Mice

How to Identify and Get Rid of Mice

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Mice can be quite frustrating when they munch on your plants and on your pantry snacks. Find out how to identify them and get rid of them.

Mice in the Garden and Home

Mice live near humans. Though it’s probably impossible to get rid of every single mouse, you need to keep them under control before they chew your garden and house apart.

Mice are bothersome and costly, because they contaminate a great deal of food for humans. Either by eating our crops or getting into our cupboards, mice will find a way to eat up our food supply. While they probably won’t cause significant damage to your home or your garden, seeing a mouse scurrying by can be quite a shock. Here are some helpful tips for keeping mice out of your garden and home.

Identification

How to Identify Mice

Mice are small rodents that have relatively large ears and small black eyes. They are usually gray or light brown. Mice weigh about ½ of an ounce, and they are five to seven inches in length. Their tail adds an additional three to four inches to that length. Mice are characterized by a musky odor, and they are often active at night.

Mouse Damage

Mice love to tunnel and chew. Partially eaten potatoes or carrots are a sign of mice activity. They also love to eat newly sown seeds. In the home, they’ll chew small holes in cloth materials. Mice leave small droppings too, so if you see any, you might have an infestation.

identify-mouse-damage.jpg
Photo credit: Pixabay

Control and Prevention

How to Get Rid of Mice

Here are the best ways to get rid of mice. Try some of these methods for your garden and home:

  • Try using dryer sheets to keep mice out of linen closets or stored clothes.
  • To protect bulbs, cage them or surround the bulb with crushed gravel in the planting hole.
  • Wrap tree trunks with tree wrap or hardware cloth at their base.
  • Try a mouse repellent containing ammonium; see your local garden center.
  • Use a humane mouse trap or snap trap baited with peanut butter near mouse paths.
  • Sonic mouse deterrents placed in the garden may help to keep mice away.

Prevent Mice

  • In the home, check for pathways that are allowing mice to gain easy access. Seal them up. Try stuffing steel wool into the cracks and holes around your foundation.
  • Remove easy food and water. Clean up pet food dishes and keep garbage bins closed.
  • In the garden, avoid using straw as mulch or any fluffy mulch that provides nesting places.
  • There are several plants that are believed to repel mice. Mint, pennyroyal, garlic, and onion are just a few. Try planting them in your garden.
  • Mice are also repelled by camphor, lavender, and wormwood. You can find dried lavender in health food stores and some garden centers. 
  • Get a cat! Sometimes, even just the scent of cats will be enough to deter mice from returning to an area.
  • To make sure that mice aren’t getting to your favorite spring flowers, check out this list of rodent-proof bulbs.

See more about common garden pests like rabbits and moles.

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mice in car

Submitted by Sally Arsenault on

I have an '09 Forrester and I have a problem with mice getting into the car. Have tried Bounce sheets and moth balls, they used the sheets in their nest right next to he bag of moth balls. I put bags of "Mouse Magic " down and they just ate into the bags. I now have 3 battery run sonic boxes that seemed to work for a time (yes, the batteries are good) but now that cold weather is here they are back in my car. I have put snap traps in the car and the snap traps work but I would rather deter them than trap them. Any ideas? I don't mind sharing my space but when driving down the road and one jumps up into the passenger seat it is disconcerting and I worry about the damage they can do. Also can't find where they are getting in.

Not a Mickey Mouse Problem!

The Editors's picture

Submitted by The Editors on

Hi, Sally: We feel your pain. Have you asked your local Subaru dealer where they might be getting in? They probably get this all the time. The glove compartment is always a main suspect in any car. Take it out if you can, to get a better look, but even if you can’t, try to cover any openings that you see in there with duct-taped wire mesh or screening, being careful not to restrict any necessary air flow. Another possibility is what is called the rear air vent grilles on either side of the tire/ trunk compartment, which let air escape when you close the car doors—but these are hard to get to. In the end, the best thing to do is to mouseproof your car as you would a house foundation: Go through the engine compartment sides (firewall between it and cabin), the trunk, and the underside of the car as best you can, and painstakingly screen off every single opening of every size. Good luck, and thanks for asking!

Mice Traps

Submitted by Kelly K on

I've seen a DIY mouse trap that works good for in shops or garages. Get a 5 gallon bucket, a stiff piece of wire and a tin can. Poke holes in the top & bottom of the can and run the wire though it so the can will spin on the wire. Next make a hole on either side of the bucket and put the wire through them so you have the can laying horizontal in the center of the top of the bucket. Smear peanut butter on the can. Lean a board or something from the ground to the top of the bucket so the mice have something to climb on. They will smell the peanut butter, climb the board, jump to the can to get the peanut butter. The can will spin and the mice will fall into the bucket. You can dispatch them from there or have a couple inches of water at the bottom of the bucket so they fall in and drown. Seems a little cruel but it works.

Mice

Submitted by Susan Jennings on

My brother invented a natural product that you can use on mousetraps. It attracts them to the trap. Good stuff.

mice

Submitted by minnie m. on

they say to pour ammonia or soak rags with ammonia and put where the mice enter your home.

Mice !

Submitted by Deeda on

The mice I had in the house cannot get to any dried beans, rice,pasta, etc because I keep everything that is dried in glass jars. Fresh produce [ root crops ] are in bins, up on shelves, and they didn't seem to find them. My biggest problem was Ivory BAR SOAP ! By the time I discovered there were mice in the house, they had chewed the edges of ELEVEN BARS, as well as 3 brand new tubes of tooth paste ! ACK ! Mouse traps baited with peanut butter did not work . . . I would find the traps tripped each morning. Smart little critters ! I finally had to resort to poison, but they didn't "take them" . . . they just moved them to different locations ! I set a few under the bathtub and under the bathroom sink, and would find the little cubes in the drawers with the tooth paste the next day. Then all of a sudden the mice were gone, so I am thinking they got enough poison in their system, while moving them, to finally kill them. That is the last I have seen of mice, and we closed up all the gaps where the plumbing comes through the walls. Mice ! Nasty little critters !

Mice

Submitted by Margaret on

I used to get mice - only one or two at a time, then nothing for months. Bait stopped working, they wouldn't eat it. So I switched to snap traps (Victor easy set) baited with peanut butter. Mice cannot resist PB (who can?). They have worked great. I haven't had a mouse in well over a year, but I keep a trap baited and set just in case. It gets them before they get into anything else.

My landlord removed my deck and put down patio stones. I think they were nesting under the deck and now that it's, gone, they have gone. So, if you have a deck and you have mice, they may be living under it.

My tomatoes are still green

Submitted by Stormw Walley on

My tomatoes are still green and something is putting holes in them, wat can I do

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