Picture a mint tsunami crashing through rodent nostrils. That’s peppermint essential oil in action. Its menthol molecules hijack scent receptors, scrambling navigation and triggering panic.
Grab a spray bottle. Add 15 drops of pure peppermint oil to one cup of warm water. Shake hard. Mist every baseboard, cabinet toe-kick, window sill, and door jamb like you’re laying down a no-fly zone. Mice hit the scent wall and U-turn within seconds.
Pro tip: Soak cotton balls in undiluted oil and wedge them into wall voids. Refresh every 48 hours. Your house smells like a spa; their world smells like exile.
2. Crushed Garlic Bombs – Sulfur Shockwave
Garlic doesn’t just repel vampires. Allicin, the same compound that makes your eyes water, torches rodent sinuses.
Smash six cloves into a paste. Divide into tiny piles on foil squares. Slide one behind the stove, one inside the pantry corner, one beneath the sink. The odor plume rises like invisible barbed wire. Rodents bolt.
Liquid upgrade: Blend garlic with water, strain, and load into your spray bottle. Hit the same hotspots. Reapply after mopping—garlic hates dilution.
3. Onion Halves – Tear Gas for Tiny Lungs
Slice an onion and you unleash allyl sulfide—nature’s own pepper spray. Rodents gag and retreat.
Halve a medium onion. Place cut-side up on a jar lid wherever droppings appear. Swap daily; the moment the scent softens, efficacy drops.
Bonus: Tuck thin slices inside drawer corners. The slow release keeps cupboards rodent-free for a week.
4. Cayenne Pepper Firewall – Spicy No-Man’s-Land
Capsaicin doesn’t just burn tongues; it scorches nasal passages. Sprinkle a thin, unbroken line of cayenne along every baseboard and appliance gap.
For gaps wider than a dime, mix one tablespoon cayenne with one cup water plus a drop of dish soap. Spray. The soap sticks; the heat lingers. Rodents cross once, cough, and never return.