Can You Kill Mice With Salt?

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One of the major concerns for homeowners is mice infestation since these rodents can be quite annoying and destructive.

Mice not only destroy your property but are also disease carriers, so getting rid of them is paramount. While there are plenty of effective ways of killing them, can you kill mice with salt?

Although rat poisons often provide immediate results, these substances are harmful to pets, so it is best to consider other safe but effective methods.

Using salt is a method you may have come across, and you likely wondered if this readily available substance is effective in killing mice.

Continue reading to find out the answer and whether you should use salt to kill mice.

Can You Kill Mice With Salt?

Yes, you can kill mice using salt, provided you use the correct quantities. Mice need to consume a minimum of 0.18 pounds (80 grams) of salt without drinking any water.

Too much salt in a mouse’s body leads to neurological issues like overall weakness, muscle paralysis, blindness, and deafness.

Related: Killing mice with toothpaste

In addition, it causes ailments such as general system inflammation and gastroenteritis. Salt’s adverse effects will show faster on mice because they are small, but the effects can be reversed if the mouse drinks water.

Salt dehydrates a mouse from inside the body and can lead to damage to the kidneys and liver, causing the shutdown of vital life-supporting organs.

Also read: Mice eating poison but not dying

Moreover, a mouse’s gut will change, leading to severe dehydration and digestion problems.

The effectiveness of salt in killing mice depends on the correct application, but the downside is it can easily backfire just by drinking water.

Therefore, to successfully kill mice using salt, these rodents must consume sufficient salt and not drink water. You must be as cunning as mice or even more to outsmart these rodents with salt.

Related: Mice Repellents That Work

How To Kill Mice With Salt

In order to kill mice with salt, you must plan well and find ways to have the rodents consume the salt and not access a water source.

1. Gather the Supplies

Before going ahead with the plan, you must gather the supplies you need, which is a minimum of 80 grams of salt and bait food- cheese, peanut butter, rat chow, or any other pungent-smelling food.

2. Create Your Bait

Once you gather the supplies, here is what to do:

a) Mix Salt With Rat Chow

Purchase rat chow or rat food from a local store or online, then mix it with salt. The recommended ratio is around 930 grams (2.05 lbs) of rat food and 80 grams (0.18 lbs) of salt.

b) Mix Salt With Cheese

Mice love cheese, but it is not due to its flavor but the smell. Therefore, use it to attract mice since the strong aroma will have these rodents gravitate toward it.

Develop an ingredient to kill mice by mixing about 80 grams of cheese with 80 grams of salt.

If you do not want to use cheese, peanut butter, fish, and bacon fish are excellent alternatives. It is worth noting that it is easier to use rat chow than cheese or other smelly foods.

Related: How to get rid of mice in walls 

c) Homemade Salt Bars

Make salt bars using one egg, 120 grams of peanut butter, 80 grams of salt, and about 2 cups of feed (around 3.6 kilograms).

You can use bird feed or rat food. Mix all the ingredients to create a dough-like consistency and roll it out on parchment paper, then cut it into bars using a cookie cutter or cut bar.

Put the bars in the oven for around 30 minutes at temperatures of about 176°C (350°F). After that, take them out and let them cool.

Related: How to get rid of mice in the house

3. Set The Bait

Put your bait in an odorless, clean dish and position it in a place mice like going through or at the entrance of their hiding places. Also, you can place the dish in areas with infestation signs such as bite marks and mice droppings.

4. Cover The Water

For the mice to die from salt, they must not drink water, so cover your home’s water sources, drains, and toilets, address leaks, and dry off your sinks.

Is Killing Mice With Salt Effective?

Yes, salt is effective in killing mice if enough amount is used (at least 80 grams) and the rodents do not drink water.

Mice will die in a day or even less after ingesting salt and complete water deprivation. Keep in mind that mice can’t survive with over 70 grams to 75 grams of salt in their system.

The downside of using salt is that it acts slower than over-the-counter rat poisons. Salt is also less effective on severe mice infestation because these rodents breed quickly, and creating enough baits to kill many mice is time-consuming and can be costly.

What Are The Advantages Of Using Salt As A Mice Poison?

Theoretically, salt can kill mice, but this is not guaranteed since certain conditions must be met, and doing so is not easy since these rodents are very cunning. However, this method of killing mice is worth trying for the following reasons.

1. Safe For Pets and Kids

Unlike rat poisons that resemble candy and are thus attractive to pets and young kids, salt does not harm your pets. At the very least, ingesting rat poison makes your pets and children sick, but death is the worst-case scenario.

Your pets and kids will also avoid eating anything too salty.

2. Cheap

Salt is highly affordable and readily available in homes. Therefore, you do not have to put much effort into accessing it or spending much of your money. While physical traps, chemicals, and poisons effectively eliminate mice, they will cost you much more than salt.

Final Thoughts

With the knowledge that salt is effective in killing mice, you can now develop salt-based baits to turn your home into a mice-free environment.

Just make sure you use salt properly- ensuring you use the right amount, choose the correct bait, and deprive mice of water. Also, pick a different mice control method if there are too many mice in your home.

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