How to Get Rid of Mice Without Killing Them
Nobody likes the invasion of mice, but not everyone wants to harm the fluffy parasites that may have entered your home. Luckily, you can scare off mice without leaving their little carcasses scattered all over the floor, the attic, or wherever they can hide.
Here are some ways to get mice out of your house without hurting them so you can keep your home – and your conscience – a little cleaner.
What mice do in your home
Don’t be fooled by Disney-themed mice – a lone mouse can be cute, but together they contribute to dirt and structural degradation in your home. Mice are peeing all over the place, use urine as a roadmap for other mice, with each micro-pond exuding odors that other mice use to chart a route to your meal. They are prolific breeders whose population can grow at an incredible rate. Their droppings spread disease. They bite through electrical wires and rob your goods and products. It’s not fun at all, frankly.
But if you hear mice running around at night, you don’t need to put up with their troubles.
Use scents to take them away
Mice hate some specific odors, most notably mint. You may find the smell pleasant, but the mouse would rather bask in its own mud than be near peppermint oil, so you should soak cotton balls and spread them throughout your home. Cloves can also be used to repel mice, and you can use them for a similar purpose – seasoning them with pepper all over the house, where you suspect mice might congregate.
The all-natural scent option has a caveat, however, that mice are cunning and can probably find a way around any traps you set, and since scents are not widely considered a reliable option, it’s best that you combine these measures with a few other tactics.
Protect your home from mice
You have to consider how mice can enter your home – mainly through holes and cracks in the walls, floors, and foundations that you live in.
Cover any openings that can be used by mice, wood, sheet metal, steel wool, or something else that is very strong and suitable for crevices. Mice are quite tenacious when motivated, so you need to make sure the material you use won’t break over time.
Perhaps most importantly, you need to make sure your home is a clean environment that the mouse family won’t be interested in. This means ridding your home of any potential nesting sites by regularly taking out trash in addition to cleaning up the trash. cans, and even seal the gaps in doors and windows with weatherproof tape.
Spread on aluminum foil
Mice and rats dislike aluminum foil, so spreading sheets of aluminum foil around entry points can scare them away. Be prepared for them to find some tricky workaround, as you probably won’t be sticking aluminum foil to all floors.
Buy non-lethal traps
These are traps that do not kill or injure mice, at least not by design. It’s kind of a classic cartoon trick: set traps where you think mice might be swarming, place some decoy in the trap, and as soon as the mouse enters, the door slams shut.
Non-lethal traps can be time consuming if you want to get it right. Obviously, you don’t want to let your mouse go anywhere near your home, so you need to drive it away a few miles away and place it in a supportive environment. You can find non-lethal mousetraps at most hardware stores.
Use other repellents
Non-toxic chemical repellents come in many forms: there are sprays, pads, and ultrasonic repellents that emit high-frequency waves that you can’t hear but sounds like hell to mice. There is no guarantee that any one method or combination will suffice, so this is another one where you want to try whatever combination of deterrents and traps you think are necessary for your mouse problem.