5 Reasons Other Mouse Pouches Failed (And Why This One Doesn't Quit At Week Two)

For people who've already tried traps, poison, the plug-in things, dryer sheets — and at least one bag of pouches that stopped working before the label said it would.

See the pouches →

Barn & Porch · Based in the USA · One-time purchase · 30-day money-back, nothing to return

1They ran out of oil at week two. Nothing told you.

You didn't do anything wrong.

You put the pouches where the bag said. Under the sink. Behind the stove. In the garage by the door. And for a week or two, it worked. The droppings stopped. You slept.

Then they came back. Same corner. Same droppings. And the pouches were still sitting right there, looking exactly like they did on day one.

Here's what actually happened. The oil was gone. A paper sachet dipped in a little oil holds a strong smell for about ten days. After that it's just a little bag of shavings. The label said 30 days. Some said 90. The pouch didn't have a date on it, so you had no way to know it had quit — until the mice told you.

That's the week the damage happens. Week three, when you think you're covered and you're not. That's the week they find the wiring.

“tried fresh cab last year, worked maybe two weeks”

“$2800 lesson. They had to remove the freaking engine to replace the harness.”

The problem was never the idea of a pouch. It wasn't even the oil. It was that the oil ran out three weeks before the label said it would — and nothing on the bag told you.

2They stopped at the two weak oils.

Peppermint and cinnamon. That's what's in most of them.

Now here's where Barn & Porch is different, and it isn't "more oils for the sake of it."

There are only four things mice physically can't stand, and they're not equal. Ranked, weakest to strongest:

1. Peppermint.They don't like it. But to a mouse it's a bad air freshener. They put up with it for a few days, then go right back to normal.
2. Cinnamon.Stronger. Makes them uncomfortable. Still not enough to make them leave — they push through it, especially once it's cold out.
3. Castor oil.Now it's not a smell anymore. Their body reacts to it. They can't breathe right around it, and they can't get used to it.
4. Cedarwood.This one hits the nervous system. They physically cannot stay near it. Every instinct they have says get out.

Most pouches stop at the first two. That's why the mice come back after a week. They got used to it.

Barn & Porch runs all four, and each one goes after a different system. Nose, airways, skin, nerves. A mouse can't adapt to four things at once.

And that's the whole point. You don't need to block them out. You can't — a mouse fits through a gap the size of a dime, and your house has a couple hundred of those. You need to make the place somewhere a mouse physically can't function. Then they leave on their own, and they don't come back.

“tried mothballs, dryer sheets, irish spring soap, all the old tricks. still found evidence every spring.”

3They promised 90 days. Nobody's pouch does 90 days.

We know how this sounds. Another pouch, another number.

So here's ours: 45 days. Not 90. That's how long the oil in a Barn & Porch pouch is actually strong enough to do its job, and it's a number we can stand behind.

And we do one thing nobody else in this category does. We print the swap date on every single pouch. Not on the bag — on the pouch. You put it down, you look at it, you know the exact day it needs to be replaced. No guessing. No sniffing it and hoping. No finding out from the mice.

That's the difference between a pouch that works and a pouch you think is working.

See the pouches and the swap date →

4They said "one pouch per room." That's the number for a house that doesn't have mice yet.

This is the part the whole category hides, and it's the reason so many people say pouches don't work.

One pouch covers about a bedroom's worth of space — if you're keeping mice out of a place they haven't found yet. A garage in October. A camper going into storage. A cabin you're closing up for the winter.

A room they're already living in is a different job. Then you need a pouch every few feet. Six, eight, sometimes a dozen in one room. Down low, along the walls, in every cabinet they've been in. Nobody tells you that, because "buy a dozen for the kitchen" doesn't sell as easily as "one under the sink."

We'd rather tell you the real number and have it work. So we print both numbers on the bag: the keep-them-out number, and the get-them-out number. Buy the right amount once, instead of a small bag four times.

“I've sealed what I really think is all the holes I could possibly find in the house with steel wool and caulk... they're still getting in somehow.”

5They made the guarantee complicated. And the billing.

You've seen the fine print by now. A guarantee with a return fee at the bottom. One number in the ad and a different one on the checkout page. A "one-time order" that shows up again next month with a charge you didn't ask for.

Barn & Porch is one number, everywhere: 30 days. If the mice come back inside 30 days — or you just don't like it — you get your money back. No return shipping. No fee. You don't have to mail anything anywhere.

And it's a one-time purchase. You buy a bag, you get a bag. Nobody signs you up for anything. When the swap date comes around, you decide.

“I think I got scammed cuz that didn't work at all.”

That's the sentence we built this company not to earn.