Mice Solution? Detox Diva

I’ve been every which way about how to remove the mice that like my house, and have tried everything. More or less success was achieved with various methods and have heard about some intriguing solutions that I haven’t yet tried. I spent a few years with an out-of-control mice population because I’ve been so reluctant to kill them, and I resorted to poison (d-con) because my daughter was getting too unnerved, only to read that the poisoned mice leave the house looking for water and are eaten by the owls, who also die. What a haunting thought.

What to do?

1. The top level, most successful solution I know about, is this: Turn off all of the lights in your basement and see where the light comes in. Do whatever is needed to block the holes.

I have a warped door frame and the crack under the door can’t be fixed unless the whole door frame is re-built, so I have had trouble doing this. I’ve recently stuffed the crack with steel wool, which mice hate, and this has been successful at blocking out the mice. Be thorough in blocking all cracks, as mice can crawl through very small holes.

2. I have found that the sonic mice repellents work within a short radius of where they are positioned. This has been fine for the kitchen but not the whole house. And I’ve experienced one brand that made me so dizzy I had to turn it off!

Pure Peppermint

3. A decent repellent is to saturate cotton balls with pure essential oil of peppermint, as mice hate peppermint. That said, you need a lot of peppermint for a big house and the smell can be a bit overwhelming at first.

Also, plant peppermint/mint near house access points, such as around bulkheads and basement doors.

4. Try a great herbal product called Fresh Cab. I tried this and the mice were so anxious to get out of the house they chewed through screen doors. The challenge is that it hasn’t worked as well since. Have my mice become resistant? The company says that the formula didn’t change….

5. The newest idea that I haven’t tried I learned on a FaceBook discussion (one started after I opened my garden compost barrel to find seven or eight mice using it as a home). This is a last resort solution if you want to kill the mice, but uses a common kitchen item, Aspartame, found in Equal. It is also known as Nutrisweet. Recommended by Stephen Tvedten in his free book The Best Control II, Stephen claims that mice (and ants, including fire ants), will die in four days. The information about Aspartame is found in chapter eleven.

Trying Traps

Note that we have tried Havahart traps –a lot set at once–and the problem here is that mice are known to travel even six miles to return to their home nest. We’d have to go on a trip every time we caught a mouse!

Other options, such as sticky traps, have been off the table for me because I couldn’t stomach the slow and torturous death that the mice experience.

I’ve also tried energy work, trying to “talk” to them and ask them to leave. Yes, I have been desperate.

What now for me? I am going to invest in a new door frame so that I can block the mice’s entrance into the house to begin with. I can’t quite face putting Equal all over the basement. I am so unhappy when I get to the last resort and poison the mice. Further, what will happen to the owls who eat the dying mice?