
While there are many possible reasons for mice to enter our homes, there are also many ways to repel mice.
From industry standard methods such as steel wool and traps to natural repellents such as peppermint oil and cayenne pepper, there’s a pest control method for each and every person trying to get rid of mice.
An often overlooked strategy to repel mice is the use of vinegar. Keep reading to find out how to use vinegar to get rid of mice.
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How does vinegar get rid of mice?
Mice have incredibly strong and sensitive noses, meaning that they can pick up on the very slightest of scents. This also means that some particularly strong scents can overwhelm and irritate them. Vinegars, common kitchen items, are one of these strong scents that smell like a potent acid and that are very irritable to mice.
Because a mouse’s sense of smell is so sensitive, even just a little but of vinegar could be enough to make mice feel uncomfortable. However, it’s important to note that vinegar alone DOES NOT get rid of mice. It’s merely a layer to the repelling mice cake. Vinegar falls into the repellent category of natural house remedies that emit powerful smells, and these repellents should be used in combination with other, more effective methods.
To control your mouse problem, it’s essential to address the root cause of the problem: mice are attracted to something in your home. Most often, mice enter a home for food and shelter. The most productive thing you can do to address this fact is to assess the potential food sources in your home that may attract mice.
The accessible food sources in your home will tell you a lot about your mouse situation. If your kitchen floor and counters are covered in crumbs, if you have open cans of trash and bowls of pet food, then mice have a green light to enter your home. Vinegar sprayed outside your home or along the walls in your home will do little to nothing at preventing mice from entering. This is why it is essential to eliminate the food sources.
The other scenarios to use vinegar are where you either have just eliminated all of the mice in your home or have yet to notice signs of mice in your home. In either of these scenarios, the focus is less on getting rid of mice and more on ways to keep mice away. This is where vinegar shines. Vinegar works best to keep mice away before you have them in your home. This is because the strong smell could make a mouse do a double take before entering your home.
Do different types of vinegar work better for repelling mice?
There are a few types of vinegars that have different uses in our kitchens and households. The most common types of vinegar are apple cider vinegar and distilled white vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and white and red wine vinegar.
Both apple cider vinegar and distilled white vinegar are the best options to use to keep mice away. Distilled white vinegar is said to be the most aggressive vinegar, but people have had success using apple cider vinegar, as well.
Whether you use apple cider vinegar or white vinegar, the key is to soak cotton balls in it and place the cotton balls in areas in your home with high mouse activity or in areas that you think mice could potentially enter your home.
Another common strategy is to dilute half a gallon of vinegar with two gallons of water and place the solution all across the outside perimeter of your home. This can act as a barrier to the inside of your home and help keep mice away.
How do you kill mice with vinegar?
It’s very difficult, borderline impossible, to kill mice with vinegar. Theoretically, it’s not impossible, because if a mouse drinks enough of it, the high acidic levels of the vinegar will kill him. But, in practice, this really does not occur.
Vinegar’s best use as a pest control method is to help get rid of mice, not kill them. The strong smell will make a mouse stay away from the solution, not go towards it and drink it.
If you want to effectively kill mice and get rid of them, try using more industry standard methods, such as using rodenticides, snap traps, glue traps, and humane traps.
Can I use vinegar to repel, but not kill mice?
Yes, you can use vinegar to repel, but not kill mice. In fact, this is how you should use it if you want to use it as a pest control method.
To effectively use vinegar as a mouse repellent and pest control method, follow these steps:
- Clean the floors or areas in your home that you suspect of having high mouse activity. Wipe the floor using clean water.
- Soak a few cotton balls in vinegar. Make sure you wear protective gloves.
- Place the cotton balls in the areas you just cleaned up
- Periodically check on them. When they dry out, soak them again in vinegar.
To reiterate, never forget to wear protective gloves when using vinegar. The high acidic content can harm your skin.
What do mice absolutely hate?
There are many things that mice absolutely hate, and most of them are scents.
Mice hate the following: peppermint oil, cayenne pepper, mint leaves, garlic, black coffee powder, Noni Fruit, and durian. All of these foods/ingredients have strong smells that smell like death to mice. Well, not really, but they all smell strong enough to bother mice and help get rid of mice.
Peppermint oil is one of the most popular, natural repellents that mice absolutely hate and that work at getting rid of mice. You can soak cotton balls in peppermint oil or simply drizzle a few drops of the oil in areas of high suspected mouse activity.
Steel wool is also another thing that mice absolutely hate, but for a reason other than a strong smell. Steel wool is an incredible strong and small material that can be easily stuffed in small holes. Mice hate it because they can’t chew through it with their razor sharp teeth. To effectively use steel wool, tear up small chunks of it and place them in all small holes and openings in and around your home that mice may be using as entry points. While steel wool won’t get rid of mice on its own, it’s a way to disrupt their paths of entry and activity.
If you want to be really aggressive to get rid of mice, it’s highly recommended to use rodenticides, mouse traps, or a combination of both. Rodenticides are mouse poisons that kill mice when they ingest it. They don’t hate them because the think it’s just another source of food, but when they eat it, it’s lethal. Traps are also incredibly effective because they use bait to lure mice in. One of the most popular traps to get rid of mice is a snap trap baited with peanut butter. Mice will flock to the peanut butter but will face instant death upon the snap of the spring of the trap.
The takeaway is that while there are numerous ways to get rid of mice and ways to repel them, it’s best to pick a few options and stick with them. Consistency in getting rid of mice goes along way.