Just read this tip in an email i received and thought i'd share.

Use whole cloves to keep mice out of certain areas of the house. The suggestion was to put about a tablespoon of whole cloves in a small piece of cheesecloth or nylon, tie it up & toss the little bundle of cloves in cabinets, closets or where ever you spot mouse droppings.

Has anyone tried this that can attest to it? So far i've not had a problem with mice in the house....only out in the barn! :-)

-- Buk Buk (bukabuk@hotmail.com), July 22, 2001

Answers

I've not tried it for mice but I put whole cloves in the pockets of our stored winter coats, in the bottom of trunks where clothing is stored, etc. to keep moths away and the clothes smelling nice. No signs of mice around those things.

-- Marci in Germany (marci_tomlinson@hotmail.com), July 23, 2001.

Excuse my ignorance, but cloves of what?

-- vicky (bullride99@msn.com), July 23, 2001.

Vicky, you can buy whole cloves or ground cloves from your spice rack at the grocery. They are pleasant to smell, sure beats moth balls all to heck! I will try it on mice. Maureen

-- Maureen Stevenson (maureen@mtaonline.net), July 24, 2001.

I'll be running right out and buying packages of whole cloves. Got a couple cheeky little varmints in our house, know how to set off the tip traps without getting caught. Bold little mouse was sitting right here in the doorway of my closet the other night, thumbing his nose at me while I was on the computer.

-- Chelsea (rmbehr@istar.ca), July 24, 2001.

I have to share this: (story about mouse in spice cipboard)

We just moved and the house we have is fairly new, if you call 30 yrs old new, i do anyways compared to our 150 yr old farmhouse in NY we had. Well... we settled in and after the first night we were welcomed by the resident mouse. i kept seeing mouse droppings around the kitchen. Thats it! I'm going to get this mouse if it kills me. Hmmmm... ever see the movie Mouse Hunt? well... i was seeking a cat just like the one in the movie, killer cat.

In the meantime we tried glue traps, this mouse apparently knew what they were, he steerred clear. then we got the spring traps, the kind if ya don't watch it ya get yer fingers smashed. We baited it with bread with peanutbutter and cheese, hey, i was wining and dining this mouse for sure! he would get brave and come out from our old Chambers cook stove in the kitchen, round the cornor near the computer in the living room, darn near would run over my feet and then disappear into the fireplace.

So, mousetraps are loaded, yep, we are gonna get him. Well, got up the next morning thinking, "AHA! i've got ya now!" and guess what, he stole the food and left the trap. Ok, its all out war now. A dear friend gave us 2 kittens to do the job, but they are little, still the female growls at the male for her food, sounds really visious, hey, my kind of cat! in the meantime I have to wait for them to get older to get the dang thing. So one day i decided to give the old cookstove a through cleaning, and I lifted up the drip pan and lo and behold, a wad of insulation. Now I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be there or if it was a nest, called the hubby. hubby comes out, looks in and grabs the tongs and strats pulling it out, yep, looks like a mouse nest, must have had a small city in there, and so that expalined why when I cooked everytime he came scooting out, got a hot seat. Darn! so we got rid of his happy home and I hoped him. Well... a few weeks went by, didn't see my little buddy. I happened to reach up to the top shelf in the spice cupboard, now these cupboards are sealed and can't get in or out. I happened to catch something out of the cornor of my eye. Hmmmm... since when did the box of baking cocoa have beaty black eyes, something wrong here. i looked up again, there he/she was, staring at me. i went to swipe at it and that thing leaped out of the cupboard and onto me, I was mad to say the least. then it went scrambling.

Ok... heres where the cloves come in, I had 2 bottles of whole cloves up there, dang it, wish i'd known, i would have sprinkled the cupboard good. Well... guess what i am going to do after typing this, sprinkle the cloves.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), July 25, 2001.

Oriental grocery stores (and probably other ethnic stores as well) are excellent places to get whole cloves, and other whole spices, at truly discount prices. last time I was there, I could get a half- pound bag of cloves for about $1.00. Ditto anise, chilis, etc.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), July 25, 2001.

Thanks for the tip. Will head out for a bag o' cloves right away. Had a family last winter get into the heating vent and every time the heat came on pink insulation blew out of the vents. Lots of vacuuming ! Figured out they were coming up in the space around the pipes under the sink so I took play dough (nasty raspberry scent and bright blue) and stuffed the holes up with it. I heard scratching for a while and then as the weather had warmed they left. I also found at this time a nest in my chinese new year decorations and wound up having to wash or toss most of what was in the under cupboards. So, it's cold again and they're back. Went to fetch my daughter a pair of gloves this morning and found a pee soaked hat and my straw summer hat has been used to make a nest...where's the nest ?!! So, the winter rodent adventure begins again. A true perk of country living - ugh ! Hoping the cloves work - I'd heard something about cedar too but am afraid they'd just used it for more nest makings. Thanks again !

-- Lydia Griffith (lydia@kharmakhameleon.com), October 27, 2001.

starts out with little pitter patter across the carpet in the middle of the night, then you see the curtains moving by themselves and then see a little black dart run across the room. well i decided to matters into my own hands. got a bucket, pop can, fishing line and of course peanut butter. ran a line through the empty pop can lengthwise and tied it to the inside of the bucket. slicked it up with some cooking oil and smearned the peanut butter on the can. ran a ramp from the top of the bucket to the floor and smeared PB on the ramp too. so when it gets to the top and reaches for the PB on the can, the can rolls and the mice fall to the bottom of the bucket and gets trapped. so i set it in the food pantry for a few days, and nothing happens, til i check on it one day, and see the little black beady eyes staring back into mine. it was sitting on the third shelf up! eating into a loaf of bread. how in the heck did it get up there? going out to buy cloves today.

-- tina judd (teena405@yahoo.com), December 21, 2001.

Don't forget that the best thing to use around pipes and to stop holes where they're getting in is wadded-up steel wool. Either they can't chew it or they hate to try, but if you stuff a good thickness in nice and tight they don't go through it.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), December 22, 2001.

Steve bought me some glue boards on his way home last night. We caught 6 last night, 4 on one board, and 2 singles. Plus 5 in the wooden traps between yesterday and last night. 3 of my wooden traps had the peanut butter gone this morning. How do they do that? They have invaded my house since it got cold. We pulled the buggers off the glue boards so we can use them again, at 4 dollars for 2 boards, that's expensive. They are NOT living in my house!

-- Cindy in KY (solidrockranch@msn.com), December 22, 2001.

$ General has 4 sticky traps/$.

Have also heard that mice hate peppermint.

Wonder if cloves'd keep away whatever is eating the wool from my sheepskin houseshoes? warmest things I've ever had and they are maybe 10 yrs old. I don't want them to go bald!!!?

-- carol (kanogisdi@yahoo.com), December 22, 2001.