Pests have a habit of coming into your home during colder months and there is a danger they will set up home an be difficult to get rid of
Vermin such as rats and mice will begin appearing in you home as the temperature drops.
They come in looking for scraps of food and begin searching for somewhere warm to nest. But a simple method can be used to keep the vermin at bay from your home Stopping rats and mice from entering your your home should be tackled beforehand as if it is difficult to banish then during the nesting period nesting because they they breed quickly. Mel Lockcuff, a household expert and founder of Adventures of Mel, had a major issue with rodents in her home but was unable to find a natural solution which was effective.
Mel told The Express: “There were lots of little crevices, and they could get in the tiniest of holes, it seems like so and they would get in our cabinets, they would get in and just wreak havoc. So we finally got fed up, and I started looking at remedies, and that’s when I discovered peppermint oil.”
Peppermint oil is a great rodent repellant as mice and rats have highly sensitive noses that can easily be overwhelmed by its strong minty scent. Mel added: “Peppermint oil is a great deterrent, and I have read that what it does is it actually masks their pheromone trails so that other mice aren’t attracted to that area. And then I’ve also read that it irritates their nasal passages. They don’t like it. And it actually it worked. It worked for us in a couple of different old, really old houses that we lived in.”
What makes peppermint oil so great is that it will also help mark natural food odours in your home to make it harder for rodents to sniff out food, which can reduce their motivation to explore and nest in an area. Applying it is incredibly simple as all you will need is a packet of cotton balls and a bottle of pure peppermint oil that you can buy out of pharmacies and health food stores.
Mel said: “You can put probably at least five to six drops on a cotton ball, and then put those cotton balls in different areas where you think the mice might be coming in, or where you’re finding evidence of mice. So around your cabinets, around baseboards, maybe even around, like outside entrances, like your garage door, things like places like that.”
You can also place the peppermint-infused cotton balls under sinks as rodents often enter homes through gaps around plumbing pipes but make sure to put them near windows, doors or any place you suspect the rodents are using to enter your home.
Homemade spray
Another highly effective way to use peppermint oil is to turn it into a homemade solution by simply mixing it with water and spraying it around your home. Mel said: “Another thing I did, I took it one step further, and I used a spray bottle, and I mixed up water with lots of peppermint oil, you want to make sure that it’s potent enough so that it will smell, so it’ll smell strong enough to deter them.
“A lot of people recommend a one-to-one mixture. I didn’t go that strong. That was way too strong because it will fill your house with minty fresh smell. You could use, like 25 drops for eight ounces, or you could use two teaspoons of peppermint oil for eight ounces for maybe a cup of water.”
