cc, the area where my coop is was low, and shaded, so it stayed wetter longer, while the decomposing leaves made it boggy. I brought in a dump truck load of sand. Simply putting the sand on top doesn't solve the problem. The sand has to be worked into the mush at regular intervals at first. It doesn't take too long, and this eventually provides good drainage, and a good floor for the coop. It's easy to clean the coop floor by hosing it down, and once in awhile turning the dirt/sand to refresh the entire floor area. I've never had trouble with mice before, but it's been raining a lot this month. I suspect they were looking for a dry area to have their young. I"m sure that when I remove the poop boards for about a week, that will force them to move on. About once a month, I get a couple of the large bottles of basil, and sprinkle outside the coop, during the summer. It's cheap, safe, and does a good job at keeping the flies away. As I said, it has been raining a lot lately, which increases our mosquito population too. I had read about the mosquitoes hating the scent of vanilla, and hanging vanilla air fresheners in the coop would keep the mosquitoes away. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on something that may not work, so I added about a tsp. to a quart sized spray bottle, and filled it the rest of the way with water, then sprayed around the coop, and outside of it too. It did good. I will see how long it lasts, and how often I have to repeat it, but I'm thinking about getting some of those absorbent cardboard type coasters, and saturating them with this mixture, then hanging them in the coop. This should give me longer lasting protection, with very little expense involved.