I live in the country. This is the worst year yet for field mice moving in my shop. I've tried traps, repellent(peppermint and cinnamon oil). I've cleaned, tried sealing every opening around the shop. I have the mouseblocker pro advertised on car shows. They run right by it. I have poison, have not resorted to it don't like the dead mouse smell, but I think I am to that point. I have rat snakes around, but they can only eat so much, LOL. Help!!!!

If you can stand them, cats will kill way more than they will eat.

Sprinkle crushed bay leaves around where you see them. That will get rid of them.

Don't mind cats. Actually thought about it. Our local shelter has a barn cat program. Have not tried bay leaves, may try that.

A cat, or better yet get a snake. I found a snake skin in a rock wall on the edge of my property that must have been 7' long, so he/she's definitely eating good. My wife wasn't too keen on the idea I let the snake go but snakes, possums, and spiders are my kinda cohabitants.

We've had a few cats over the years for the mice, no other method I used to control the mice worked as good as cats.. We had a young male that ran away to the neighbors, picked fights with everything. Old male cat, great cat for indoors and outdoors, went missing one night when the coyotes were around. The best cat is the cat we've had for about 4 years now, younger female long hair. She comes in at night but prowls the yard during the day. She has decimated the local mouse population, now she is after gophers, weasels, birds and what not. The size of the stuff she can kill is pretty shocking.

I don't see mice too often, but my mouser has killed a few mice, rats, birds and even eaten scorpions for a snack. She is a German Shepard and not much gets past her.

female cats are the best mousers

I work and have my cars in a huge old barn. Mice are a constant problem. But then so are squirrels and dirt daubers. I do the best that I can to keep the mouse population down, but it is a constant battle. The cat thing is a non starter for us. They just kill anything and everything that they come across. When they bring the crippled baby bunnies up to the house, or kill a chipmunk, my wife cries. It is just too much for her in order for me to control the mice in the barn. So, I have to eliminate the cats and control the mice. The cats are a larger target, so they are not a problem. The wife feeds the little colored birds, and chipmunks, and bunnies. We even have flying squirrels now that the cars are gone. All that and mice, too. But no cats.

That's the problem with cats, they're killers. They kill everything. I hate mice and would rather have a snake around than a mouse.

BTW traps with peanut butter work great, it that don't catch them put a piece of bacon on the trap.

I agree with justinp61 Peanut Butter in the traps. Has always worked like a siren song for mice.

A guy named Shawn Woods has a Utube channel where all he does is test mouse traps. The best he's found is this one available on Amazon. American made, but beware Chinese knock-offs.

I like the idea of the buckets with a ramp and a rod, where the mice climb up the ramp, stroll out the rod, it rotates, they fall in the water in the bottom of the bucket and drown.
I had problems with mice getting under my hood of my daily driver after "work from home" began last year with the pandemic. I tried everything to get repel or kill the mice. I put peanut butter on a mousetrap and the little buggers somehow where managing to eat the peanut butter off the trigger without snapping the trap. A few times the trap was snapped but no mouse? I also tried those sticky sheets and they were managing to eat the seeds and peanut butter I put in the middle of the sheet without getting caught. They even had the nerve to chew up the sheets leaving scraps of the paper under my hood. One time I opened the hood to find the bait gone off the sheet and a bunch of mouse hair stuck in the stickum on the sheet, somehow the sob managed to get himself free after getting stuck!

long story but had pretty good luck with these.AMAZON LINKY

You might also look a bit harder to find out how they are gaining access. has to be openings somewhere

Tractor Supply has a peanut flavored poison bait. They work real well! They drive the mouse out in search of water. The poison bait comes in a gallon bucket.

You can also look at this system -

https://www.acehardware.com/departm...OCDYLX08XkaAumIEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Here's an elaboration on the "ramp and bucket" trap:


5 gallon plastic bucket, drill two holes across from each other about an inch or so below the top.

Drill a hole in the bottom of a water bottle.
Slide a dowel through the bottle and through the holes in the bucket.
Put a couple inches of water in the bucket. Cold weather, add anti-freeze.
Prop a board from the floor up to the top of the bucket.

The mice walk out on the dowel, when they go to get on the bottle it will spin them into the water. Use a slotted scoop, like used for cat litter, to scoop them out.
They generally don't stink because they are in the water. I hate poison, as they go off to die in places that you can't find them and they stink the place up.
Relatively humane, too. Drowning can't be fun but it's not like being glued to a board and left to squirm until you die.

This has worked really, really well for me.

Now if only there was a trap like that for feral cats

The problem with poison is if the mice leave and haven’t died yet, you wind up poisoning other creatures that feed on them: snakes, owls, hawks, foxes, etc.. Please use traps or the bucket idea. Cats are good; they need homes too.

And, when you don't need them anymore, you can sell them to a Chinese restaurant.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I ordered a couple of the US made bucket traps. I will give them a few days and report back. I have been sealing up holes also with steel wool and expanding foam. Around pipes, etc. maybe slow them down.