Aussie Finch Forum

well my boss at work has been reserching and has found peppermint oil can be used as a mouse deterent so he went out and bought a few liters of it to try around the place in the warehouse work shops and the main shop put a few drops of oil on the cotton wool. He did that last Friday made the shop and other buildings smell good and you know what; we have not had the mice inside since. We havent tried it out in the avaries yet as its out in the open to much and the smell gets wofted away but he's got another idea for the avaries. At the start I was skeptical about it working but only a week into I'm impressed - it should hopefully last 4-6 weeks so will let AFF know how it goes. So if anyone wants to give it a try I can recommend it. I am looking for feed back

Has it worked?

it has worked really well as a detterent specially in closed in spaces were the smell will stay in havent seen a mouse in me bird shed for about 2 months now but have had to redose with another round of peppermint but hey im happy with it. its same at work but have had to do it 4-5 times as these are in big sheds/ warehouses but has worked

Bet there is a run on peppermint oil in the shops now! I know I will be off to get some when the shops open today.

I just had a quick Google and it seems that the jury is out on the effectiveness of peppermint oil as a deterrent but given the choice of minted or non-minted food sources it seems there is experimental evidence to show it is a deterent.

Even though aniseed had been so long and widely recommended as an attractant, they found that its smell was more of a deterrent. Nor was n-butyl nercaptan, peppermint o i l , or butyric acid an attractant, but each of these three substances mixed with the wheat bait was a deterrent.

Howard & Marsh 1970