If you have a mild to moderate mouse infestation, you may not need to call pest control just yet. There are a few DIY strategies that you can try to get rid of mice, including spreading peppermint oil, stuffing steel wool into your walls, and sprinkling instant mashed potato powder.

Most homeowners will have to deal with a mouse problem at least once in their lives. These pesky rodents are experts at infiltrating homes and can squeeze through holes no bigger than a dime! Once inside, mice can cause serious damage to your home and belongings, steal food, spread disease, and sometimes even start house fires.

If you’re dealing with a manageable number of these rodents, there are some very effective home remedies for mice that you can try yourself before resorting to a professional pest control company.

This article—brought to you by

Jerry

, the

super app

for

home

and

car insurance

—will walk you through how to use some of these simple home remedies for getting rid of mice.

RECOMMENDED

Compare auto insurance policies

No spam or unwanted phone calls · No long forms

ZIP Code

Find insurance savings

Home remedies for mice

Finding out that there are mice in your house is unsettling, to say the least. Most of us have been startled at least once by an unwelcome rodent guest.

If you have mice in your house, you’ll need to get rid of them as quickly as possible. The little vermin may get into your food, gnaw on your belongings, damage your walls and floors, chew through electric cables, and spread harmful diseases through their urine and feces.

If you don’t want to spend the money for a professional exterminator’s services, don’t worry—we’ve outlined several effectivehome remedies you can try before it comes to that.

1. Peppermint oil

Peppermint may seem like a crisp, refreshing scent to us humans, but to mice, the smell is unbearably foul. They are strongly repulsed by the smell of peppermint, and they will flee or avoid areas where it is present.

Here are just a few ways that you can use this to your advantage:

Saturate cotton balls in peppermint oil. Then, place the cotton balls in doorways, closets, cabinets—any nook or cranny where a mouse might like to hang out.

Purchase a roller bottle of peppermint oil. Then, roll the oil along baseboards and other conceivable points of entry.

Grow peppermint plants along the exterior of your home to deter entrants from the outside.

The nice thing about the peppermint approach is that it will not only prevent further mice invaders but also drive out the ones inside.

MORE: Rodent Infestation? How to get mice out of your car

2. Fabric softener sheets

Another smell mice cannot stand is the scent of fabric softener sheets. While not quite as effective as peppermint, this approach allows you to stuff the sheets directly into mouse holes.

Like peppermint, you’ll want to place the sheets in doorways, entry points, and any likely hiding spots. Keep in mind that the sheets will lose their scent after a while, so you’ll need to replace them regularly.

3. Apple cider vinegar

If you need a countermeasure that’s easier to use, apple cider vinegar might be a good weapon of choice for you.

In an empty spray bottle, mix two parts apple cider vinegar with one part water. Then you’re good to go! Lock and load—just point and shoot!

This mixture will send mice scurrying away, and it can get just about anywhere you want to mist with a strong anti-mouse odor.

MORE: How to get a dead animal smell out of your car

4. Steel wool

If you really want to bolster your home’s anti-mouse defenses, invest in some steel woolpads. These marvelous little treasures act like impenetrable mouse-sized barbed wire.

Take steel wool pads and use wood or metal glue to attach them over small holes and cracks that mice could use to infiltrate your home. No matter how hard they try, the little devils will never be able to chew through the steel wool.

However, while it is an effective prevention measure, steel wool does little to remove mice that have already gotten into your house.

5. Mothballs

Another scent-based deterrent tactic is to use mothballs. Like peppermint and apple cider vinegar, mothballs have a smell that mice cannot stand. It should send them packing pretty quickly.

Here’s what you’ll need to do:

Collect a dozen or so small pieces of tupperware.

Poke several holes in the tupperware.

In each container, place 3-4 mothballs.

Place the mothball-filled containers strategically around your home.

Keep in mind, though, that mothballs are also toxic to humans and most pets. If you have pets or small children in the house, you should be careful how you deploy this countermeasure.

6. Ammonia

Fun fact—to a mouse, ammonia smells virtually indistinguishable from a predator's urine. So when mice smell ammonia, they run for their lives!

Put ammonia in little covered containers with holes punched through and place them around your house. The mice won’t get out of there fast enough.

As a plus, ammonia is an effective cleaner that can be used to disinfect areas where mice have been scurrying about.

On the downside, ammonia’s smell isn’t exactly pleasant to humans, either—it might not be a smell that you want wafting around your home for the long term. Ammonia can also be harmful to pets and small children, so take proper precautions.

7. Homemade mouse repellent

Get a little crafty in the kitchen and make a homemade mouse repellent of your own. Here’s what you’ll need:

2 tablespoons of hot sauce

½ cup of laundry detergent

2 gallons of water

Mix the water, detergent, and hot sauce. Fill a spray bottle with the mixture and spray it in areas where you see the mice a lot or where you think they may be nesting. It should scare them off.

MORE: How to keep rodents out of your car

8. Cloves

Another scent that will scare off furry invaders is the smell of cloves. Place chopped cloves or cotton balls soaked in clove essential oil near any suspected mouse hotspots. Also put some near doorways, gaps, cracks, and other possible entry points.

9. Instant mashed potatoes

One admittedly insidious way to get rid of mice in the house is to sprinkle instant mashed potato powder in areas where they like to hang out.

When the mice come across the powder, they’ll usually eat it right up. The dehydrated powder will rapidly expand in their stomachs, leading to rupture and death. No more mice!

One major drawback of this method is that, if successful, it will leave you with bloated mouse corpses to clean up.

10. Consider a cat

Traps, tricks, smelly oils, deadly powder—there are so many ways to rid yourself of a rodent problem, and some are more effective than others.

When you get right down to it, though, sometimes the oldest solutions are the best. Millenia ago, humanity perfected the perfect anti-mouse tool: the household cat.

Unlike ammonia or poison, cats don’t introduce toxic materials into the home, and unlike smells/oils, you won’t have to worry about reapplying deterrent methods. Additionally, the smell of kitty litter can work to keep them away.

However, while cats will do a good job of keeping mice at bay, they aren’t a foolproof way to eliminate a colony from your house. (Add to that how the personalities of individual cats make some more interested in killing than others.)

MORE: Tried and true ways to get rid of pet odor in your car

Homeowners insurance and mice

Unfortunately, pest infestations are not covered by virtually any type of homeowners insurance. This is because infestations of mice, rats, insects, and other animals are generally considered to be preventable issues.

The insurance company assumes that with proper home care and maintenance, you can effectively avoid a pest infestation—and for the most part, this is largely true. Basic precautions and regular mice inspections are usually sufficient to avoid a major mouse problem.

The only things covered by your home insurance will be listed as named perils in the policy.

Finding affordable home insurance

Unfortunately, damage by rodent invasion is only one of the many perils that might strike your house at any moment.

Luckily, finding affordable home insurance is quicker and more painless than you might think.

Most homeowners could easily qualify for policies that provide equal or greater coverage for a substantially lower price than they currently pay—if they only knew where to look.

Enter

Jerry

, the

home and car insurance

comparison app. Just download the app and set up your account. Jerry will pull customized quotes from the nation’s top insurance providers, compare them based on price and quality of coverage, then deliver the best results right to your phone.

Just tap to choose the policy you like best, and Jerry can help you register for the new one and cancel your existing policy. With service and savings like that, it’s no wonder that Jerry is the #1 rated insurance app on the App Store.

“
Jerry
was wonderful! I used it for my auto and renters policies. I trusted it so much that I signed up my homeowners insurance under Jerry as well. All of the agents are amazingly nice and knowledgeable.” —Mary Y.

Let Jerry find you the best homeowners insurance policy for your needs

* checking your rate won’t affect your credit score

Shop Now

* checking your rate won’t affect your credit score

What smell will keep mice away?

Mice are repelled by many odors including peppermint, ammonia, cloves, mothballs, apple cider vinegar, and fabric softener sheets.

How to get rid of mice overnight?

If you only have a few mice in your house, you might be able to get them overnight. Your best bet for immediate results would be to set traps—though there is no guarantee that the traps will work that fast. To maximize your chances, set a large number of traps and use peanut butter as bait.

The only realistic way to address a large population of mice quickly is to hire a professional exterminator. This may still take one to three months at a minimum.

What food kills mice?

Many foods that humans regularly consume are toxic to mice. Some foods that can be harmful include corn, cabbage, onions, rhubarb, and chocolate.

If, however, you’re looking for a swift and decisive kill, there’s one main food that is positively lethal. This is dehydrated instant mashed potato mix. If a mouse eats instant mashed potatoes, it will die in a matter of minutes.

Save an average of 18% by bundling your home and auto insurance

Bundle your home and auto insurance with Jerry and save!

Try Jerry