About Me

A Flower Garden of Your Own

I absolutely adore flower gardens. Whenever I want to relax and view nature in one of its most beautiful forms, I sit in or near a flower garden. Smelling the aromatic fragrances of roses always instantly improves my mood. Do you have a flower garden on your property? If you don’t currently have a flower garden, consider starting one this summer. If your knowledge about flowers is limited, visiting a local home and garden center is a great idea. An expert at this kind of business establishment can help you pick the varieties of flowers that grow best in your part of the country. On this blog, I hope you will discover the easiest types of flowers to grow in a backyard flower garden. Enjoy!

Tags

Latest Posts

A Flower Garden of Your Own

Tips To Drive Mice Away From Your Home Before They Get Inside

by Amelia Sutton

Now that it is starting to get cold outside, many animals are looking for shelter to stay warm throughout the winter months. When it comes to mice, your house may be the perfect spot for a rodent to find shelter from the cold. While certain rodent control methods can work wonders once the mice get inside, it is much better to keep the rodents outdoors and away from your home if possible. There are several ways that you can do this. 

Use Copper Mesh

If you have ever searched for DIY mouse control options online, then you may have read that it is wise to fill in all small exterior openings and holes with steel wool. It is true that mice can slip through extremely small spaces. Mice can typically squeeze their heads and bodies through holes that are about the size of a nickel. If you have some of these smaller openings around your foundation, then you should fill them. However, you should skip the steel wool.

Steel wool is often recommended because mice cannot chew through any material that is harder than their teeth. Unfortunately, the steel wool can easily be pulled out of openings if a mouse wants to gain access to the space. Caulk can keep the wool in place, but mice can chew through both silicone and acrylic varieties. Even if the wool does stick in place, the steel will corrode over time and disintegrate.

Instead of filling holes with steel wool, use copper mesh instead. Copper mesh is solid, impervious to corrosion, and rigid. It cannot be pulled out of holes and other openings, and it will not break down enough for a mouse to gain access to your home. Purchase a large roll of copper mesh and cut off a long piece from the roll. Ball up the wire and stick it in any opening along the exterior of your home that is the size of a nickel or larger. 

Try Ammonia

You may find numerous suggestions online that point to smells and odors that mice find offensive to force the rodents away from your home. Mice do have a strong sense of smell and will find things like peppermint, lavender, mint, eucalyptus, citrus, and tea tree offensive. A mouse's drive to survive is stronger than its distaste of certain odors though. This means that a mouse will simply ignore a foul odor if it thinks there is food, water, and shelter indoors. The only benefit of a strong smelling essential oil perimeter around your home is the fact that it may obscure the smell of food, but most oils used as rodent repellents dissipate into the air quite quickly.

While essential oils may not work well to repel mice from your home, the smell of ammonia may work. Mice are prey animals that use their sense of smell to detect danger. Predator urine is one smell that will force rodents away from your home. While a mouse's need to survive through sustenance is strong, the need to stay away from predators is stronger.

If you want, you can purchase animal urine online or at your local hunting supply store. Coyote, wolf, fox, and mountain lion urine are all commonly sold for homeowner use. If you do not want to spend money on urine, then you can use plain ammonia purchased from your local home or grocery store. Since predators eat a great deal of meat, they have high levels of ammonia in their urine. Ammonia used for cleaning purposes will produce the same type of odor as predator urine. Place the ammonia in a spray bottle and spritz the exterior foundation of your home to drive mice away. 

For more information, contact a rodent control service in your area.

Share