wistfuldreamer's Profile

I have used peppermint oil as a deterrent with excellent results. I live in an older, crumbling apt building with a less-than-clean neighbor (it only takes one!) and have to deal with the fact that they are around - but a few drops of peppermint oil behind the stove and where I store my grains works wonders, even where conventional traps have failed. Also, it's totally pet-safe and nose-friendly, AND you don't have to worry about cleaning out traps...just make sure you get real essential oil and refresh the areas every 30 days or the smell fades and the deterrent stops working. (Which may not be an issue for you if you don't have dirty neighbors that keep bringing the pests back.) Good luck!

When my (now husband) boyfriend and I were in college, we lived in what we thought was a great apartment in the middle of town with great access to bars and the campus. The landlady turned out to be PSYCHO and hated women - something I realized after finding out that the rest of the tenants in our building were only male, and a neighbor commented on his surprise that she "let" a female move in to one of her properties.
There were two locks on the door and she only gave us the key to one (she only HAD the key to one - can you say code violation?!) I got back from visiting my family for my birthday in the summer to find that my friend had locked both locks instead of the one (he came by to feed my snake, ignoring my repeated warnings about the lock) and I was locked out with a 7 week old puppy whining in the car. I ended up having to call the fire department to get me in because the landlady, who lived one town over, wouldn't take my frantic calls as the hours ticked away. The firemen had to take a screen off our fire escape because the window was half open, and they didn't want to break the door down - one of them knew the landlady and didn't want to incur her wrath. Guess who the lucky one was that got to shimmy through the window because they were all too *ahem* large...not that I wasn't still extremely grateful...but it was a mortifying as a 21 yo having your posterior just hanging out in the breeze as you frantically try to scissor kick your way inside, knowing 3 firemen are staring up at you. (The snake was fine and the puppy was grateful to finally be let out of the car.)
When the door on the back porch blew out after a powerful thunderstorm, she blamed me. (Not my husband. Me. The only female living there. I didn't even have access to that door. We lived in the front of the house on the 2nd floor.) And of course, when the time came to move, she tried to keep all of our security deposit plus charge us extra because it wasn't "properly cleaned." Luckily, by that point we were wise to her shenanigans and took pictures of ourselves in the act of cleaning the place. (Something we ALWAYS do now!!) The funny part was, she tried to bill us for a maid service for 10 hours to clean this tiny little 1 bedroom apartment (under 600 sq ft)...and did the math WRONG!! I could go on, but those were the most memorable incidents.

Wow! From growing up in Chicago, then going to college on the shores of Lake Superior, and with relatives on Lake Eerie, this quilt touches me in a way usually reserved for living things!

Peppermint oil is a natural mouse repellant. Just put a few drops where you think they're coming in and by areas that seem to have activity. They probably went after the cilantro because you did a good job of covering up the other food sources for them. If you have kids or pets I would definitely recommend trying this method first as it is a natural, nontoxic deterrent - not to mention the nice smell! Hope this helps :)

Oh come off your high horse. . .did you not see how many people above you loved the piece? This is not called "Cindy44Apartment Therapy" after all.

Kudos for an interesting idea!

I actually worked on a farm for a summer and almost lost my job because I kept trying to convince the owner to "go organic." Eventually, I came to understand that the method he used was safer and resulted in better produce, and will allow the land to continue producing for generations, not years, which was more important to him because it's a family farm. They even have someone from a nearby (well, 2 hours) university come out once a month to check on the volume of pests in the orchard so that no more pesticides than were absolutely necessary would be used.

I went to a bridal shower that had scrumptious homemade chicken salad sandwiches. They were garnished with dried tart cherries from the brides family farm- a thoughtful and delicious touch! And it's nice for the spring/summer months as well. For dessert, strawberry shortcake loans itself to preparation ahead of time quite nicely, and is a nice change from standard frosted cake.