually pull a leash, complete the battle plan with these two methods:
- fill used cat litter into cotton bags and distribute around the house
- sprinkle pepper and chilli powder along the streets
The procedures explained can be seamlessly transferred to mice in the garden house or garage.
Excursus
Repel mice – ultrasound in the test
Ultrasonic devices come with well-known names, such as Mouse Repellent or Stop Mouse. At first glance, the functionality is convincing. Targeted ultrasound waves are intended to drive mice out of the apartment. As a spontaneous reaction, the tormentors actually run away. However, the joy of a mouse-free house only lasts for a short time. It doesn't take long until the clever rodents find their way back under the roof, in the wall or false ceiling. Aside from their impressive adaptability to ultrasonic nuisances, the furry intelligence beasts quickly figure out that the unpleasant noises can't penetrate walls.
Tip
Mothballs have failed as a deterrent against mice. The balls contain naphthalene in a dose that only scares away clothes moths or flour moths. To drive away mice, the strong-smelling agent is required in quantities that have unpleasant or even serious consequences for humans.
Frequently asked questions
Which plants repel mice?
It sounds too good to be true. Simply plant certain plants and mice will run away from the garden. Unfortunately, the theory that plants can drive away mice is persistently floating around the internet. It is said that onion flowers, spurge plants and black elderberry have a stink bomb effect on mice. In practice, however, it has been shown that the smell of plants does not have any deterrent effect on mice in the garden. At least some plants are spared from feeding damage, such as imperial crowns, garlic or thyme.
How can you get rid of mice from the compost without poison?
The good news is: Mice do not cause any immediate damage in compost. However, there is a risk that the rodents will multiply explosively, nibble on plant roots, and enter the house, garden shed or garage. You can get rid of mice in the compost without poison by making life hell for the furry tenants. Remove the rain cover for a while. If you move the compost heap as often as possible, the annoyed mice will quickly run away.
Where can mice occur in the garden and in the house?
Mice are resourceful in their search for food and nesting places. In the garden, the rodents like to romp around in the compost, nest in dense ground cover, birdhouses and stacks of firewood. Inventive mice find shelter in the garden house or tool shed. Common occurrences in the house are in the wall, in the false ceiling, under the roof and in the basement. House mice sometimes create a nest in the roller shutter box.
Can you get rid of mice with ultrasound?
An ultrasonic device emits sound waves to drive away mice. In the short term, this method has actually been successful because the frightened rodents run away. Of course, mice are tough and won't be easily scared away from their territory. Sooner or later the furry refugees return because they are masters of adapting to the sound waves. If you don't manage to close all the entry points in the meantime, the mouse terror will start all over again. Ultimately, ultrasound devices against mice are just as useful as sweeping sand in the desert.
Tip
The cat won't stop molting. This saying suggests that having cats in the house is a good deterrent against mice. However, the modern domestic cat has everything its little heart desires. Plenty of food, loving caresses and great toys have brought the hunting instinct to a standstill. If anything, a pet tiger will occasionally catch a careless mouse. To get a real mouse infestation in the house under control, a certified exterminator is the best solution.