I don't know if it will work for mice, but when my cats were using my indoor plants as a litter box, my mom said to lay mothballs on top of the dirt. And it WORKED !! They didn't like the smell. Don't know about mice, but it's worth a try.

In your case, I'm not suggesting to put then IN the plants, but maybe surround them with lots of 'em. Oh...forgot about your cats. They might play with them, so put them in some old pantyhose and make a tube to circle the plants. (And just FYI for plant lovers, they didn't hurt mine and I even left them in when watering.)

If youÂre industrious (or have a friend), you could build a frame and staple netting onto it, creating an open-ended "box" to sit down over the plants. IÂd choose a heavy wood to go around the bottom so the mice canÂt work their way under it. You could also do this with screen, but itÂs a bit harder to cut.

I may not be thinking this plan thru since itÂs just off the top of my head and since :IÂm just a girl"Â..LOLÂ..so if anyone finds fault or can improve it, please feel free to comment. WonÂt hurt my feelings one bit :o)

Good Luck !!

Mothballs?

tj

Here is a link that might be useful: Think again...

tj - WOW, thanks for the info. Who'da thunk it? My plants must have been superhuman, with me watering on top of the mothballs as well, huh?

Yet further down the page, somebody says: "The best thing I have found is moth balls (the big ones, moths don't like giving up there own). Mice don't like the smell. I use them in the shed after having a few life jackets chewed up. No signs of them sence the moth balls were put in."

So I'm a bit confused. Seems like somebody is saying they work. Or is this a case where this "somebody" is someone like me, giving advice and then the person who wrote the top part is telling them about the toxicity?

All I know is, I'm alive, my plants didn't die and neither did my cats. But again, thanks for posting that link so "flowersnhens" is better educated.

PS - while reading my post, I realized my last sentence could be considered 'snide' and that's not how I meant it. I meant "....so "flowersnhens" is better educated in making a decision about using them."

Mothballs have long been used as a home remedy to repel everything from A to Z. But they shouldn't be used in any way other than the purpose for which they were intended: in a closed (sealed) environment to kill cloth eating insects.

Exposure to soil, to the household atmosphere, and to non-target organisms is hazardous at best, deadly at the worst. Mothballs should certainly never be used where free range chickens roam, nor where anything else can be exposed to the fumes and/or particles.

flowersnhens may need to resort to a trapping system to alleviate the pest population. They make traps that mice can get into but cats can't.

I know this is an old post, but did the lavender work? I am hoping to plant some among some fruit trees as a preventative measure. Thanks :)

Thanks so much for the reply. This is the first time I have had a garden so I really don't know much. Seemed like a good idea :)