Photo of a Bigfoot action figure in front of fake plastic plants on a wooden desk.

Natural Rodent Repellent

Photo of a Bigfoot action figure in front of fake plastic plants on a wooden desk.

If Bigfoot were to mist himself in a fresh pine scent and scamper through the yard, wayward field mice would run for their lives, haunted by visions of holiday wreaths with fangs. It’s not Bigfoot that would faze them, though. It’s the fresh, pine scent that mice find horrific for some reason. Smells that trigger my fight or flight response include (but are not limited to) smoke, rot, and clown makeup. So I’m not going to use these things to lure a mouse. Instead, I’ll hit them with something I pine for. A cloud/shield of pine odor can disorient mice because it overwhelms their senses, rendering them staggering through the wilderness, unable to detect a source of food, which is what the Fixin’ Leaks and Leeks Team wants: because we saw one mouse run across our fence line.

I’d never seen Nate move so fast. He shouted, “rat!” and ran to get his laptop to look up what to do. I assume he didn’t want to use mouse traps right away because he figured I’d step in them while following the scent of cheese in the middle of the night—as I’m wont to do. So, he either bought or ordered these cute “earthkind: Stay Away Botanical Rodent Repellant” bags, which, with their see-through pouches, you could probably carry into most stadiums and concerts under new “clear bag” policies.

This is a photo of a box of earthkind Stay Away Botanical Rodent Repellent. the box indicates that it has 4 scent pouches, and the graphics are in green and white with circular and flower-shaped designs. There's a cute black and white image of a mouse on the box as well. The box is set on the arm of a brown leather chair, and there are curtains in the background.

In any case, Nate determined that our garage could be the most vulnerable area of the house, where a rodent invasion could occur, so he put two bags on either side of the garage door. And wow, is it potent! Now, when I run on the treadmill in the garage, it’s like I’m chasing a tree-shaped car freshener that I’ll never catch.

The pouches are filled with balsam fir oil and plant fibers with just a bit of corn cob that somehow helps spread the scent. Also, it’s people and pet friendly, so if we had a cat that wouldn’t kill mice (shockingly, this sometimes does happen), it might only suffer some mild vomiting and drooling if it ate some of the fibers. No worse than what happens at the Golden Corral on a Saturday night.

So far, we have not seen any mice. But also, we haven’t seen sharks, flamingos, bears, anacondas, gators, or clowns near our fence, either, which means those little clear bags of rodent away are doing so much more than they promised.

Your Turn: Do you use botanicals for cleaning or pest control?

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Published by ckennedy

Author of the DIY blog: Fixin' Leaks and Leeks. Paper/Rock Writing Consultation, Sole Proprietor.

17 thoughts on “Natural Rodent Repellent”

  2. Thanks for the heads up about this, Cecelia. Your info comes at the perfect time since we have a mouse problem in our garage. We’ve been looking for something that would work effectively as a deterrent. And clowns? I won’t run from them (well, I did as a small child) but I dislike them intensely.

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  3. Rats have been spotted by me and my neighbours in our gardens. Next door’s mini dachshund once caught a mouse accidentally, but has been remiss with rats. The wild areas we are encouraged to keep for wild life are also great hiding places for the one creature nobody wants to attract. Thanks for the pine hint.

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  4. My part of the world is known for mouse plagues. I don’t think botanical solutions work when there are large numbers. I hope you don’t see any more rodents at your place.

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