Peppermint oil and mice is like oil and water, they don't mix. One of the natural abilities is their very good sense of smell. They have very poor vision, which is why they often run tracks along the sides of your walls and the baseboards, but they have a very keen sense of smell that enables them to both find food and avoid danger. As you're probably aware peppermint oil has a very strong scent that can be overpowering for humans if not diluted or handled properly, and our noses are not nearly as sensitive as that of a rodent mouse.
When a mouse comes across the scent of peppermint oil, it overpowers its sensitive nose and repels the mouse. It is important that the peppermint oil is strategically placed around your home in areas that are likely to attract mice. I would suggest such places as your pantry, your cabinets, or any other place a mouse would find convenient to build a nest or as a food source.
To use the peppermint oil to get rid of mice, your best bet is to put a few drops of peppermint oil on a cotton swab and distribute the cotton balls where necessary. If you have pets or small children, you'll want to hide the cotton balls so that they cannot gain access to them. It kind of defeats the purpose if you're dog goes and eats all your cotton balls, or your cat uses them as a toy... I guess if you have a Though, is not doing a very good job of keeping out the mice if you're deploying peppermint oil throughout your home. It's really as simple as that.
Many people have written in asking where they can find peppermint oil, so I have provided a link for you to Amazon where you can purchase it and have it sent to your home: 100% Peppermint Oil.
Good luck with your mouse prevention efforts!
4 comments:
can spearmint be substituted for pepermint?
It's not quite the same... if you're going to try this method, you definitely want to stick with the peppermint oil. Its scent is stronger than that of spearmint.
I have both cats and dogs in my home. Dogs have a very strong sence of smell too. Will the smell harm or bother the dogs or the cats.
York -
I don't think that it would necessarily be harmful for your pets. You may find that your dogs try to eat the cotton balls, or you cats play with them as toys though. It may also affect their ability to smell other things in the area because the peppermint overwhelms other scents, but that would be true for people as well.
For this method to be effective, you really need the smell to be concentrated where the mice are likely to be at or the point at which they may enter your home.
Really, most effective use of peppermint as a mice deterrent is to grow the plant around your home. Unfortunately this is not always practical, and the plants may start to overtake your yard.
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