Is Toothpaste Really An Effective Mouse Repellent?

Finding a mouse in your home can be an unsettling experience. Not only does it likely mean there is more than one mouse in the vicinity, but the sight of the long-tailed creature can send a chill down your spine. On top of that, getting rid of a mouse can be difficult because they are dedicated to food sources once they find them. Yet, there is one household staple that can repel mice from your home and it's right in your bathroom.

Mice can carry disease and they can get into everything: your cupboards, closets, and even your bed. It's not hard to figure out where they have been because they tend to leave their calling card in the form of droppings, which can be another traumatizing situation. It can also attract more mice to enter your home.

As soon as you realize you have a mouse in the house, you should attempt to repel it ASAP. Fortunately, toothpaste can be a wonderful repellent and it's readily available.

Toothpaste alone might not seem harsh enough to force mice out of your home, but the mint found in it is something that mice really do not like and try their best to stay away from. It goes well beyond mice just not enjoying the scent, too.

The menthol found in mint can be overpowering to a mouse's senses and overwhelm its olfactory system. The strong aroma that emanates from mint irritates a mouse's sense of well-being and causes a physical disturbance. Consequently, they will do what they can to get away from it including scurrying right out of your house. Peppermint oil works much in the same way.

Like other animals, a mouse's senses are more heightened than humans, including their sense of smell so they can smell odors to a much larger degree than we can. Considering how strong toothpaste and mint normally smell to humans, it is easy to see how the same scent can greatly disturb an animal with an extremely better sense of smell.

While mint in toothpaste can deter mice from entering your home or staying too long, some types of toothpaste can actually kill them. When mice consume ingredients found in certain kinds of toothpaste, they can die. Toothpaste that contains ethylene glycol and fluorine as their main ingredient can be fatal to mice when eaten, especially in large quantities. Unlike mint, ethylene glycol has a sweet smell so it attracts animals who unknowingly gobble it up.

When mice chomp down on toothpaste with ethylene glycol and fluorine, they ingest it quickly. Then it's too late and they can't expel it. If they consume enough, it will result in death.

In general, when mice ingest substances that are toxic to them they have no recourse because, unlike many other mammals, rodents have an inability to throw up. They actually cannot physically vomit so all poisons ingested stay inside and cause them to die.