Full timer with mice in basement

[okmunky]

We are fulltiming in southern Washington State. Last night I heard scurrying and scratching so I know it must be a rodent in the basement. Yuck!

I need to keep a garden hose connected to the sewer to allow gray water to drain so I provided an easy entry into the basement. What is the best product to use for reducing the 4" sewer hole to 1" garden hose? The opening is too large to stuff steel wool into.

I've read about Fresh Cab and peppermint oil and have ordered some. Are there any other products I can use to keep them from coming in that we can live with?

I have also heard about lights under the RV discouraging pack rats, but I don't think they live this far north. Will lights discourage field mice?

We are parked on concrete.

[sadrand]

First, I would avoid using poison, because of the possibility that the rat may die inside the motorhome somewhere and smell the place up. I use Ortho Home Defense Max Kill and Contain Mouse Trap available at Home Depot. It is a throw away trap that shows you when it is tripped without you even having to look at the dead mouse. You just throw it out when tripped. I bait with peanut butter. Of course you want to be sure it is a rat or mouse and not a squirrell or some other critter that won't fit inside the trap.

[topdownman]

Toss some Bounce dryer sheets down there. They hate those.

[homeless]

A "s-q-u-i-r-r-e-l"

[Crop Duster]

We use Irish Spring soap as a deterrent. They don't like the smell. The drier sheets work well too. My opinion is that anything that has a strong smell like that tends to them from staying. We use sticky traps and also the little enclosed traps for the ones that wander into the basement and the coach. The only thing we've found that keeps them completely away is cats.
barryb

[Sky_Boss]

We ran into this problem last November as the cold drove the field mice into warmer places. We put on a full assault on the problem.

1. Combinations of sticky and snap traps. We concentrated on entry points like the power bay and electrical bay. We also placed traps inside the coach near other entry points like the back of the sink cabinets and under the refer. Basically more traps than land mines in a war zone. LOL OK...about 12 all together.

2. From the local tractor place (Farm and Fleet or TSC...) we got some extra rat size sticky traps and also found prepackaged "essential oils" packets. Used a half dozen of the packets in the basement. Also got 2 AC powered sonic repellents for each end of the basement.

We only caught about 3 mice before we finished it all up. After that...NONE.

BTW...we also emptied the entire basement out and vacuumed up all the droppings. In the coach we cleaned out a lot of cabinets and washed them down. Mice will pee to leave a track to follow and others will to so that helps disrupt there scouting trips.

[wa8yxm]

The best product for a 3/4" hose... Swim noodles, they come in all sorts of sizes, Wack off about a foot, slide it length wise slip it over the hose and force it into the portal (Pick the right size)

Last summer someone ask me if I had a problem with Mice in my RV.

I have two cats.

[GNHebb]

Glue traps from Gempler. Get the cold weather type. They don't go anywhere once attached. Caught many of those varmints and can't crawl inside someplace to die and stink.

[Dr4Film]

I have always used D-Con poison. It works 100% of time and I have never had to remove dead bodies from my coach.

Once they eat the D-Con, they seek out water which is not readily available unless they choose to chew through a HD fresh water tank, unlikely!

They wither up and die outside the coach.

Dr4Film ----- Richard

[MSHappyCampers]

Simple! Just put a cat in there every night! No charge for the advice!

[WheelingIt]

You can buy several traps which work. Last year we had a mouse *inside* the rig (it had created a nice, hidden path between our bathroom and our kitchen) and we were no where near anywhere to buy a trap. Peppermint oil (soak a bunch of cotton wads with it and place throughout your basement), plus Irish Soap worked for us. Left everything open and then sealed all the access holes we could find with gap filler once the mouse was out.

[Denlor]

We have never had mice but people around us have. We got some small gadgets that plug into any outlet and emit a sound that rodents do nor like. I have seen squirrels come toward the trailer and stop and run away. Lowes may have them. we have one at each end of the unit.

[RKNOLA]

mix Peppermint Oil (you can find it at the Pharmacy or a health food store). Mix the Peppermint Oil with some water in a spray bottle and spray around your wheels and under the coach. Rodents supposedly don't like the smell.
We spray it when we arrive at a campsite, especially when we are in a State Park that frowns on the use of pesticides.

[Bigd9]

Originally Posted by Dr4Film

I have always used D-Con poison. It works 100% of time and I have never had to remove dead bodies from my coach.

Once they eat the D-Con, they seek out water which is not readily available unless they choose to chew through a HD fresh water tank, unlikely!

They wither up and die outside the coach.

Dr4Film ----- Richard

I used to use D-Con in the barn. The stuff was disappearing like crazy. Then one warm spring day when I was pressure washing the tractor hand full after hand full of that stuff came out from under the tractor. I think the the mice were storing it for next winter.

I now use spring traps.