Irish Spring for rats?

Interesting idea! I didn't know rodents didn't like it. I use Irish Spring. My wife never complains about my smell after a shower, although I have been known to get a negative opinion before a shower from time to time after working in the yard. However, the smell of several boxes of Irish Spring in the linen closet has bothered her to the point where we now keep the inventory on a shelf in the garage.

As to how and where to put it, any kind of loosely woven cloth bag secured to a cable clamp or some such thing away from the exhaust heat should work. If the smell comes through the box, it's going to for sure come through cloth.

 

It's probably a myth that rodents don't like the smell of Irish Spring soap though. I'd be surprised if it weren't the opposite, that they'd be attracted to the smell of the soap, and find that it has been devoured or gnawed on.

Peppermint oil has been mentioned, along with menthol, naphtha mothballs, etc.

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Could be. I really don't know. I don't think I've ever seen a mouse or rat around here. I suppose, if they are around, the snakes keep the population pretty low. Roaches, on the other hand ....

 

If I don't miss my guess, what you would call roaches down there would look more like what I would call okra. With legs.

 

Pretty good analogy.

 

And she said, "Manly, yes. But I like it too..."

 

Yes, I'd be surprised that RATS are repelled by it.

They certainly weren't repelled by normal bar soap. I was Business Manager in a very old school, and we tended to have rat problems from time to time - big gaps under doors - particularly toilet blocks. And we would have soap stolen, or just chewed on occasions.

It was AUSTRALIAN SOAP - not IRISH though. And it was more likely SUMMER, rather than SPRING .

Mothballs - they didn't like.

If you want to try RAT TRAPS, we used PEPPERONI sausage - was the most successful. They sold it in what they called Twiggy Sticks here, pepperoni sticks about 180mm long, 8-10mm wide - fairly hard, and it stuck well on the trap.



No, we didn't try soap on traps.

 

Those look just like what they sell here but we have much more confusing labeling. They generally say "Pepperoni Sticks." But there are variations.

I wonder if Toyota wire insulation would be a good mouse/rat trap bait.

 

GOOGLE indicates more than just TOYOTA. KIA, FORD, Hyundai, Chevy, Honda, Subaru, VOLVO, Mazda, VW, AUDI, Porsche, BMW, Dodge, Mercedes and Nissan are listed or complained about implicated.

That was in 2 minutes - probably most brands are using it.

 

Or, generic beef sticks. Slim Jim, Jack Links, etc., etc...

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Yes, that was our 2nd best option. With the Pepperoni though, if the cleaners had set traps on Friday afternoon, and I went to work to catch up on Saturday, the first thing I noticed as I walked in the door was the smell of pepperoni. I'd check - and if necessary clear the traps and reset.

With peanut butter it had to be reapplied - with the pepperoni, we'd pack the traps up in a container and reset them again - with the same piece of bait.

They liked chocolate too.

 

I couldn’t recommend putting anything extraneous into the engine compartment. Rodent deterrent tape may be a more effective way to protect exposed wire harnesses.

 

I've used Irish Spring soap around my vegetable garden for the last 6 years and the deer have stayed away. I live in a forest area and we see them often but they haven't raided our garden or anything we've planted around the house as they have to our neighbors. I don't know about rats/mice, but it seems to keep the deer away.
I take a vegetable peeler and just walk around dropping soap shavings around the outer boundaries of the garden.