Botanical Rodent Repellent - Environmentally Friendly, Keeps Mice Out, 4 Scent Pouches

We used these in our motor home for several years to keep the mice out over the winter. Then could not find them, so used products advertised to repel mice as effectively as Fresh Cab. Sadly, that year was the first time in 10 yrs. that we had mice! We are so very happy to have the "EarthKind" Fresh Cab Rodent Repellent again!

Pretty strong smell, but pleasant enough. Haven’t seen many mice since we started using this product.

I usually get a few kitchen mice come winter, but this past year was especially bad. In the past I was able to deter the little guys with Bounce sheets and rigorous cleaning, but that method had stopped working: every morning from November 2013 until two weeks ago (beginning of April 2014) there were droppings in my pantry and/or on my counter tops regardless of how well I scrubbed them.In a fit of desperation I decided to give Fresh Cab a try, and since putting one pouch under my pantry cabinet and one behind my microwave two weeks ago, nary a mouse turd has been seen. I was honestly shocked at how well and how immediately this stuff seemed to work after the mice had been so persistent for so long, but there's no other explanation. Aside from the packets actually working, the woodsy Fresh Cab smell is also much less weird to have around food/in the kitchen than the heavy Bounce scent was.The smell is also VERY noticeable -- I think I'll be able to tell easily when it's time to replace them, though I still took another reviewer's tip and write the date I opened the pouch on the tag so I could remember when to replace it, which I plan to do regularly. I can only hope it keeps working this well!**UPDATE 1** I finally saw evidence of mice again about four weeks after I initially put down the Fresh Cab pouches. To be fair, I'd noticed that I could no longer smell the pouches by that time -- and as soon as I replaced them, the mice left again. Now I know for sure that each bag lasts just about four weeks before it needs to be replaced.**UPDATE 2** This stuff seriously stops working like it's on a timer: once four weeks have passed since I put down a new pouch, I start seeing droppings again. Still, when this stuff is fresh out of the box, nothing else can touch its efficacy (I had actually switched briefly to using peppermint oil to deter the mice, but it did nothing to keep them away -- if anything it seemed to attract them! They showed up the day I put it down). Fresh Cab remains my go-to, even if it does get a bit pricey to keep stocked.

"Hope ya'll join me for this li'l tune I made up on me gui-tar in honor o’ Fresh Cab..."No, they ain't a-payin' me to write this stuff, I jist know a product deservin' o' me time when me finds it, that be all. This little ditty be about them rats that chew up everything...well, everything except Ethyl's rat poison...heh heh... In case you all was a-wonderin', Ethyl's a chem'cal comp'ny...I ain't a-pickin' on her...I mean, them..."Anyway...about 'em mice, and rats, and possums, and skunks, all them vermin that come 'round this this time a year and, how do they sez it, find lod-gin' -- heh heh -- yeah, ya'll gonna like this one. Finally one ain't about lovin' and leavin', it just be just about the leavin' I guess...heh heh...[Sung fast paced, like a shooed rat -- as in "shooed away," not shoed like a horse.] [Sustained holds on all lyric beats shown outside parentheses. Shouts in ALL CAPS.]I've..........tried.........(live) catch / (and) dead catch(and the) sometimes-you-get-'em- / -sometimes-(ya-don't)traps(But the) best traps / (I) e-ver --('til now) ne-ver --- / (did) see --(is the) RAT – TRAPS / I don't need no more -'cause the RATS don't come around ME!"Sing with me now!"(But the) best thing / (I) e-ver('til now) ne-ver / (did) see(be) them RAT TRAPS / I - don' - need - no - more('cause the) -- RATS -- don' -- come -- 'roun' -- MEEEEE....!!!"Yeeeeeh-haw!""Ya'll thinkin' it's over? Heh heh...you just 'bout gonna miss ma fav'rite part o' the story!"(But the) best -- thing -- / I-ever('til now) -- ne-ver -- / (did) s....e....e...be them RAT TRAPS / I -- don't -- need – no -- m...o...r...e...'cause the RATS don' come 'roun' me.Don't got to - - - move - - - to - - - BEV...ER...LY........!"......Uh....now what happened to my hi' Dee string gui-tar...them vermin done got into my gui-tar case befure I got me order of Fresh Cab in there for Spring...flea-bitten varmits...gotta order my Fresh Cab in March next year. Dad gummed global warmin', next year it'll prolly be Febr-ary 'en 'em rats all ready git on the run agin'....maybe I otter jist move out there to South'rn Cali this here fall, gits away from it ALL, what ya'll think!? Heh heh, yeah, RAT! I mean RIGHT!Thank ya'll!!!!! Love ya'll!!!! Ya'll go git ya'll yeselves some Fresh Cab, all rite'y? Them rats gonna be a-leavin' my garage 'cause I got me Fresh Cab, and I don' need but a bag er two of Fresh Cab to cov'r my hole ga-rage, and they a-comin' to ya'lls ga-rage, don' say I di'nt warn ya'll!Ain't no poisons or nuttin' in it, just the li'l CEDAR SMELL in Fresh Cab 'ill keep them varmints away! Smells good, ‘specially when the weather warm up and drive them pung’nt smells into the back country aire! An' Ethyl, too, it'll keep her away, too, heh heh! No need for 'er. Ya'll been GREAT, and I know I been GRATE -- HA HA HA, THANK YA'LL!!!

When you have mice, you have to be proactive! I love this product because it reminds me of the Pacific Northwest where I lived for 25 yrs. My personal theory is that they are best place in a small space like the cab of my truck and not in a large room or garage.First of all, you need to find where their point/s of entry are located and seal that up! They were getting inside where the hole for plumbing was large enough for them to squeeze through. They are able to get through holes the size of a pencil. Look behind the stove to ensure the plug and wall plate are sealed. There's a hole somewhere!! If you are noticing a poo trail consistently in a certain area, put a trap along a wall ; they travel on the edges of a room. And don't use cheese, peanut butter is better. Make sure you get the peanut butter well-seated on the trigger so the mouse activates the trap. Killing them is the best remedy!!I am not obsessive about cleaning and having everything sparkling & sterile in my kitchen, especially at the end of the day, but the mice are foraging for food so don't leave it out!Mothballs are stinky, but I do leave packs of them around areas they love to chew, on the engine and especially wires for vehicles or mowers; it is a repellent like the herbal scented bags. They like the soy-based wires from China I heard. Leaving the hood of your car or truck makes it feel less safe for them, so overnight my hoods up unless the weather is nasty; they were in my garage as well as the driveway.Meanwhile, chipmunks were under the eaves of a room that was added on, and when I found turds on my couch some mornings, I had to deal with that. I have seen chipmunks use the corner trim on the exterior of the house as an access point...they just shimmy right on up. You could hear nuts rolling around overhead late at night. Sealed those entry points up as well. Toss bait packs in your crawl space if you have one. Poison and kill them. They die down there.What made the biggest difference was when I started caring for 2 stray cats! I also have an indoor cat and he keeps the fly population down. One more thing I do is mix up a batch of clove oil or cinnamon oil mixed with peppermint and spray from the outside. That seems to keep bugs at bay....but it's a process, it works for me and I have not seen a mouse in my home in years! Good luck

I love this item. Smell is nice. The packets are easy to use, just place it where you want it. I would also feel I could use essential oil to freshen the scent to help offset frequent re purchase. It would work for an outdoor or garage laundry area to help eliminate the musty smell associated with these areas. I personally do not have a rodent issue but see them running amok the fence in my back yard so I know they are around and they are also supposed to keep squirrels away. I like the fact it is chemical free. I have pets and do NOT like using bait around my home. Not sure how long a packet will last but label states 1 month so I will try to remember to update on the longevity.

To find out whether this product repels mice, I ran a controlled experiment, which I'll describe here.Methodology:Two identical cardboard boxes, 7 x 10 x 5 inches, were prepared. These were closed at the top and bottom and had a triangular opening on one side near the bottom. A stamp pad was placed at this entrance to each box, so that any mouse entering the box would have to walk over the stamp pad, thus getting its feet inky. A sheet of paper was placed on the bottom of the box, and any mouse exploring the interior of the box would leave its inky footprints on this paper. One of these Fresh Cab repellent packets was hung inside one of the boxes. No bait was put inside the boxes, out of concern that the smell of the Fresh Cab packet might reduce the traffic of mice simply by masking the smell of the bait. Thus the boxes were just a dark, enclosed space of the sort that mice are prone to investigate.Over the course of several days, the boxes were alternated every 24 hours; the "active" box being put in the same place on the floor of a crawlspace under my house, while the "inactive" box was removed to a separate area and sealed so that no mice could enter it. through this methodology, the comparative density of mouse footprints on the sheets of paper placed on the bottom of the two boxes gives an indication of how effectively the Fresh Cab packet kept mice from exploring the box.Results:As you can see in the photos that accompany this review, there is slightly less mouse-traffic in the box with the Fresh Cab packet, but only slightly. It's clear that the product did not prevent mice from entering and exploring the box, and that it did not repel mice to any meaningful degreeIllustrations:Figure 1 shows the mouse tracks from the box with the Fresh Cab packet.Figure 2 shows the mouse tracks from the box without the Fresh Cab packet.Figure 3 shows the experimental setup for the box with the Fresh Cab, with the top of the box open. Note the stamp pad at bottom and the Fresh Cab packet hanging in the upper right corner of the box. The box is shown open here, but was closed for the experiment to contain and concentrate the smell of the repellent and also to make the box an inviting area for mice to explore.Additional Note:I've read that there are some indications that scented products like this one can discourage mice from _nesting_ in a treated area. So if you have a problem with mice nesting in a certain spot (the engine compartment of a car, for example), this product might work for preventing that. But for simply repelling mice, for keeping them from doing all the destructive, annoying, and unsanitary things they do when not in their nests, this experiment clearly shows that this product does not work.

I got these for around my garage and it kept the mice away from my tool boxes a little but it wasn’t enough to repel them out of the garage entirely..