Do Mice Eat Clothes? (They’ll Chew Almost Anything!)

If you’ve found some damage to your clothes and it looks like some sort of little critter has been chewing on the fabrics you might point your finger at mice.

But, do mice eat clothes? Or at the very least chew on and damage clothing?

They can do, yes. I’ve seen evidence of mice damaging clothing before. It wasn’t to eat the fabric though, it was to gather materials for their beds and nesting areas.

They also chew on most things they come across as a way of gnawing on their teeth to keep them trimmed as they don’t stop growing.

Clothes aren’t the best material for this as they are soft, but it’s just instinctual to mice to chew and gnaw on things.

Why Do Mice Chew Carpet?

Chewed carpet is another sign that you have mice coming into your home and causing damage (probably while you’re sleeping).

There are a few reasons for this:

1. They are trying to chew their way through to somewhere.
2. They found something they like the taste of that may have been spilled there.
3. They are grinding their teeth (mice have to constantly grind their teeth down).
4. They are collecting some fibers for nesting material nearby.

Whatever the reason, it’s one of the worst things to find that a mouse has damaged your carpet or anything else for that matter.

You need to start doing something to stop them coming into your home. I’ve covered plenty of ways to do this and understand the seriousness of the problem – check out this post for starters.

Here is a video of a mouse chewing up some carpet (just in case you wanted to see it with your own eyes):

How to Stop Mice Eating and Chewing Your Clothes

If you have discovered mice are chewing your clothes you need to do something about it. The likelihood is you’ll get more mice doing more chewing otherwise, not less.

You need to find out where mice are getting into your home and catch them in the long run.

However, a short-term solution to keeping mice away from certain areas is to use peppermint oil.

Peppermint oil is an effective repellant and smells great. Try adding a few drops to a cotton wool ball and dropping it in your wardrobe or wherever they are getting at your clothes.