Cleaning Up

• Before you even think of getting rid of rats and mice, you need to think about cleaning up your home. Rodents are attracted to places where the food and water are available and where there are places for them to hide. If you make getting to food and water more difficult to rats and mice by cleaning up your home, you'll rescind the invitation for them to come in that perhaps you didn't know was there. The first step to making rats and mice a distant memory is removing their food sources. A simple way to do this is by storing all bulk food items such as pasta, cereals, and gains in rodent-proof storage bins.
  
  

Sealing Off Your Home

• Seal off potential entry points for the mice and rats. Do repairs around your home to block any holes. Even the smallest hole in the foundation of your home or roof is all they need to get in. These issues can be fixed quite easily with a hammer and nails and the appropriate lumber or sheetrock.
  There may be areas that the rats and mice can get in, such as around plumbing or duct work, that you cannot close off completely with boards and nails. These areas can be sealed up with steel wool. Mice and rats will generally not chew through steel wool, so sealing pathways with steel wool will help keep them out. Around plumbing you may find that an escutcheon ring will help. This is a ring that fits over the hole that the pipe goes through that covers the steel wool you have inserted around the pipe. The escutcheon ring can be found at your home improvement store and after installation it can be sealed with spray foam.
  
  

Natural Fixes

• If you don't want to call the exterminator and you don't want to use chemicals in your home, you can get rid of rats and mice and keep them away naturally. One of the best ways to do this is with the use of peppermint, as rodents do not like peppermint. Place drops of peppermint oil, found at your health store, on cotton balls and place them where you think rats and mice may come into the house or the garage or basement. You can also plant spearmint around the perimeter of your home.
  
  Another natural rodent repellent is baking soda. Sprinkle baking soda around the perimeter of your home and garage, and the mice and rats will stay away. When it rains you simply need to reapply the baking soda.
  
  

Keeping Mice Out of the Garden

• Mice are often attracted to garden areas and may even feed off your garden plants. A great way to keep the mice out of the garden is to mix 1 gallon of water, ½ cup non-detergent soap powder and one tablespoon hot sauce. Mix this solution and then with a spray bottle spray it on the tops and undersides of the plant leaves. This will keep mice out of your garden for food. Reapply after heavy rains.