Do Mice Hate Aluminum Foil? (Find Out Now!)

Do you have a mice problem? If not addressed quickly, a mice infestation in the home can become a serious nuisance. Fortunately, you don’t have to rush to a local retailer and buy mice traps that could be harmful to your young children or pets. Instead, there are a number of natural ways to rid your home of these pesky rodents. Aluminum foil is frequently featured online as an anti-rodent “life hack.”

This brings us to the question – do mice hate aluminum foil? Yes, mice do hate aluminum foil. They tend to avoid aluminum foil, as the sharp texture deters them from wanting to chew, dig, or walk on it. Not only does the noise of aluminum foil scare them, but mice are also unable to properly chew through it.

Though, aluminum foil is simply a repellent material that discourages mice. It seldom solves the whole problem, contrary to popular belief. Home remedies for ridding your home of mice should always be done alongside other, more effective methods.

Simply put, mice detest aluminum foil, and other forms of thin sheet metal, because they are unable to chew through it properly. Generally speaking, the sharp points and grooves of aluminum foil, as well as the noise it makes, is known to scare mice. Because of its sharp, but oddly smooth, texture, mice don’t like to dig through aluminum foil. It causes mice to be hesitant to approach and chew on the material.

If you crumple up some aluminum foil or use it to cover potential entry points, you’ll notice that the mice will no longer try enter your home through these holes. Since they don’t like to dig or chew the foil, this will prevent them from even trying. Other types of metal, like wire mesh, can also be used to cover holes and cracks in areas that mice can fit through.

Mice can chew or eat their way through a number of materials, including paper, plastic, dense cardboard, and even insulation. However, mice won’t even try to chew through aluminum foil. Another metal material that many suggest is effective at solving mice issues is steel wool, which mice also cannot chew through.

If you need additional protection, consider covering a surface where you find mouse droppings with aluminum foil or steel wool. So, if you found mouse droppings on your countertops, cover it with aluminum foil before you go to sleep in the evening. Then, fold it up in the morning and repeat the process again each evening.

It’s not enough to simply know that mice hate aluminum foil, you also need to know how and where to place the foil for it to be most effective at repelling the rodents. It doesn’t make sense to just place aluminum foil anywhere and everywhere throughout your home. Not only does this waste foil, but it can also make your home look untidy and unkempt. Instead, you want to place aluminum foil in areas of your home where you’ve observed a high concentration of mouse activity.

Look for the areas that mice may be entering your home, and set traps or roadblocks with the foil to restrain mice from entering your home. To find the areas where mice are entering your house, look out for droppings and gaps in your house that may suggest mice were or are nearby. Other common indications of mouse activity include scratching, bite marks, and mouse hair.

After identifying the potential entry points, simply ball up the aluminum foil and put it the cracks and holes. Then, use tape to hold the aluminum in place and prevent mice from pushing it out of the way. As previously mentioned, steel wool can be used either in addition or in place of aluminum foil, as mice cannot chew through either material.

Whether the aluminum foil isn’t working properly or you want to use other methods to remove mice out of your home, there are alternatives. Generally speaking, a two-part approach works best at ridding your home of mice. First, it’s advised that you place traps (live or lethal) and then work on making your home both inaccessible and inhospitable to the tiny rodents.

That said, consider any of the following methods as an alternative to using aluminum foil to keep mice away from your home:

Humane traps, like cage traps, catch the mouse alive. When the mouse steps onto the baited pan inside the trap, a mechanism is tripped and the door shuts. It traps the mouse without killing it. These traps should be placed parallel to your walls, so the mouse will run into them. Put them in dark corners, behind furniture, or in areas where you find bite marks and/or droppings.

For quick results, set at least a dozen traps. If you don’t catch any mice within three days, remove the traps and then set them again a few days later in a different locations and positions. When you catch a mouse, always handle the trap using gloves and disinfect afterwards. You can then either release the mouse outdoors over a half a mile from your house or call a local veterinary clinic and see if they humanely kill rodents.

Essential oils are widely understood as great mice repellents. Since mice have an acute sense of smell, you can exploit that. Peppermint oil is a popular choice because of its strong smell that mice find unpleasant. Simply dip the oil in cotton balls and place them around entry points and cracks throughout your home. Place the cotton balls every few days to ensure that the smell doesn’t fade.

While the smell of clove may be pleasant to humans, it is not for mice. You can use clove essential oil or whole cloves to help deter mice. However, the oil tends to be more effective as it has a much stronger scent than whole cloves. Like peppermint oil, put the clove oil on cotton balls and place them in areas of your home that have seen mouse activity.