Fresh Cab Botanical Rodent Repellent

To find out whether this product repels mice, I ran a controlled experiment, which I'll describe here. Methodology: Two identical cardboard boxes, 7 x 10 x 5 inches, were prepared. These were closed at the top and bottom and had a triangular opening on one side near the bottom. A stamp pad was placed at this entrance to each box, so that any mouse entering the box would have to walk over the stamp pad, thus getting its feet inky. A sheet of paper was placed on the bottom of the box, and any mouse exploring the interior of the box would leave its inky footprints on this paper. One of these Fresh Cab repellent packets was hung inside one of the boxes. No bait was put inside the boxes, out of concern that the smell of the Fresh Cab packet might reduce the traffic of mice simply by masking the smell of the bait. Thus the boxes were just a dark, enclosed space of the sort that mice are prone to investigate. Over the course of several days, the boxes were alternated every 24 hours; the "active" box being put in the same place on the floor of a crawlspace under my house, while the "inactive" box was removed to a separate area and sealed so that no mice could enter it. through this methodology, the comparative density of mouse footprints on the sheets of paper placed on the bottom of the two boxes gives an indication of how effectively the Fresh Cab packet kept mice from exploring the box. Results: As you can see in the photos that accompany this review, there is slightly less mouse-traffic in the box with the Fresh Cab packet, but only slightly. It's clear that the product did not prevent mice from entering and exploring the box, and that it did not repel mice to any meaningful degree Illustrations: Figure 1 shows the mouse tracks from the box with the Fresh Cab packet. Figure 2 shows the mouse tracks from the box without the Fresh Cab packet. Figure 3 shows the experimental setup for the box with the Fresh Cab, with the top of the box open. Note the stamp pad at bottom and the Fresh Cab packet hanging in the upper right corner of the box. The box is shown open here, but was closed for the experiment to contain and concentrate the smell of the repellent and also to make the box an inviting area for mice to explore. Additional Note: I've read that there are some indications that scented products like this one can discourage mice from _nesting_ in a treated area. So if you have a problem with mice nesting in a certain spot (the engine compartment of a car, for example), this product might work for preventing that. But for simply repelling mice, for keeping them from doing all the destructive, annoying, and unsanitary things they do when not in their nests, this experiment clearly shows that this product does not work.