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Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Every year I try to garden and welcome the Spring with enthusiasm. Every year, I start out strong, and then my plants get hit with pestilence. Live and learn-I've learned from my failures and mistakes, so I've got soil ammendments under control and bugs at bay. Neem oil is indeed my friend!

That being said, I have a new foe: mice. I spent a small fortune on a product called Mouse Magic. It made all the sense in the world: it's a safe blend of peppermint and spearmint oils which is irritating to mice. It's safe for your garden, and they say by all means, use it in sheds and garages....well, I sprinkled the stuff liberally but it looks like the darned mice leaped right over it, onto my trellis system and started munching away. For good measure, I also dumped some chopped garlic around my beds and containers, and as the temperatures heat up....well, the beautiful fragrant smells of Spring are being obliterated by garlic.

Has anybody tried sonic rodent repellants? I looked some up on Amazon and found a couple that can be used out doors and are not offensive to dogs or cats, but are they effective? If anybody has any ideas, I'm all ears!

Poodlepet

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Posts: 3,512
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PS: there are a couple of options I'm considering, but I don't know what the end results will be and will they affect my plants. I did see a peppermint oil concentrate-which, by the way is phenomenal for repelling ants-but I was thinking of spraying it on the plants themselves and re-applying after watering or rain. Another idea is maybe applying toothpaste on the trellis. It has staying power to be sure-but would that be irritating enough to rodents?

Thanks,

Poodlepet

Honored Contributor
Posts: 17,491
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Mice are usually attracted to something. Do you have a birdfeeder or bird food around. A recycling bin, compost or garbage can. Thats usually where they gravatate too.

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# IAMTEAMWEN
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Posts: 17,655
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

You could try peanut butter filled mouse traps too. Mice are nocturnal so you may want to use them when your pets are indoors for the night.

☼The best place to seek God is in a garden. You can dig for him there. GBShaw☼
Honored Contributor
Posts: 30,238
Registered: ‎03-12-2010

I've had cats who were mousers and cats who became friends with mice.

Here's a mouse story for you. I swear to you this is the truth. I hope it lightens your day and makes you smile. It is Ha! Ha! now and living out where I do, I got over it quickly.

At the time I had 3 cats. The cat I'll tell you about is Annabelle (hence, my name). She was my favorite cat. I got her because she was outside in the neighborhood and was declawed. I brought her inside. She belonged to one of my neighbors.

One night I was sound asleep and I hear that terrible noise that cats make when they found something. It's a kind of loud growl.

As I opened my eyes I felt something fall on my forehead (do you know where this is going?)......keep going....

I sat up and felt something run under my covers! Suddenly I felt something tickling my legs! I jumped up out of the bed and ran into the master bathroom (it connects with the bedroom)!

As I did, I saw in the dark something run into the bathroom with me along with one of my cats (I didn't know which one because it was dark).

I turned on the light in time to see the cat (Annabelle) the mouse (who shall remain nameless) and myself (let's call me Linda).

I'd shut the bathroom door, thinking I'd be safe in there! (Let's file that under...."what was I thinking"!

The bathroom is very small, full size shower, toilet and cabinet sink. Not a lot of room for 1 person, much less, 1 person, 1 cat and 1 mouse!

I couldn't get to the door because the mouse and the cat were at a stand off where I wanted my body to be......

I shut the shower doors (sliding doors)! Did I mention I got in the shower before I shut the doors? Well, I did!

But....but....I wasn't quick enough! In ran the mouse and quickly ran the cat (I almost halfed the cat!

So, now here we are, myself (Linda), the cat (Annabelle) and the unnamed mouse all in the shower....WITH THE SHOWER DOOR SHUT!! And the bathroom door shut!

It was not a pretty sight!

I quickly surveyed the steps required to get out of the bathroom door (I'm not a genius, but I knew we couldn't all stay in here....at some point it was going to get really ugly (as opposed to now which was just ugly).

I slid open the shower door! (I'd like to say slung, but I'd already told you it was a sliding door (slung just sounds better))!

I slung (that I could do) open the bathroom door! and took off running! At the time I was a size 2X (and that was a stretch).

I used to joke that once I got all of this ummmm (love) going it took awhile for it to stop!

I ran out of the bathroom and down the hallway! Down came the mouse (maybe it liked me by now) and that nameless mouse was followed by the cat named Annabelle!

Once I got into the end of house (that would be the TV room) I looked behind me and here was no cat and more importantly, no mouse!

I slept on the couch that night. The next day I put out mouse traps under my bed, in the kitchen and so forth.

I'll never know how that cat (did I mention she didn't have any claws) who was so girly girl you just wanted to put a headband with a flower on her (if she were a person) caught that mouse long enough to carry it up my bed and drop it on my face!

I've tried my best to describe the happenings that night! My family has had to listen to it many times.

Annabelle died several years ago (old age), I'll never know what happened to that nameless mouse (to be honest over the years I've called him Mickley) but I do know what happened to me.

I'm here to make sure the tale of Annabelle the mouser never dies!

So, unless you have a mouse dropped on your face in the middle of the night, you'll have a hard time impressing me with your mouse tales.

I'm kidding but I promise this is the truth!

Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,833
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Mice?????? Cats!!!!!!!

And if you can find a cat named Annabelle who needs a good home, hang onto her. She'll probably bring you something nice (or should I say mice?) in the middle of the night one . .. day?

Honored Contributor
Posts: 30,238
Registered: ‎03-12-2010

Then there was recently Jackthecat. Jack died recently. He was 8 years old. My daughter found him when he was a few weeks old.

He loved to play outside during the day. He'd come in for lunch (and if it was hot, etc).

He brought me many things (almost all were alive and he wanted to 'save' them).

In the basement I saw signs of mice. Never saw where Jack ever hunted a mouse in my house.

I think he felt like this was a haven and if they were here they were safe!{#emotions_dlg.biggrin}

Valued Contributor
Posts: 1,550
Registered: ‎06-12-2013

annabellethecat- that is a funny story!

I have a giant Maincoon cat (almost the size of a small bobcat, makes sounds like one too!), and he's a mouser!

Valued Contributor
Posts: 822
Registered: ‎03-09-2010
On 4/13/2014 annabellethecat said:

I've had cats who were mousers and cats who became friends with mice.

Here's a mouse story for you. I swear to you this is the truth. I hope it lightens your day and makes you smile. It is Ha! Ha! now and living out where I do, I got over it quickly.

At the time I had 3 cats. The cat I'll tell you about is Annabelle (hence, my name). She was my favorite cat. I got her because she was outside in the neighborhood and was declawed. I brought her inside. She belonged to one of my neighbors.

One night I was sound asleep and I hear that terrible noise that cats make when they found something. It's a kind of loud growl.

As I opened my eyes I felt something fall on my forehead (do you know where this is going?)......keep going....

I sat up and felt something run under my covers! Suddenly I felt something tickling my legs! I jumped up out of the bed and ran into the master bathroom (it connects with the bedroom)!

As I did, I saw in the dark something run into the bathroom with me along with one of my cats (I didn't know which one because it was dark).

I turned on the light in time to see the cat (Annabelle) the mouse (who shall remain nameless) and myself (let's call me Linda).

I'd shut the bathroom door, thinking I'd be safe in there! (Let's file that under...."what was I thinking"!

The bathroom is very small, full size shower, toilet and cabinet sink. Not a lot of room for 1 person, much less, 1 person, 1 cat and 1 mouse!

I couldn't get to the door because the mouse and the cat were at a stand off where I wanted my body to be......

I shut the shower doors (sliding doors)! Did I mention I got in the shower before I shut the doors? Well, I did!

But....but....I wasn't quick enough! In ran the mouse and quickly ran the cat (I almost halfed the cat!

So, now here we are, myself (Linda), the cat (Annabelle) and the unnamed mouse all in the shower....WITH THE SHOWER DOOR SHUT!! And the bathroom door shut!

It was not a pretty sight!

I quickly surveyed the steps required to get out of the bathroom door (I'm not a genius, but I knew we couldn't all stay in here....at some point it was going to get really ugly (as opposed to now which was just ugly).

I slid open the shower door! (I'd like to say slung, but I'd already told you it was a sliding door (slung just sounds better))!

I slung (that I could do) open the bathroom door! and took off running! At the time I was a size 2X (and that was a stretch).

I used to joke that once I got all of this ummmm (love) going it took awhile for it to stop!

I ran out of the bathroom and down the hallway! Down came the mouse (maybe it liked me by now) and that nameless mouse was followed by the cat named Annabelle!

Once I got into the end of house (that would be the TV room) I looked behind me and here was no cat and more importantly, no mouse!

I slept on the couch that night. The next day I put out mouse traps under my bed, in the kitchen and so forth.

I'll never know how that cat (did I mention she didn't have any claws) who was so girly girl you just wanted to put a headband with a flower on her (if she were a person) caught that mouse long enough to carry it up my bed and drop it on my face!

I've tried my best to describe the happenings that night! My family has had to listen to it many times.

Annabelle died several years ago (old age), I'll never know what happened to that nameless mouse (to be honest over the years I've called him Mickley) but I do know what happened to me.

I'm here to make sure the tale of Annabelle the mouser never dies!

So, unless you have a mouse dropped on your face in the middle of the night, you'll have a hard time impressing me with your mouse tales.

I'm kidding but I promise this is the truth!

Oh annabelle, you sure did give me a good laugh...the mental pix of all of you in the shower with that mouse and your cat is a hoot. Thanks for sharing that story with us.

My turn: Our builder developed our community among the trees, a beautiful setting but one that encourages lots of "wildlife"...squirrels, mice, chipmunks, etc running around the yard. We co-exist peacefully (most of the time) but we have an exterminator quarterly to take care of whatever pest happens to be "in season" but inspite of that, we do occasionally find evidence of mice in our basement. Fortunately for us, never upstairs, and as long as they respect that unwritten rule, we do fine. One afternoon about10 years ago I came home and opened the door inside the garage that leads into my kitchen. To my direct left and about 5 feet up is my refrigerator and in front of the fridge is a rug which is there to catch 'fridge spills but on that particular day it was also doing double duty as a soft spot for a mama mouse giving birth. Anyway, I opened the door, shut off the security alarm and realized curlywhitedog (Maggie May, my Bichon Frise) was standing at the other end of the kitchen refusing to greet me as she always did. I took a few steps forward toward her and that's when I noticed them, teeny tiny baby mice wiggly around and a mama in the throws of active labor on that rug. I screamed like a little girl and walking around the island so as to avoid "the scene", grabbed curly and headed out the back door, into the yard, out the side gate and into my car which was in the driveway. Once inside the car I called hubby who said he would try get home as early as he could but to stay with a neighbor until he could get here (a good hour is how long it would take). I called my neighbor whose husband happened to answer the phone and told him what was happening in my kitchen and asked could I stay with them until hubs got home and he offered to come over and within minutes he was here. I told him where the mice were and he went to take a look and there was only one little baby mouse there and she/he was deceased so he took it and flushed it down the toilet. With all the "evidence" gone he figured it was safe for me to go back in but nooooooooo, I was not chancing mama mouse coming back and finding her deceased baby gone, start to scurry around my kitchen looking for it.

I called our exterminator the next day and he said it was a very unusual occurrence and speculated that the mouse was on her way to give birth in a more private space but was scared by the dog and there it happened in the middle of my kitchen floor. The why of that mama mouse giving birth out in the open is just conjecture and it never happened again. The first and last even to be seen upstairs.

Maria

Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,890
Registered: ‎09-04-2010

Bird Feeders will attract mice. I had two neighbors that had them too close to the house and they both had mice inside their homes too. One of them had cats and still found them in the house. One in her knitting bag!

I never see them but we have a lot of roaming cats in the neighborhood.