Nobody likes to share their living space with mice. If the reproductive rodents cavort in the garden or house, a plague of mice can quickly develop. Hobby gardeners who are close to nature do not condemn the uninvited guests to death, but mortify the pack and never see them again. Read this guide on how to successfully repel mice without poison. This is how it works outdoors and indoors with natural means.

Live traps are a good way to catch existing mice

Table of Contents

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  1. the essentials in brief
  2. how to evict mice
  3. Sell in the garden
  4. Expel in the house
  5. frequently asked Questions
  6. the essentials in brief

    • Mice in the garden invade the home, where they are not tolerated as dreaded food pests and disease vectors.
    • Animal lovers drive mice away with a combination of smell, manual methods and home remedies instead of subjecting the furry ones to martial snap traps and agonizing death by poison.
    • Driving away mice without poison and comprehensive preventive measures on the house, terrace, garage and garden shed (€24.90) are the best option against a plague.

    Drive away mice - overview of where and how

    The strategy you use to keep mice away depends on where the rodents have nested. Outside in the garden, on the balcony and terrace, you can counteract the rabble with tougher 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 a smell of turpentine with a peppermint smell
    Avoid food sources with vinegar
    used cat litter Eliminate food sources
    Thuja juice with castor oil used cat litter
    butyric acid pepper, chilli powder

    Various nesting places for mice come together under the umbrella term garden. These include compost, woodpile, birdhouse, tool shed, garden shed and dense-leaved ground cover. Locations in the house that are often used are no less diverse, such as the basement, attic, roller shutter box, intermediate ceiling or in the wall.

    Drive away mice in the garden

    Mice may be cute, but they're not very popular in the garden

    Mice in the garden are hardened opponents and 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 the temperatures drop in autumn, wild mice look for a warm winter quarters and march into the house at night and in the fog. Sometimes the rodents make themselves comfortable on the balcony or terrace in order to set out from there on nightly forays into the house. Keeping mice away from the garden is therefore closely linked to well thought-out preventive measures in the house and apartment. How to do it:

    Drive away mice - home remedies in the garden

    The silver bullet against mice in the garden has yet to be invented. After all, generations of plagued home gardeners have accumulated a wealth of experience on how to drive away mice without poison and using effective home remedies. We have summarized proven deterrence methods for you below:

    • Soak rags in 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 liquid manure out of thuja branches, add some castor oil and pour out on walkways
    • Turn over the compost frequently, do not cover it and water it regularly
    • Close garbage cans as possible sources of food with lids
    • Place plants in the soil in the vole basket as potential food sources

    Small hills in the garden signal an infestation with voles. These mice dig tunnels to nibble at the roots of flowers, perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees. Since the pests are underground, affected hobby gardeners can use one of the most disgusting smells as a repellent. Butyric acid stinks to sensitive vole noses. However, the nauseating odor requires special safety precautions during use, which must be taken into account according to the manufacturer's instructions. Furthermore, butyric acid should not be used across the board or above ground in order to avoid trouble with the neighbours.

    preventive measures

    The best preventive measure against mice are cats

    If you drive mice away in the garden, you can never be sure that the gang will flee in the direction of 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 invaders. Before you use the recommended home remedies in the garden, please carefully examine the outside area of adjacent buildings. Mice are gifted climbers, can swim and squeeze through tiny crevices.

    Carefully seal any 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 balanced. Weasels, martens, foxes and polecats, who like to eat mice, can be found wherever pesticides and artificial fertilizers are consistently avoided. Deciduous hedges with native shrubs, piles of stones, dry stone walls, hollow tree trunks and piled up 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

    In the kingdom of mice, the offspring is booming. Even two mice in the house are enough as a potential source for a real plague. This is not an exaggerated horror scenario, but an important reason for immediate deterrence measures at the first sign of mice in the house. The following lines explain how to recognize the presence of mice and act correctly:

    Identify mice in the house

    Mouse droppings are small and oblong

    As a rule, in late autumn and winter, residents of the house are faced with the question: how to drive away mice? The shy rodents only look for a way into the apartment when it gets too cold outside and the food supply runs dry. You can tell from the following indications whether mice have nested in you:

    • mouse droppings: fusiform, 3-8 mm long, dark brown,
    • Sounds: at night in the wall, in the attic or in the false ceiling
    • smears: greasy traces of body fat and dirt particles
    • footprints: under the roof and cellar in dusty places imprints of mouse feet
    • odor: strong smell of urine in the house, in the attic and in the cellar
    • gnawing marks: Galling damage to 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 a plague. If mice are already walking over your feet in broad daylight, you are on a losing battle with expulsion measures. 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 has a spider or a beetle to offer from time to time, you will be spared a plague. A richly laid table, on the other hand, encourages the rodents to multiply explosively. By purposefully eliminating all potential food sources, the food 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 nibbled through)
    • Empty and clean the dog or cat's feeding bowl after each meal
    • Use garbage cans with a tightly closing lid
    • Do not leave food lying around, for example in a fruit basket or biscuit bowl
    • Remove crumbs of all kinds promptly

    Mice are omnivores. Repelling by deprivation of food has the best chance of success if you consistently remove food, leftovers, pet food and kitchen waste from rodents' access. By combining this procedure with other home remedies, you give the pests the rest.

    Mice drive away with smell

    Fine noses are essential for the survival of mice when searching for food. In order to evict the unpopular pack from the apartment, you turn the tables and use the highly developed sensory organ against the dreaded lodgers. You can do this by attacking the sensitive sense of smell with the following scents:

    • peppermint oil
    • vinegar

    Filled in small bowls or as an oil-soaked rag, peppermint oil fulfills its task as a mouse repellent. Use vinegar as a cleaning agent or add a good sip of vinegar essence to any cleaning water to drive mice out of the apartment with this smell. Other smells have proven ineffective against mice in the house. The stench of turpentine is not a suitable means of expelling people in living areas. At most, under the roof, in the basement or in the garage, you can thoroughly spoil the stay for mice with rags soaked in turpentine.

    Drive away mice - home remedies for indoors

    Cat smell keeps mice away

    Repelling mice with smell is not a panacea, but can of course increase the effect of other home remedies. In order for the supply pests to actually pull the leash, complete the battle plan with these two methods:

    • Fill used cat litter into cotton bags and spread around the house
    • Scatter pepper and chilli powder along the walkways

    The procedures explained can be seamlessly transferred to mice in the garden shed or in the garage.

    digression

    Drive away mice - Ultrasound in the test

    Ultrasonic devices come with evocative names such as Mice Scare or Stop Mouse. At first glance, the functionality is convincing. Targeted ultrasound waves are intended to drive mice out of the home. As a spontaneous reaction, the tormentors actually run away. However, the joy of a mouse-free house is short-lived. It doesn't take long for the clever rodents to find their way back under the roof, in the wall or in the false ceiling. Aside from their impressive adaptability to ultrasonic tribulations, the furry intelligent beasts quickly find that the unpleasant sounds cannot penetrate walls.

    tips

    Mothballs have failed as a deterrent against mice. The balls contain naphthalene in a dose that only repels clothes moths or flour moths. In order to repel mice, the strong-smelling agent is required in quantities that can have unpleasant to 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 start looking for space in the garden. Unfortunately, the thesis that plants could drive away mice stubbornly haunts the net. It is said that onion flowers, spurge plants or black elder have a stink-bomb effect on mice. In practice, however, it has been found that the smell of plants does not scare away mice in the garden. At least some plants are spared from feeding damage, such as imperial crowns, garlic or thyme.

    How to get rid of mice from compost without poison?

    The good news is, mice do no immediate harm in the compost. However, there is a risk that the rodents will multiply explosively, nibble on plant roots, or enter the house, garden shed or garage. You can drive away mice in the compost without poison by making life miserable for the furry lodgers. 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 appear in the garden and in the house?

    Mice are resourceful in their search for food and nesting sites. In the garden, rodents like to frolic in the compost, nest in dense ground cover, birdhouses and stacks of firewood. Resourceful mice can find shelter in the garden shed or tool shed. Frequent occurrences in the house are found in the wall, in the false ceiling, under the roof and in the basement. Sometimes house mice create a nest in the roller shutter box.

    Can you repel mice with ultrasound?

    An ultrasonic device emits sound waves to scare away mice. In the short term, this method has actually been successful because the frightened rodents take to their heels. Of course, mice are tough and don't let themselves be scared away from their territory that easily. Sooner or later, the furry fugitives will return because they have become masters of adaptation to the sound waves. If you don't manage to close all entry gates in the meantime, the mouse terror will start all over again. Ultimately, ultrasonic devices against mice are just as useful as sweeping sand in the desert.

    tips

    The cats does not stop to mice. This idiom suggests that having cats in the house is a good deterrent against mice. However, the modern domestic cat has everything her 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 an unwary mouse. In order to bring a real plague of mice under control in the house, the certified exterminator is the best solution.