Knowing how to get rid of mice outdoors helps avoid property damage, disease control issues, and having your home and yard appear unsanitary. Rodents are intrusive pests; anything from a field mouse to house mice, voles, and rats might invade your outdoor space. Getting rid of mice outside doesn’t have to be complicated. The first step is recognizing signs of an issue.
If you suspect rodent activity around your home, look for suspicious damage such as chewed wires or food containers, upended trash cans, and holes or entry points in outbuildings. Mice droppings, dead mice, and live mice are all specific indicators to promptly get rid of mice and rats outside your home.
Skip expensive exterminators who often use toxic substances harmful to your pets and family. Oust mice from your yard and garage effortlessly with simple at-home ideas and DIY tips. Homemade mouse traps and repellents are highly effective and give you complete control of the products you introduce into your house.
- DIY Ideas for Getting Rid of Mice Outside
- How to Get Rid of Mice Outdoors with Bait Stations
- Get Rid of Mice and Rats Outside with a Wire Mesh Trap
- The Best Way to Catch a Mouse Outdoors
- Try Kitty Litter for Your Mouse Infestation
- Consider a Glue Trap When You Have a Mice Infestation
- Peppermint Oil is a Natural Mouse Repellent
- Repel Mice with Cayenne Pepper
- Build a Trash Can Trap for Your Rodent Infestation
- Snap Traps Kill Mice Outside
- Maintenance Increases Pest Control Efficiency
DIY Ideas for Getting Rid of Mice Outside
Understanding how to get rid of mice outdoors ensures you’re prepared if the worst happens. Whether you prefer humane and safe methods for getting rid of mice outside or hope to avoid contact with rodents, there are options for every home.
Explore different ways to repel rodents, end your mouse problem, and choose the best technique suited to your preferences and budget.
How to Get Rid of Mice Outdoors with Bait Stations
When you find the perfect bait station to address your rodent problem, the ideal bait is crucial. Peanut butter is the perfect bait for bait stations and live traps. This sweet, nutty butter attracts rodents. Its soft consistency makes it easy to mix with poison if you’re planning to kill mice, or it works well to lure rodents to relocate and release.
Use a generous amount of peanut butter in your bait station or trap to ensure it produces a scent to catch the attention of the rodents in its proximity. Thanks to their enhanced sense of smell, mice and rats will flock to the peanut butter and trigger your trap or eat your treatment.
Get Rid of Mice and Rats Outside with a Wire Mesh Trap
Find wire mesh traps on the shelves at most hardware and home stores, and invest in the purchase to ensure you’re able to remove rodents from your home for years to come safely. These wire boxes have a weight plate where bait is set, and when the rodent crawls inside to retrieve it, the door closes to trap them safely inside.
Wire mesh traps make no mess, require the operator to have no contact with dead or dying animals, are endlessly reusable, and make relocating pests effortless. This is the best way to trap rats and mice or other rodents around your house.
The Best Way to Catch a Mouse Outdoors
Humane traps, known as live mouse traps, are an intelligent and ethical means to catch mice, rats, and other rodents outside your house. These traps are uncomplicated to construct, usually made with household items, and they catch rodents alive, so you avoid messy clean-up, dealing with dead animals, and dangerous traps.
A bucket and spoon trap is an example of a live trap, and it’s ideal to control field mice outside. To make a bucket mouse trap, put a spoonful of peanut butter on the edge of an outdoor surface like a counter or bench, with a bucket below. When the mouse walks out onto the spoon to eat the bait, the spoon and mouse topple into the bucket.
Try Kitty Litter for Your Mouse Infestation
Mouse droppings indicate rodents nearby who could consider making your yard their home or have already moved in. Though it may be inappropriate to some, if you have an indoor cat as a pet, you already have an abundance of free mice repellent on hand.
Cats are natural predators of mice, and their presence in an area is a huge red flag for them and other prey to stay away.
To use your cat’s kitty litter as a deterrent and one of the most practical mouse control tips, fill a few small disposable bowls or cups with spent granules and set them around your outdoor area.
Mice passing by detect the scent of your cat’s urine and convinces them to leave your space quickly to avoid being hunted. It’s what keeps rats away and many other critters like skunks and squirrels.
Consider a Glue Trap When You Have a Mice Infestation
Glue traps kill mice, rodents, and small animals outdoors, though they are generally messy to use and pose a high risk of accidentally injuring a pet, family member, or wildlife. Glue traps are strips of cardboard with a strong adhesive.
When mice or rats walk over the adhesive, they become stuck and often dismember and disfigure themselves trying to escape before they suffer a painful death.
Inhumane glue traps adhere to the skin of bare feet, as well as to clothing, pet fur, and even harmless creatures like birds. Though these traps catch rodents, the user must dispatch injured and dying mice and other animals that become caught.
Sticky or glue traps work, though they’re best left as a last resort in favor of a more humane and easier-to-use trap.
Peppermint Oil is a Natural Mouse Repellent
Essential oil is a natural way to ward off mice and rats from your outdoor living areas. It also deters chipmunks. Peppermint oil is particularly potent and discourages rodents from exploring close to it. If you dislike the smell of peppermint or have another mouse repelling oil on hand, substitute it as you prefer.
Add a little oil to a cotton ball and set it outside to keep rodents out of your yard or off your patio. Add more oil when the balls lose their scent so they continue to protect your garden.
You can also mix a simple but effective outdoor rodent repellent by adding your chosen essential oil to water and spritz areas where you suspect mice may be a problem.
Repel Mice with Cayenne Pepper
The solution to your mouse problem may already be in your spice cabinet. Thanks to their sensitive olfactory systems or sense of smell, rodents like mice and rats are highly affected by certain scents.
Cayenne pepper is an extremely spicy product with a strong aroma, typically used to season food. Use natural home remedies to keep mice away with some pepper. Head to the spice rack or pick up some cayenne pepper at your local grocery store to use it as a safe form of mouse control and prevention.
Sprinkle the pepper liberally outside your home, replenishing it every few days to keep mice away. Though unpleasant to consume, the cayenne pepper is edible and won’t harm your pets or garden birds if they eat it.
It’s also possible to use mothballs to deter rats and mice the same way. Rodents can’t stand the odor. Note that mothballs are toxic to people and animals so use them with care.
Build a Trash Can Trap for Your Rodent Infestation
Use a trash can to construct a mouse and rat trap for your home. This trap is straightforward to put together and uses materials you already have to make a humane and responsible system for removing rodents from your yard.
Ensure your cardboard covers the opening of your trash can, and carefully cut a hole in the middle of it, with two slits on either side. Tape the cardboard over the top of the trash can, add bait close to the hole or inside, and leave your trap where mice are suspected.
When a rodent smells the bait and walks out to the opening to investigate, the slits ensure the cardboard bends and the mice slide down into the bin, where they become trapped. Check your trash can trap daily and responsibly relocate mice to a safe area.
This DIY trap is one of the easy ways to catch mice in garage and front yard areas. Set up several if needed.
Snap Traps Kill Mice Outside
A snap trap consists of a weighted plate where food bait is left and a snap part to close when the trap is triggered to decapitate and kill rodents. Snap traps are an inhumane pest control method and leave the user to clean up the mess of a dead mouse.
Snap traps hurt pets and people if they accidentally trigger them, making them a less attractive option for your yard.
Maintenance Increases Pest Control Efficiency
A readily available food supply and a supportive environment are the main factors bringing mice and other rodents to your door. The best strategy to prevent mice is some simple precautions to make your space less appealing.
Storing trash and pet food in an airtight bin so rodents aren’t lured by the smell and can’t feed on it helps stop them from coming into your yard. Long grass makes it easy for mice and other small critters to move around undetected in your space, while sheds, shops, and garages provide convenient housing.
Mow your grass before it gets tall to reduce the population of rodents and nuisance bugs in your yard and stop squirrels from digging in your backyard. Seal cracks or holes in your buildings to keep pests from entering.
When you spot signs of mouse activity like mouse poop or dead mice, it’s vital to understand how to get rid of mice and rats outside. If you spot a house mouse or find evidence of field mice, act quickly to prevent the population from growing and taking over your patio, yard, and shed.
Remove potential food sources right away and begin pest control measures to eradicate vermin from around your home, and return your outdoor space to a pleasant place to be.
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