Tag: cleaning supplies

I lived in New York City for 12 years, during which I learned that city life means you’re always going to have some kind of kitchen pests. At one point, I started seeing more mice than normal — what had been one or two mice a year somehow turned into a four-mice-a-month situation. Not good. When I told a few of my friends about the issue, they all recommended I try peppermint oil for mice. So, that’s exactly what I did.

Instead of using traps, I wanted to try to stop the mice at the source. I’d heard all kinds of sneaky (and natural) ways to get rid of pests, like using lemon peels to deter ants or making a DIY fruit fly trap by punching holes in the lid of a jar. I was ready to determine whether or not peppermint oil spray would really work on mice. Here’s everything you need to know about how to use peppermint oil to get rid of mice.

Mice find the smell of peppermint overwhelming and confusing, so it can deter them from entering your home. The menthol in the peppermint oil bothers their noses and makes it difficult for them to identify pheromones, a.k.a. the smells they use to communicate with. It should be noted, however, that if mice are actually living in your house, the smell of peppermint isn’t going to make them abandon it. In that case, you want to call pest control.

In a spray bottle, combine two teaspoons of 100% peppermint oil for every one cup of water and spray the solution around where you’ve seen any mice. You can also dab the peppermint oil on cotton balls and place them in your home’s mice-prone areas.

To see if using peppermint oil to get rid of mice works, I had to put it to the test. I bought a plastic spray bottle and 100% peppermint oil and prepared for battle. Before using the peppermint spray, I wanted to figure out exactly where the mice were coming from. To my horror, the superintendent of my building pulled out our oven and revealed a rather large hole in the wall. (So that’s where they were coming from — eek!).

I was able to use foam to patch up the part of a hole that was behind the oven (where the mice were presumably coming in), but it also wrapped around to the sink area which we weren’t able to move. So, I sprayed the kitchen with the peppermint oil and, lucky for me, the mouse sightings stopped!

In my case, the peppermint oil spray was effective from day one. I’m assuming this is a combination of the hole patching and the peppermint spray, but with mice in New York City (and honestly everywhere!), you have to use everything you’ve got.

In other words, the best medicine for keeping mice away is a strong pest prevention strategy. Be sure to patch up any obvious holes in your home, pair it with a good repellent, and you should (hopefully) have a pest-free home. Worst case scenario, reach out to an exterminator or other pest professional.

Have you ever tried using peppermint oil to get rid of mice? Let us know how it went in the comments below!