Peppermint!! I know but bear with me!

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

foamheart

Gone but not forgotten. RIP
Original poster
OTBS Member
I want to share something I just learned. But first I'll back peddle a bit so you'll understand.

I live in south Louisiana which is known for its seafood, gators, Mardi Gras, coonazzs, and hunting. But it is also where most all America's cane sugar comes from. Sugar cane is just BIG grass with sweet sap. It is cut once a year hopefully before the first freeze (Pretty safe on that one here lately). All types of things make their home in the cane fields, rabbits, minks, deer, gators, snakes, etc.... and RATS! Not nutria although they are there also but rats. 

When they harvest the cane its cut down and laid across the rows and then burned to clear all the excess leaves off before being picked up and taken to the cane mill. Believe it or not this is pretty much were I grew up, in the middle of the cane fields behind the mill in a company house for a gas transmission company. 

But when the fields are cut and burned its a hunters paridise because all the critters come running out of their hidden secure homes running as not to burn. You stand at the corners of each tract and shoot till your out of shells. LOL Freezers filled in just a day. Course it does make your eyes water, you smell like smoke, and all that black soot is everywhere.

With this comes a large influx of varmints, especially mice and rats. Every one just takes it for granite, its just how it is. You use bait outside where they eat it and go off and die or traps inside, really LARGE traps. And all rodents are incredibly smart.

I always heard of the old wives tales about peppermint balls. The peppermints fight really hard and they are so small its hard to get 'em but.......

Seriously you use peppermint oil, not extract, oil. Place it on cotton balls and place in the corners of any room and rodents will leave. They hate it!

I hate an extremely smart rat this year. He was almost big enough so he'd have to be baked he'd have been too tuff to fry. After a couple a weeks of frustration, at wit's end, I tryed the peppermint balls. I have not see him nor his raisinettes in over a week now.

Long long ago a really really old cajun man told me about planting peppermint around his house. Thinking back he had some peppermint thyme looking plants around his shotgun home. After forever of fighting rodents, this just seems too easy. Common sense and using the old ways. No frustrations no home damage, no killing rodents. LOL..... Gonna plant some this spring as ground cover around the house. NOT gonna tell the neighbors either. Well the rats gotta live somewhere during their reproductive season, right? LOL

Just passing it along.

BTW I am still finding dead rats and squirrels from last years bait in the garage, found about 2 dozen so far (neighbor lost her cats too. I imagine they ate dead rats.

I figured this would fit best in home gardening, but couldn't find anywhere it really fit.

Thats it, hope it helps someone else from going nuts over smart rodents!
 
Put some baking soda in a squatty wide mouth 1/2 pint jar. Add peppermint oil to it. Put a piece of cheese cloth over it and then the ring. It'll keep bugs and spiders and rodents away. Every once in a while give it a stir. Add more oil every 3-6 months if needed. Works great.
 
Last edited:
Just be aware peppermint can be really pervasive. It'll take over the area.

Fun peppermint facts; it takes four acres of peppermint to produce one 55gl drum of oil. One drum will make 400,000 tubes of toothpaste or 5,000,000 sticks of gum. Turns out Idaho is the 3rd largest grower of peppermint in the country.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I'm ording a 55 gal drum. Lol.

I've got a rat in my home that has a PHD in pissing me off.

I had just put in a brand new dishwasher. 3 weeks later it would work.
I took the front kick plate off, and the little rat fink chewed every wire and hose under there. Luckily, the supply hose is braided metal, and didn't get chewed.
A $600 dishwasher ruined.

I've got traps everywhere, with every type of bait I can think of. No joy...

Won't use poison as don't want the dogs to get sick if they eat a dead rat.
Our cats... Well there useless.

Don't want to replace the dishwasher untill I'm sure the critter is dead. And can keep others away.

Gosh I hope this works..
 
On a buddy's farm he gripes about mice getting into everything. And you see about 30 cats at most any given time. I just laugh when I see a 50 lb bag of cat food laying wide open on the machine shed floor. And he can't figure out why he has mice.
 
Last edited:
On a buddy's farm he gripes about mice getting into everything. And you see about 30 cats at most any given time. I just laugh when I see a 50 lb bag of cat food laying wide open on the machine shed floor. And he can't figure out why he has mice.

Lol, leaving cat food out is a open invitation.

I make all of our dog food, so i know the rat is not opening the freezer and grabbing a package, lol. Cat food is in a plastic tub.

Lots of woods and a farm down the road keep us in the mice, but this is our first rat. Hopefully our last.
 
Last edited:
I remember some off us cousins finding a huge Black Snake in Grandpa's barn once and he caught us chasing it. That's the only time he ever raised his voice at us. "You kids leave that snake alone! He keeps the mice out! Now go play somewhere else!!
 
Just be aware peppermint can be really pervasive. It'll take over the area.

Fun peppermint facts; it takes four acres of peppermint to produce one 55gl drum of oil. One drum will make 400,000 tubes of toothpaste or 5,000,000 sticks of gum. Turns out Idaho is the 3rd largest grower of peppermint in the country.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

There used to be a mint field not too far from where I live. Went away a few years ago due to developers but when it was growing in the summer you would drive by and it was just about overpowering.
 
We've got moles trenching our back yard, and my dog only makes it worse digging after them. It's amazing how quickly a dog can dig a six inch deep four foot long trench.  I'll have to try that this spring. Thanks for the tip

chris
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Hot Threads

Clicky