A Nasty Find

[TLC]

Moth balls outside under MH. Zero food inside. Fresh Cab inside. Parked in gravel lot, no woods nearby.
Years ago I made the mistake of parking my pop-up at the edge of woods/weeds at my brothers place. Come springtime I found my pop-up totally ruined

[norty1]

The water is the attraction. The antifreeze is not toxic.

[Zink273]

I set traps near my camper... my favorite is a homemade trap - almost like your toilet. 5 gal bucket w/5 inches of water in the bottom. Empty beer can with heavy wire ran through it lengthwise, also through top of the bucket. Thin bead of peanut butter around the middle of the can. Lay a board up to the edge of the bucket. Mice crawl up, do the tight rope walk across the wire to the can, get on the can and are rolled off into the water. You can catch quite a few in a night with this set up.

[chrismoore701]

For the record, the dog food was left by mistake. I never leave food in the trailer, even between trips.


Thanks for the advice

[KCSA75]

Originally Posted by chrismoore701

For the record, the dog food was left by mistake. I never leave food in the trailer, even between trips.


Thanks for the advice

I made the same mistake this past summer, leaving a small bag of dog food in the back of my truck while camping in Colorado. Only instead of a mouse, it was a black bear that wanted a taste.

As for mice, all we've ever done is before storing for the winter is we remove all the food from the camper, clean really well and use Fresh Cab. We store the camper in a barn in a rural area and have never found so much as a single mouse turd or dead bug.

[Kim Gass]

Originally Posted by Iraqvet05

I don’t leave food in my TT when it’s in storage. I’m curious about this theory now...does RV antifreeze attract mice? My new, unused 28BHBE sits in storage now with nothing in it just like the day we brought it home from the dealer. If I see mice droppings in it over the winter, I’ll report back.

No.
And for us cab fresh does nothing.. We have a severe rodent problem.. Such that we leave NOTHING in the unit that can be shredded.. The mattress is an issue as it can be shredded for nesting material but so far its just got a hole in it. Its too hard to get it in and out in floppy state.

We use an electronic mouse repeller and check it every so often.

When it is warmer we use Walk the Plank around the house but it does not work when the temps never get above freezing.

Its a balmy minus 4

[Mustang65]

Originally Posted by chrismoore701

I am going to seal up all I can see and add mothballs, soap, dryer sheets and peppermint to the trailer.
thanks

You may want to read this before adding MOTHBALLS....

The Facts about Mothballs1

If you have a TT with a spare tire that is mounted under the TT that you have to crank it out, and you have the enclosed bottom, you may want to lower the spare tire (also a good time to check out the air pressure and if it still is in good condition), and follow the cable up into the enclosed area. Mine had a large hole for the cable which was big enough for even a well fed mouse to climb through. I took a 4x4 plastic blank electric box cover, drilled a hole in the center just big enough for the cable to fit through, using an saber-saw I cut a slot to slide over the cable to get it to the middle hole. I used 4 self tapping screws to mount the plate to the underlay and foamed the slot. Eliminated that entry point.

My front cross frame also had a 3/4" open hole, which I figure was for some electrical connection and plugged that up with foam. You would also be surprised as the hole in the floor where the electrical control panel is located.... see the pictures below.

As mentioned before, FOAM every opening under the TT. I went under mine 2x when we first purchased ours, only thing we encountered was a baby frog that must have followed one of the dogs in.

We also use the bug dust under the TT and on all the parts that come in contact with the ground.

Since 2012 we have had no intruders, other than the baby frog. Knock on wood!!!!

Wife also used PURE peppermint oil with dryer sheets.
Don

My Registry

RVing with SOLAR

[Midicat60]

Originally Posted by chrismoore701

Trailer has been in storage for about a month. Went to check on it and noticed mouse crap in the sink. Looked around a little more and found five (5). Yes five mice floating in my toilet. I had about 2 cups of antifreeze in there. And they drowned in it. We left a bag of dog food on there and that must had attracted them. I rarely get grossed out but this did it.


So this may be a good mouse trap, I think the smell attracted them to the toilet. But would really prefer to cut them off at the source.



So what do you guys do to keep mice out. We forgot the dryer sheets. Won’t do that again.


So Nasty

I had started a thread a while back regarding the removal of a furnace that had to be sanitized due to a chipmunk nest between the heater tubes. Before this when the trailer was new I had also gone through the whole process of foaming and taping every little hole and crack I could find. Something I had overlooked was that we cleaned up and dewinterized the trailer in the spring and had light use with it until September. We had it parked on our property with the slide open. If you look at where the steel tube with gear teeth (pusher for the slide) goes through the frame there is a large opening. When slide is in this is sealed, slide out it is wide open. They came through this, into the basement heater vent then into the furnace. Very nasty mess as well. I have made a gasket to cover the opening when slide is out.
Removing the critters from the area is the best bet of all. I ordered 3 "Havaheart" live traps, placed them near the trailer and within 2 weeks relocated close to 24 chipmunks. I also put out 4 snap traps and caught 12 or so mice.