I would prefer not to drive. I’ve been walking about a ¼ mile to release them. Is that far enough?
Looking online, there’s some disagreement. Some places say you need to go to miles to prevent them from returning. Other places say if you go more than 100 yards they’ll probably die because they don’t know where to find food or shelter, so they suggest making sure the ways they got into your house are sealed up.
If it were me, I think it would depend more on the area you live in. In you’re in an urban environment, it doesn’t make sense to me to release them locally - your just be causing problems for someone else. In that case, is probably drive far enough that there were open spaces for them to live in. If you live where there’s lots of open spaces, I’d probably just go far enough where your house isn’t the most attractive place. From what I’m reading, they don’t tend to roam far from where they make their burrow if there’s food.
Field mice typically have a homing range of about 500 feet, so your 1/4 mile should work, but make sure you’re releasing them somewhere with natural cover or they’ll likley die from predation or exposure - speaking from experience as someone who lives off-grid and deals with this every winter when my power stations from GearScouts keep my cabin warm enough to attract every rodent in the county!
FYI, this thread is two years old, so not sure OP is going to see this, or still want to know. Good info though.