peppermint to repel mice?

[csrabine]

Occasionally in the winter we have mice coming into the house. I read somewhere (can't remember where) that mice hate the smell of peppermint, and you can repel them by placing fresh sprigs of peppermint where they run. Has anyone done this? Does it actually work? Would peppermint essential oil work just as well?

[Momma Aimee]

we just built a house int eh middle of a feild...........

:

[BabyBumblebee]

well, we tried peppermint e.o. last year with no *obvious* success, BUT, we have a very old leaky house with all kinds of really good mousy hiding places, so there was just nooooo way that I could get into all of the spaces (nor did I want too It did make my food cupboard smell good though...

[oneotamama]

We'll be living in our 1978 mobile home that we plopped in the middle of an old corn field too this winter. Great question!! Sorry, no advice!

[mrzmeg]

I tried *massive* amounts of peppermint, both fresh and cotton balls soaked in the essential oil, once when we had a real invasion. No success whatsoever

[Meiri]

I've heard of it repelling ants, not mice.

I don't think it repells either. I figure I should take the "word" of the ants living quite well in the spearmint patch for it.

[Sherra]

My mother told me to go to a store like home depot or orchard supply hardware and get steel wool and put it inside the holes where we thought mice were coming in at. She said they hate to chew through it to get through the hole. It seemed to work for us, guess we found the right holes. We are now free of mice for over a year now and we had yearly infestations before..embarassingly enough. Lots of holes in our townhome..grrrr.


Sherra

[Meiri]

Thank-you for posting that Sherra. I'd forgotten about that method. DH did that with a hole in one spot in our house. He also blocked the outside with a rock.

Only the occasional mouse since.