How to Get Rid of Mice in the House with Home Remedies

Are the sounds of scurrying mice in the house driving you absolutely crazy? Fortunately, there are a number of home remedies as well as prevention steps you can take to get rid of the rodents once and for all. Here are our top suggestions for getting rid of mice quickly using home remedies.

1. Use Humane Mice Traps

If you see one mouse in the house then it is very likely that there are more lingering around which you haven’t yet identified. We suggest buying a few units of humane mouse traps and setting them around the house. It may take some experimentation for these traps to succeed but they will work once you have found the right bait and right location to set them in. Don’t place these traps in the open as mice are careful creatures and won’t wander into a space that they deem to be dangerous. Instead, place the traps along the wall or in tight spaces where the mice are frequently seen.

2. Create a Bucket or Trash Can Trap

You can also create your own DIY mice trap using a few items that you may already have at home. What you will need is a tall bucket, a long cardboard tube (e.g. a pringles can or the leftover tube from paper towels) that the mice can fit through, and some peanut butter.

First, place the tall bin or bucket next to the kitchen counter. Next, smear some peanut butter to the very end of one side of the cardboard tube. You will then carefully balance the cardboard tube on the edge of the kitchen counter (with the smeared side pointing outwards). The idea behind this trap is to get the mice to enter the tube from being attracted by the scent of the peanut butter. Once they reach a certain point, the cardboard tube will fall via gravity and the mice will get trapped inside the tall bin.

3. Keep Your House Spotlessly Clean

Don’t give the mice a reason to enter your home, especially during the cold winter when food outside is hard to come by. Vacuum your house every day and make sure the trash gets disposed of regularly. The slightest scent of food odor will attract mice and other unwanted rodents inside the house. It may help to get a trash can that comes with a tight-sealing lid.

4. Lock Food inside Hard Containers

In addition to keeping your house clean, make sure all your food is stored away in hard plastic or glass containers. Pay special attention to the food in the kitchen cabinets. You don’t want the mice to gnawing through plastic bags or paper boxes filled with food like rice grains and cereals.

5. Block All Entry Points

If you live in a standalone house then it may be worthwhile to do a careful examination of both the interior and exterior spaces to figure out where the mice are entering from. Some houses, for example, may have weep holes which are common entry points for small rodents. In such cases, you may want to purchase a metal-based cover to prevent the mice from entering.

Mice have very flexible bodies and will somehow squeeze through very small holes. You will be surprised by the many different parts of the home they will scurry through, including the gaps behind ceilings and walls. Make sure they are all sealed tight or blocked with materials which the mice can’t easily gnaw through.

6. Fix Leaky Water Pipes

Food isn’t the only thing that attracts mice. During dry weather, mice will also enter homes in seek of water. Make sure there’s no open water in or around the house by fixing any pipes that are leaking.

One final tip. We strongly suggest staying away from rodenticide-based products. In most cases, the effects of the mice poison aren’t always immediate. This gives time for a poisoned mouse to enter spaces behind the wall or other areas which aren’t easy for you to access. You will then end up with a decaying rodent smell around the house which most people would attest to as being awful.