Place cotton ball saturatd with Peppermint Oil. Works for us in our RV

It was a rainy year last year (2016) so they are probably going to be worse for a while. I haven't seen the mice for a while, but have an infestation of crazy ants. Will be doing a major cleaning over the next couple of weeks.

Do not use bait or poison as they can go and birds, anything can go after and get poisoned from that in the rats/mice.

There were several stories earlier in the fall about an increase in the rodent populations and many people were having more issues than usual. We use traps with peanut butter.

My daughter said she had an "ant run" into her kitchen at Christmas! What's with that? That happens in May/June!

I've lived in this house since 1975, and this is the worst year for mice that I can remember. I try to trap them before the cats do their thing--on the theory that a quick kill is better than being tossed around in the air. Although the mice might disagree with that, as they occasionally escape from the cats.

The stray cat that came with the house started bringing us mice about a month ago. He is coming over the fence to the left of our house. Then he started bringing us glue traps with mice in them. I have no idea where he is getting them. I don't want to ask the neighbors because I don't want to embarrass anyone who might be having a mouse problem.

We are having a mouse issue in our office. The exterminator suggested the sticky traps vs the traps that snap, especially for the little or baby mice. We've always used the traps that snap but this time we're trying the sticky traps....we'll see how many we got over the weekend :-)

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that, Always1stepbehind. In the sticky traps, mice die a slow, tortuous death, usually by suffocation or starvation. Because glue traps are so widely available, they are responsible for more suffering than any other form of wildlife control. Terribly cruel.

Mice look for warm quarters whenever it turns cold or wet. We have had cold and wet weather, and the neighborhood cat population is decreasing with folks moving, old age and coyotes. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

Based on advice from previous thread I used chocolate, actually Smuckers hot fudge sauce, worked great.

What possibly can be done so as not to waste the opened jar still containing fudge sauce?

Sheilas right about the mice looking for warmth. The exterminator mentioned that too and said that's why they were back and forth to our kitchenette area of our office.

Glue traps are horrendous. I had a pet mouse for two years. They don't deserve to suffer like that.

I agree 100% about the glue traps. How anyone with a smidge of humanity in them can use those is beyond me. I'm not saying that they're bad people .... just not thinking it through.

I think I will ask the immediate neighbor about the traps, although I have no idea where the cat is actually bringing them from. I was just so glad it wasn't poison I didn't think it the rest of the way through. Thanks all.

A couple people have mentioned peppermint, could someone please explain?

Snap traps I bought did not work. Mouse took the cheese and ran.

poison left mice in the wall to smell. takes weeks for smell to go away.

glue traps? Gets rid of them but really bothers me to think about after they

are caught.

whats the answer?

like Lucile asked peppermint?

We noticed some droppings in the attic when getting the Christmas things down this year, so I thought I'd try the peppermint oil deterrent. I put some of the oil (is it an oil?) on a couple of paper towels and threw them up there; I've read you can also soak a cotton ball. So far, so good, though we'll keep checking.

We've had times where the snap traps weren't working because we had wood rats and mice. The sticky traps were the only thing that would catch the culprit. We had to manually kill the critters. I'm not a germophobe and a few mice don't scare me. Wild critters do carry diseases. Hantavirus was a concern in one place where we lived. Here, the wood rats got into someone's attic and did some damage. They got in my packing boxes in my garage and destroyed some things I had really wanted to keep.

Cooper8828,

good for you for stepping up! Yes, they are most likely nice people who just never thought about it before. A lot of times an exterminator just tells us what we should do and we blindly follow. The exterminators, for whatever reason, don't even educate their clients about how the poisons might kill non target animals etc. For your neighbors, if they are going to kill the mice, they need to get snap traps because those usually are instant and don't cause suffering (not all the time, but it's the most humane way to kill them) and the traps need to be enclosed so, for instance, a cat's paw can't be caught or a bird or squirrel isn't killed, etc. And even in those enclosures, sometimes another animals head can get caught in them and then something kills the stuck animal. It's all pretty awful. The most risk free way to do it is to have the traps IN your home where unsuspecting animals aren't at risk. (I'm no expert and just sharing what I've recently learned because there was a rodent problem in this new house we are renting and I've been working with the exterminators to seal the house and live catch and release what we have inside).

Lucille,

If you google, you will see that it's universally accepted that peppermint oil repels mice. When we moved in, I soaked cotton balls with peppermint oil to put near the holes where we saw droppings and that seemed to make a difference. We have since sealed the holes. In fact, when I was buying the peppermint oil, a guy next to me in line was telling me he did the same thing to an attic space and it worked like a charm. Our exterminators are going to install a seal for our garage doors that allows us to open it and keep rodents out. When they do it, I can let you know how it works because that is a better long term solution. But today, you could line the entrance of your garage with peppermint soaked cotton balls, or you can try a products like these granules ( granules). I have some but haven't used them yet so can't vouch about how effective they are. For anyone who might be interested in a live mouse trap, this works really well (live mouse trap).

Lucillie,

Here are a couple links for you to check out incase you find them helpful

http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Mice-Naturally

https://www.bobvila.com/slideshow/11-ways-to-get-rid-of-mice-47935/cleaning-prevents-mice

Though definitely do not want VERMIN running around my house, do have a few conditions when it comes to hunting them down. No real FEAR... more like grossed out when evidence of them being around your food/kitchen/in drawers. EW! When discovered my pantry had been raided (one of those clear "shoe boxes" eating into and half of a 5 lb bag of flour gone)... put EVERYTHING in glass or really sturdy containers.

Have a cat who has left me "presents" on 2 occasions. Those glue traps seem like torture even for VERMIN. Friend was waxing skis iin his garage... involves a gizmo that melts the wax and a wheel that skis glide across for an even coating. He went into garage to HEAR/find a mouse STICK in the wax!? It musta wandered in when wax wasn;'t screaming hot but more like "quicksand"?

I'm frugal/cheap but willing to pay MORE for snap traps where there's nothing to see afterward. Sister had a harrowing experience when one/both/either dogs got into D-con that was gonna be left at her place in mountains. EXPENSIVE few days at animal hospital... stomachs pumped, blood drawn, vitamin K shots. Luckily no bad outcome tho vet said by the time dogs had acted sick would have been as good as dead!?!

I have purchased Peppermint Fragrance Oil from Soap Making Suppliers, and I soak cotton balls in the oil, place the balls in those small plastic cups, and put them all over the RV. Another thing that worked well is shavings of Original Irish Spring soap. Replace when the scent dissipates. I spray my storage boxes a bit as well unless the are plastic bin types.

How long does the peppermint soaked cotton work?When it evaporates, is there enough left on the cotton to do anything?

I believe ACV (cider vinegar) is another one they are supposed to be 'repeled' by.

Wouldn't they like to use cotton for nesting material?

Building for the Cats, thank you for the links. I believe my street and the others like it, leading to the high school, is a perfect environment for vermin, as there is a steady supply of half eaten food littered in the yards by passing students.

The high school itself has a team of staff that walk the perimeter early every morning and pick up food and trash. There are also several cats that look like they live on the grounds with a couple of kittens.

Apparently as mice try to get chocolate off cotton, it triggers snap. Worked great.

I take an eye dropper about 1 time a month, and just put a few drops into the little cups of cotton balls. So far no missing balls, and not a trace of those meeces!

Lucille, I hope you've had success. I'm remembering that my kids' high school had kids who were caught doing something wrong pick up trash after school. Wish all schools could do this.

I worked in a school system for many years (as a nurse), in an elementary school, and in the earlier years kids who stayed after because of misbehavior did with the help of a teacher help pick up the playground. By the time I retired there were liability worries.

And not only worries of some criminal prank, there were worries that kids needed gloves to pick up half eaten stuff because of the possibility of disease. The teachers would come by the clinic for gloves, and I was always happy to give them as many as they requested.