When you find out you’ve got mice, it’s probably a sickening realization. Not only do they chew through wiring and fabric, they carry diseases like the Hantavirus and Rat-Bite Fever. Even just their droppings can expose to you these illnesses. They also reproduce at a fast rate, and your problem can go from one mouse to an infestation of them before you know it. So what do you do? There are different poisons you can go out and buy, traps that will kill or capture them, and of course, you can always use cats. But what about some DIY solutions? There are many do-it-yourself options out there, one of them being bleach.
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What Do Mice Think About the Smell?
Most of you have used bleach in some capacity, whether it’s cleaning or laundry. And if you’ve been exposed to it for even a small amount of time, you know how unpleasant it is. The smell is strong and the fumes sting your eyes. If you touch it, it can quickly burn your skin.
The stench of bleach is a powerful one. Humans can’t stand it for very long, and so neither can mice. If they smell it, it will be so off-putting to them, they’ll avoid it.
Bleach isn’t the only thing that’s unappealing to rodents. Other scents will turn them away just as quickly. So what smells do mice hate? Find out here.
Using Bleach as a Repellent
Because the smell of bleach is so undesirable to rodents, it makes a great repellent. You’ll want to mix it with water so as not to create too much of a stench for your home, then spray in any areas you suspect mice activity. 
Leave an exit untouched, though, so that the mice can escape your house. If you spray all corners and pathways and leave no clear place to leave, they’ll stay longer.
Something else useful about spraying it around the areas mice have been the disinfectant properties bleach has. Since it is so caustic, bleach destroys harmful bacteria and viruses on surfaces. Considering mice carry disease, it’s helpful to have bleach around to get rid of any microbes you’d find in mice droppings, urine, and blood.
Don’t want to use harsh chemicals in your pest control? Go the natural route. More information on natural mouse repellent can be found here.
A Deadly Weapon
Bleach is useful in many ways, but it can also be deadly in high concentrations, using chlorine as its main component in varying forms. And a person or animal doesn’t have to just drink bleach to be harmed by it. Inhalation causes damage, as well.
Two things happen when you inhale bleach for too long:
- Particles in the fumes come in contact with your nose, esophagus, and lungs.
- The bleach breaks double bonds in cells’ of the soft tissue, destroying it and causing many problems like bleeding and decreased oxygen intake.
There’s more than one smell that mice don’t like. Peppermint is one of them, and probably the most well known. But does cedar repel mice? Learn more here.
If bleach comes into contact with your stomach or skin, the following takes place:
- Epithelial cells start to break down, similar to a burn.
- If bleach continues to go deeper, it will break down inner tissue and fat, as well.
So how do you use bleach in pest control? While it’s not so hard to use it as a repellent, it’s a little harder as a deadly poison. But there are things you can try.
There are different forms of pest control you can use with mice. Pellets, bait, traps, to name a few. But what about spray? More details on spray for mice can be found here.
How can I get mice to get close to bleach?
Since the smell of bleach is so strong and unpleasant, it’s very hard to hide. A mouse most certainly won’t just come up and drink bleach like water, so you’d have to mask it somehow, and peanut butter is probably your best bet.
Peanut butter has a strong smell and is one of the tastiest substances out there for mice.
- Take a tablespoon of it and mix in just a little bit of bleach at a time. If you can smell the bleach more than the peanut butter, there’s too much.
- You could mix in some powdered peanut butter to both keep it from getting too runny after adding the bleach and to also keep the peanut smell strong.
If you’re lucky enough that your mice take the bait and eat it, the bleach will kill them, but only if they’ve ingested enough of it. And it won’t be immediate; it could take a day or two.
If you’re dealing with mice and want to try something different, bleach is one way you could go. And if the mice won’t eat it as you want, then don’t worry – at the very least, you’ll disinfect the house anywhere you spray it as a repellent. The beauty of DIY pest control is that you can always move on to another idea right away if the first doesn’t work exactly how you’d planned.
