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How to get rid of mice, naturally – cars, barns, garages, sheds, attics, etc.

How to get rid of mice, naturally – cars, barns, garages, sheds, attics, etc.

How to get rid of mice, naturally.

Yet another day of My Glamorous Life starts with a deep desire to get up early and tackle the day! Though I was up until 1:30a prepping for the day by drafting a new webpage- Straight From the HeART– I was excited and ready for my cup of tea. I do my best to get up before my son does so I can have my own thoughts and complete a few tasks uninterrupted. Since we homeschool, I can complete a few things online while he works on his schoolwork and I was looking forward to publishing HeART while completing the draft for the first post entry to it. (It just really moves me to know how people relate to their art and it may be my favorite segment of my whole blog. Check for category ‘Straight From the HeART.')

So I pour the hot water for my tea thinking about how grateful I am that I cleaned the restrooms the night before so I wouldn't have to do it in the morning. What a glamorous day of nerdy site proofing, html codes and editing! Peace and quiet throughout and a glorious salmon sunrise. I message my husband a few times, he proofs my grammar on HeART and I publish it before 10am. Bam! That's the way it's supposed to go.

By 11am, my son has had breakfast, he's dressed and we are ready to start schoolwork. I plan dinner which has to be ready for hubby when he gets home because we have a Trail Life meeting which my son really enjoys. Done!

Beautiful afternoon… a walk and scamper through the field… come home to chat and suddenly my draft for the first post by Brenda Sawahneh is ready! I post it by 2p and I am walking on air. The day before, Red Heart yarns has pinned my Free Baby Bunny pattern on Pinterest and I am in La-La land for the recognition.

Dinner is on time. We leave for Trail Life on time, not forgetting bottled waters and I am feeling so accomplished! I spill some water on myself in the car and reach over to get a paper towel out of the glove compartment and a pink, hairless thing is wriggling in there! I close the door really fast thinking, ‘I've smooshed it. For sure I did.' The cheerleader in my head says, “You got this!” My husband is riding in the back seat of my CUV * with my son so they didn't see it. I'm so freaked out at this point and I pull over to make my husband get it out. The first thing I think is how they would be so cute in an aquarium, but in my glove compartment, they are nasty and it reeks! The second thing I think is how there could be a huge rodent chewing up my electrical cords and tearing up my foam and my car is ruined.

Rodentia in my upper glove box. Eucalyptus oil, peppermint oil and spearmint oil are supposed to deter these critters.

We don't make it to Trail Life and everyone goes to bed. My first thought the next morning is about those tiny, bald creatures and how they have turned my car into a brothel and the glove compartment is the nursery. Nasty!

I pour my hot water and recall the Facebook conversation about these rodents. Fortunately, I have wonderful, helpful friends and one recommended Irish Spring soap shavings in the ‘nursery' because the smell deters them and future ‘mothers.' Unfortunately, the smell also deters me with a sneezing fit and itchy eyes. So, I mention essential oils and another great friend found this link for natural pest control which lists eucalyptus oil, peppermint oil and spearmint oil as deterrents! That's perfect because I have lots of peppermint oil and plan to douse my car in it. (I'll post pictures soon. It was pretty simple.)

Feeling more confident about my day, I turn to see that Murray (our sweet cat) has spilled his water under the breakfast table and I hear him gagging up a hairball. I set my tea down and proceed to chase Murray into the living room attempting to hold paper towels under his chin to catch the second bit of offending matter. (The first is near the kitchen and it's most of his breakfast so there can't be much left.) Poor thing has been out of hairball treats for two days and he is shedding like mad in this 80 degree Texas humidity.

My son is chatting in his room so I take a moment to look up which oils are safe for cats to mix some in with his food since I won't be going out any time soon. It seems most people use extra virgin olive oil for emergency situations. I mixed it into his food and he had fallen asleep.

My tea is cold. I start water to boil, sit down at the breakfast table thinking of the water that sweet Murray spilled and realize, for the first time ever, that it's not an emergency. It's a blessing.

It's a blessing that my son is happily chatting away in bed. It's a blessing to have running water and a roof over our heads. It's a blessing to have Murray. It's a blessing to live next to a natural preserve and it's a blessing to have a vehicle that rodents find warm and safe- minus the rodentia.

Amen?

 

* CUV stands for Compact Utility Vehicle, though my insurance refers to it as a truck. It's a RAV4.

We love this cat. Murray talks a lot. Here he's telling me how much his stomach hurts as he overlooks the preserve where all the little critters come from.

Murray overlooking the preserve with a tummy ache.

Pamela Emerson

Saturday 29th of March 2014

Oh my goodness what a fun post to read. Sounds like overall you had a great day. A lot of people would have turned it into a circus. We took out a loan last year from hubby's 401k to get a new pool. We have have had a long, cold, snow & ice filled winter. Long story short, ice killed our only used 1 season $700.00+ pool. My feeling is God has sent a message that we are not supposed to have that pool out there this year. My husband thought I was gonna freak. Feeling blessed that we were given a warning not to have it this year.

celinalane

Saturday 29th of March 2014

I know what you mean, Pamela. Exactly. :)