20 Homemade Mouse Poison Recipes That Work

Oh, mice. They sure are cute. At least when they are scampering around out in the field somewhere nibbling on sunflower seeds.

They aren’t cute when they are in your home pooping everywhere and scaring the daylights out of you in the middle of the night. Or when they’re contaminating bags of feed you had stored outside.

Mice might seem harmless, but like all rodents, they’re highly destructive and harbingers of disease. An infestation is a major problem, and even a few mice hanging around can be a big deal.

If you want to get rid of them cheaply and quickly, you can use DIY poison for the job, most of them using common foods that either attract or kill mice. I’ll tell you about some good recipes in this article.

Be Careful When Using DIY Mouse Poisons!

One quick note before we get to our list. Even though many of these DIY poisons use common ingredients that you have in your pantry, or garage right now, that doesn’t mean they’re totally safe for kids and other pets. Much of the time, the opposite will be true!

For that reason, you’ve got to pay attention and place your bait stations responsibly. Fail to do that and you might wind up with a sick or even dead pet.

Though there are a few recipes on our list that are truly heartless unless ingested in huge quantities by other animals or people, you don’t want to take that for granted.

A Note on Batch Sizes

One more quick thing. Unless noted under the actual recipe, if you need to make a larger batch of poison bait to deal with a large infestation or just create multiple bait stations, you can just multiply each ingredient by the same amount.

The recipes I have included below are generally sufficient to make one or two small bait stations, as that’s usually enough to deal with one or two mice that are cruising around in or around your home.

Okay, time to get to those recipes!

Recipe #1: Cocoa Concrete

• Cocoa, 1 Tbsp
• Plaster of Paris, 1 Tbsp

One of the most effective and truly devastating poison recipes on our list is nothing more than equal parts of powdered cocoa and plaster of Paris.

This one really is insidious: mice are attracted to the aroma of cocoa, which itself is toxic thanks to the theobromine it contains, and plaster of Paris will harden in their intestines and eventually completely block their digestive tract.

Works like a charm, and I’m listing it first since this is a recipe I myself have used with great success on multiple occasions. The trick is you need to keep it dry, so don’t place it in a damp environment or keep it too near any water sources.

Set it out in little dishes or bowls that mice can easily reach and check on them every couple of days for refilling.

Recipe #2: Salty Peanut Butter Ploy

• Barium carbonate, 2 Tbsp
• Peanut Butter, 1 Tbsp

Barium carbonate is easy enough to get at chemical supply centers and other outlets in various forms, and itself has a distinguished history as a rodenticide.

It typically kills through respiratory failure, causing serious convulsions before that happens. Mixed with peanut butter, it is undetectable and irresistible to mice and other rodents.

You want to use twice as much barium carbonate as you do peanut butter, rolling the mixture into little balls that you can leave out in various bait stations.

Note this stuff is downright dangerous for other animals, so ensure that pets and livestock can never get to it – and they will try because of the peanut butter. Check on your bait balls periodically and replace if they dry out.

Recipe #3: Peanut Butter Balloon

• Baking Soda, 2 Tbsp
• Peanut Butter, 1 Tbsp
• White Flour, 2 Tbsp

Another one of my favorite recipes, and one that is far safer to use around kids and pets. Equal parts baking soda and white flour, and a little bit of peanut butter to hold everything together and make it tasty is almost a perfect mouse poison.

It seems grimly comical, but baking soda will cause gas to build up in a mouse’s digestive tract, and because they have no way to alleviate gas pressure by vomiting, burping or farting, in time it can cause a deadly rupture.

Recipe #4: Choco-Baloon

• Chocolate Cake Mix, 2 Tbsp
• Baking Soda, 2 Tbsp
• Water

This is another wonderful recipe that mice find utterly irresistible. Simply mix equal parts of a packaged chocolate cake mix and baking soda together and then stir in just a little bit of water at a time until a firm, clumpy dough comes together that you can roll up or turn into little pancakes for placing.

As with the previous recipe, the baking soda inflicts grievous harm through gas pressure buildup, while the theobromine and the chocolate cake mix will poison mice, a deadly double whammy.

Recipe #5: Squeaky Clean

• Peanut Butter, 2 Tbsp
• Bleach, 1 Tbsp

This is a great bait if you only have minimal resources on hand, but chances are good you’ve got both of these already. Peanut butter with a little bit of bleach mixed in makes for a potent poison that will ravage a mouse’s internal organs.

The only downside is that bleach breaks down through prolonged contact with oxygen, so you need to check on your bait stations and replace it with fresh mixture fairly often. Do not mix up a large batch ahead of time for the purpose: it will be losing potency all the while!

NOTE: mix only in a plastic or glass bowl. Bleach can react harmfully with metal.

Recipe #6: Suprise Polenta

• Plaster of Paris, 1 Tbsp
• Cornmeal, 1 Tbsp
• White Sugar, 1 Tbsp
• Milk

This recipe is another one that is highly effective and kills mechanically, you might say, as opposed to poisoning

Plaster of Paris will clump up, harden and block the stomach and intestines of mice with fatal results once they ingest enough of it. Sugar and cornmeal serve as baits, and the latter also dries them out rapidly, exacerbating the effects of the plaster.

Mix in a little bit of milk to the dry ingredients slowly, stirring until it forms the consistency of play dough. This is perfect for forming into balls or little cakes that are easy to place and convenient. Again, keep this away from pets and other animals!

Recipe #7: Vitamouse Munch Madness

• Vitamin D3, 6 Tablets, crushed
• Cookie Dough, 2 Tbsp

As strange as it might sound, vitamin D3 is profoundly toxic to many animals in any but the smallest amounts, and that certainly includes mice being as tiny as they are.

This convenient, clean but highly effective recipe is awesome and quite a bit safer to use around kids, dogs, and cats – though overdose can still be harmful so be cautious.

Crush up your vitamin D3 tablets using a rolling pin or a mortar and pestle, sprinkle them over a little bit of cookie dough, and then roll it around to mix the whole thing together before separating it into bait balls.

This is a great recipe because it doesn’t really dry out and lose its attraction to mice- or its deadly potency!

Recipe #8: Squeaky Clean Soda Stopper

• Cornbread Mix, 4 Tbsp
• Baking Soda, 4 Tbsp

Another one that relies on baking soda as the deadly agent, this one mixed with cornbread mix to form an alluring but killer combo. The cornbread also helps to dry the mice out which will make things even harder often.

This dry mixture is, though, quite safe to use around kids and pretty safe around most larger dogs and cats – so you can be a little more creative with placement.

Recipe #9: Powdered Paws Pavement Pancake

• Oatmeal, 4 Tbsp
• Powdered Cement, 4 Tbsp

This is another mean one, but I promise it works. You already know how! Powdered cement will activate, harden, and clump together in a mouse’s body with disastrous results. It doesn’t kill quite as quickly as you think, but it does kill reliably.

Note that the finer the cement mix you’re able to get, the better for this recipe. Stir the oatmeal and cement together thoroughly in a bowl to make sure it’s evenly coated, then leave little piles where mice are likely to get them. It might take a little while, but they’ll surely die from it.

Recipe #10: The Baker’s Special

• White Flour, 1 Tbsp
• White Sugar, 1 Tbsp
• Baking Soda, 1 Tbsp
• Chocolate Chips, several
• Water

Another mix that is the favorite of mice for the short time that they get to eat it. I call this one the baker’s special since all of the ingredients are in your pantry right at this moment.

Equal parts flour, sugar and baking soda, a few chocolate chips for added allure and toxicity, and then a little bit of water while you stir to combine everything is all it takes.

Roll this up into little balls for flat coins as described in previous recipes and leave them where mice can get them.

Chocolate and baking soda can both be hazardous to pets if ingested, but it’s very unlikely to happen in these quantities unless they get your baits over and over again. This is a good one to use in the house.

Recipe #11: Birdseed Bonanza Buster

• Sweet Birdseed Mix, 2 Tbsp
• Salt, ⅓ Tbsp
• Peanut Butter, ½ Tbsp
• Egg, x1

Out of all the recipes you might try on this list, this is one of the very best that serves as a persistent bait station. You can make larger quantities, place and forget about them, trusting that mice will eat from them over and over again before they succumb.

This is also notable for killing with nothing more than common salt. Mice can have salt, but too much quickly turns toxic and will kill them (although it doesn’t do it as quickly as some other recipes).

Simply stir all of the ingredients together into an even, uniform mixture and then spread it out on a baking sheet in a layer about a half-inch thick, or put them into a pot. Bake at 350°F / 175°C for half an hour or until firm.

Separate the bars into squares, place them in areas where you know mice travel or congregate, and then sit back and wait.

Recipe #12: Tater Trap with a Sweet Surprise

• Instant Mashed Potatoes, 1 Tbsp
• Sugar, ½ Tbsp

I know this one’s bound to be a surprise to some readers. Did you know that instant mashed potatoes are, directly, lethal to mice? It’s true.

They can eat starches and that includes potatoes, but instant mashed potatoes are so dehydrated that once the mice eat them and then drink water to quench their thirst, they will swell up in their stomachs and kill or cripple.

Pretty heinous, but I like this recipe because it is quite safe to use around the house otherwise. White sugar just makes it even more attractive.

Two parts of the instant potatoes to one part sugar, stir thoroughly, and leave in trays or shallow dishes. Done deal! Check your bait stations a couple times a week for progress and refilling.

Recipe #13: Sweet & Sticky Peanut Pinch

• Nutra-Sweet, 1 Tbsp
• Peanut Butter, 1 Tbsp

Artificial sweeteners are creepy and weird, and lots of people suspect their toxicity in humans.

Turns out their toxicity is absolutely known in mice and other animals, and we can use it to make an effective poison bait. Simply mix equal parts of neutral sweet to peanut butter, roll it up into little balls, and leave it anywhere that mice can find it.

As you might have already suspected, this is definitely one that you’ll have to keep away from your pets! It’s especially bad for dogs.

Recipe #14: The Zinc Zapper

• Zinc, 2 Tbsp
• Peanut Butter or Cookie Dough, 1 Tbsp

Zinc is an element that is necessary for life in so many ways, but too much turns acutely toxic. Mice are very vulnerable to zinc overdose as it will turn into a poisonous gas once they start to digest it…

Simply grab yourself some supplemental powdered zinc or zinc tablets and combine two parts of that with one part of peanut butter or cookie dough to make a long-lasting and convenient bait.

Recipe #15: Boric Broth Trap

• Boric Acid (equal parts)
• Chicken Broth (equal parts)

Most of the bait recipes on our list are dry or semi-dry, but not this one. Boric acid, over time and ingested in quantity, can be fatal to mice. This stuff is also readily available pretty much anywhere that laundry supplies are sold.

Combine one part of boric acid with one part chicken broth and then leave it in little saucers or caps for mice to drink from.

The smell of the chicken broth will lure them in, and if your chicken broth contains onions and garlic, other things that are hazardous to mice, it will work even better.

This recipe is effective but has a drawback and it’s a bit messier and trickier to use and replace as needed. Nonetheless, it’s certainly worth a shot!

Recipe #16: Concrete Crunch

• Flour, 2 Tbsp
• Quickcrete, 1 Tbsp

Another super simple but devastating bait recipe, combine two parts of flour to one part of Quikrete mix.

You already know what this will do to mice! The flour serves as the food while the Quikrete kills as it hardens in their stomach.

Recipe #17: Sweet ‘n’ Deadly PB Poison

• Ethylene Glycol, 1 Tbsp
• Peanut Butter, 2 Tbsp

This is an old timers’ trick for getting rid of unwanted pests of all kinds, not just mice. Ethylene glycol, they found in the form of antifreeze, is sweet and tasty on its own if it hasn’t been doctored with any sort of bittering agent, but it’s ferociously lethal as it is metabolized.

Combined with peanut butter, mice cannot resist, and it will kill them as surely as a bolt of lightning.

Don’t be afraid to adjust this mixture slightly one way or the other until you have easy-to-handle balls that you can place with a knife or spatula.

You don’t want it to be too runny, and whatever you do you must ensure that absolutely no other animal, including birds, can get to it! It will kill them as surely as your pest problem…

Recipe #18: Potato Powder Panic

• Instant Potatoes, 1 Tbsp
• Aspartame, ½ Tbsp

A variation on the two above recipes, combining dry instant potatoes and aspartame increases lethality while remaining appealing to mice. Take care to use this only in areas that are dry; humidity and moisture will start to fluff up the potatoes and that means you’ll only be relying on the aspartame as a killing mechanism.

Recipe #19: Flour Fiasco

• Aspartame, 1 Tbsp
• Plaster of Paris, 1 Tbsp
• Baking Soda, ½ Tbsp
• Flour, 1 Tbsp

Another mashup recipe of sorts, this one combines three killers with a known effective bait. There’s nothing to it: combined two parts of aspartame, plaster of Paris, and flour with one part of baking soda.

This provides a two-pronged poison and also the deadly gas-generating properties of baking soda into one phenomenally effective poison.

As with any such recipe relying on concrete, plaster, etc, make sure you protect it from moisture or it will start to harden up and become useless before it is eaten.

Recipe #20: Cocoa Crush with Vitamin D-struction

• Cocoa Powder, 1 Tbsp
• Vitamin D3, 6 tablets, crushed

A simple one, but a good one, to close out our list. Combine a tablespoon of cocoa powder with six crushed vitamin D3 tablets. As mentioned, mice simply cannot resist the cocoa powder which is itself toxic, but the massive dose of vitamin D3 will poison them, typically fatally, in no time.

In any case, a few such feedings are sure to end them…