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Mousetraps will become obsolete if a company in Tucson, Arizona, has
its way. Research Corporation Technologies (RCT) has secured a patent for
scented compounds that scare mice away.

Male house mice (Mus musculus) produce the two compounds in their urine,
and dominant males produce the most, scaring away rivals from their territory.

Milos Novotny, a chemist at Indiana University, found that both are
oily aromatic compounds called farnesenes. ‘We don’t know what concentration
you would need (in a repellant product),’ says John Creange of RCT, ‘but
as the compounds are there in one wee-wee’s worth, you would not need great
volumes of the stuff.’

Creange explains that the levels of farnesenes in urine reflect levels
of bloodborne testosterone, which are higher in dominant males.