You know the feeling all too well. It could happen anywhere in your house—maybe you’re cooking dinner in the kitchen, watching TV in the living room, or about to go to bed in the bedroom. Suddenly, you see movement out of the corner of your eye.
You quickly turn and there, right in front of you, is that little critter who darts away into a tiny hole. You cringe, knowing that if there’s one, there’s probably more.
“They’ve gotten so good at living with humans. When you get one, others will find their way in. Plus, they multiply very quickly,” Cindy Mannes, a spokesperson for the National Pest Management Association, told Good Housekeeping.
Sound familiar? Of course it has—we all get mice in our house on occasion. It’s how you go about treating the problem that will determine whether they keep coming back or not.
If you try home remedies such as making your own mouse-killing repellent, you’re likely not doing anything to solve the problem for good.
“There’s no science or evidence behind any of these methods,” says Mannes. “And again, mice are so used to living with humans, that smells associated with us are not usually repellent to mice.”
However, if you’d like to give some of these preventative methods a try, dab scents like Tobasco sauce, mint, and cayenne pepper around your home and at potential entry points. Supposedly, a mouse’s intense sense of smell will make scents like this too overwhelming and thus drive them away.
But, like Mannes said, there is no guarentee that this natural repellent will deter a rodent invasion. Here are some of the best steps to keep rodents out of your house for good:
