If the odor of peppermint oil is a repellent for mice, then wouldn't using an air freshener with peppermint fragrance do the same thing?
By Gayle Buck from Alabama, Gulf Coast
The cleanest of houses can get mice inside, especially in very cold or inclement weather. A good strong peppermint gum chicklet would last longer than a spraying of air freshener. It will deteriorate some and that is when you would replace it with another one.
Mice will get inside for any number of reasons..especially in the fall, no matter how spotless you keep your house.
I have read that using Bounce fabric softer sheets will repel them so I am putting some in my cabinets and behind my appliances to test that theory.
You could put the peppermint oil on some cotton balls, put the cotton balls in small lids and stick those in cabinets, under appliances. in crawlspaces, etc. The plus side would also be the nice, clean smell.
Short answer: No, not at all. How do I know?
I spent $20+ on two 4-oz. bottles of 100% pure peppermint essential oil. Saturated about 30-35 cotton balls and spread them around inside my 1800-1900 square foot house, especially in the kitchen. Used a whole bottle. The house reeked of peppermint, but it was a good reek. I thought this was going to be great.
During the first five days, I'd occasionally hear a mouse-like sound, or see a furtive movement out of the corner of my eye, but I did not see a mouse. I convinced my self that the noise was my own stomach and that the movement was only a reflection in my glasses. On day six I opened the small kitchen drawer that holds our flatware. New mouse droppings everywhere inside it--including next to the cotton ball I had saturated and put inside this small drawer, which still was giving off potent peppermint odor.
Later that day I saw a mouse come out from behind our clothes dryer where I had tossed two saturated cotton balls. I opened the second bottle of peppermint oil and tossed two more heavily-saturated cotton balls behind the dryer. The next morning I watched a mouse come out from behind the dryer, do an amazing acrobatic act for about 30 seconds, then turn around and go back behind the dryer again. So much for peppermint repelling mice.
I think the people on this site who tell you that 100% peppermint oil works are either: (1) wishful thinkers; (2) people who just spoke too soon; or (3) people who work for companies selling peppermint oil. Even if my second application of peppermint oil had worked for another five days (and I don't think it worked in the first place), $10-worth of peppermint oil every five days comes to about $750 a year. But since it doesn't work anyway, what does that matter?
I have mice, I put peppermint oil out and yes, they did come out of their hiding spots, but I was ready with the bated sticky pads and raid mouse traps and I caught and killed 9 in one weekend. I put the peppermint oil (100% essential oil) in my mop water and clean the floors with it. Before I did this, some of the mice were so bold as to jump into my dogs food and take a piece while I was 5 feet away.
It works, really. Please make sure you are using a pure peppermint essential oil and that you are using the right amount of it. I'd hate for you to pass up on this remedy. I used it on a clients home. I worked 7pm to 7am as a private caregiver and the clients home had mice bad. I use oils at home so I used it throughout her home on cotton balls, I bought her a $15 diffuser on amazon and started burning the oil and the client loved it.
We saturated cotton balls with 100% peppermint oil last winter and placed them all around the house where we noted mice traffic. It did nothing to run the mice out. Even saw them running back and forth across the cotton balls. Almost ran us out of the house though.
The best repellant for mice is to keep a clean house and make sure breads and cereals are in conatiners mice can't chew through.
I do keep a clean house (thank you very much) and all foods are put away. We live in a rural area and occasionally one finds its way into the house from the fields. I've read that putting peppermint oil on the baseboards and openings to outside can deter them, and am wondering if just using a strong peppermint air freshener would do the same thing.
It's true that the cleanest of houses can still get mice. I live across from a field and they "come over to visit" occasionally, no matter what I do. Here's what I'm doing and have done in my continuing mouse wars, LOL. Outside, I've cleared away brush and anything growing too close to the house & will be planting peppermint and spearmint. Mice hate that. These are invasive, so be careful where/how you plant them.
Inside, I checked for any places they could be getting in and sealed/repaired, adding steel wool to prevent chewing wherever I could.
When deep cleaning a room (I swear by FlyLady) I spray my baseboards & under cabinets, etc with wintergreen essential oil mixed with wintergreen scented rubbing alcohol. If you don't like the wintergreen smell, don't do this.
Peppermint & spearmint should grow indoors in pots. I'm going to try it soon. You can steep a tea from the leaves. I plan to spray that for the scent too. I have these plants all around my vegetable garden, sunk in pots to keep them in control.
Regarding the air freshener, it may or may not work. It just depends on the ingredient that creates the mint fragrance. You may be better off purchasing peppermint and/or spearmint essential oil and a carrier oil and making your own spray.
Do some searches for organic mice control or herbal mice or rodent control and you should come up with some more ideas.
Best of luck to you - hope this helps,
Sylvia
I found that my Yorkie (Zyon) does a great job in catching the mice and always alert us when a mice is in the area. You rock Zyon
I have been using peppermint oil for over three weeks and it did not work.
Peppermint Essential Oils and peppermint air fresheners are not even in the same ballpark on potency, purity, (a mouse can tell the difference between pure peppermint and watered down artificially created peppermint room freshener. As an example, my company uses 1 pound of Peppermint leaves to make one 15 ml bottle. There are also approximately 300 drops in a 15 ml bottle, which will last you longer than an air freshener, and without the unhealthy chemicals.
So how did you get rid of them you if it didn't work
I tried the Essential Peppermint oil with no success. But they moved out when I started using the Glade plug in and solid peppermint freshener and even some cleaning solution I found on line.
Good answer. Thank you so much for that
