It's Mice time again!!

[RVNewbees]

I'm about to store my TT rig for the winter. Has anyone ever used a sticky product applied to the underside of the camper as a mouse deterrent? I have found mice leavings even after using traps, dryer sheets, etc. Any NEW ideas?
Thanks.

[Ray,IN]

Remove ALL traces of food or odors from the trailer. Wash counter-tops and food prep areas thoroughly. Sweep and mop hard floors too.
The put TomCat mouse bait blocks in behind cabinets, wire runs, plumbing runs, and other void spaces to kill those mice just looking for a place to nest and birth young.

[JJH3rd]

We put all our towels & linen in big tubs with seal-able lids. We put packets of "Fresh Cab rodent repellent" (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1) all over inside and in the storage bays. Mice seem to stay away (not in the MH).

[shootist]

Originally Posted by RVNewbees

I'm about to store my TT rig for the winter. Has anyone ever used a sticky product applied to the underside of the camper as a mouse deterrent? I have found mice leavings even after using traps, dryer sheets, etc. Any NEW ideas?
Thanks.

They'll eat Irish spring and use dryer sheets for nests. Victor sells a pack of sticky boards that you can place in runs, they'll collect spiders as well. Also just lot's of unbaited traps along their run walls or paths gets them. This last few weeks got one on stickys and another trap snapped and was moved, he got out I guess, but hasn't been back yet. Maybe real hurt

[ArtJoyce]

We do the rodent bait blocks. I put down 4 large bait boxes that hold 8 blocks. One by each tire about 3 feet away. I have 8 small bait boxes that hold one block each and spread them around in the camper.

I never see chew marks on the bait inside the mh, but normaly need to replenish the bait in the big boxes about 3 weeks after cold weather starts.

[astrnmrtom]

Grab a coffee, or your favorite adult beverage and a snack, pull up a comfy chair and type "mice" and my screen name into the search box. All you ever need to know about mice. Warning! I'm not at a loss for words.

Forget any repellent. Follow the three steps for effective control.

1. Exclude
2. Bait
3. Monitor

It's what the pros do. I was an institutional pest control guy for 16 years. Ants, Mice, and stinging insects were 90% of my work orders. Fought the little furry stinkers in 11 different sites, in some buildings 100 years old, food storage buildings that were never designed to store food, cafeterias, kitchens and countless places where people ate and snacked all day long. If repellants worked I'd be shouting it from the rooftops. The food storage building that wasn't designed to store food backed up a against a blackberry and tree covered creek that went past a Cargill granary a block away. Trainloads of grain were dumped down chutes under the tracks. Needless to say mouse and rat populations were quite large, and the creek was a rodent super highway. The industry term for that situation is HIGH pest pressure. Fun fun fun, but following the three steps and the food storage building was rodent free.

[move on]

You can never keep these critters out. Just the other day I found one in my engine air filter. He ate half the filter element before he succumbed.

[ArtJoyce]

It's been a month since I put out 4 bait boxes. I just checked them. All had much chew marks with about 50% of the bait gone. Replaced 16 of 32 bait blocks

[96 Wideglide]

Tom, what do you think of ammonia as a deterrent?

[Rob_M]

Mothballs.

[astrnmrtom]

Originally Posted by 96 Wideglide

Tom, what do you think of ammonia as a deterrent?

No, on any repellant. Repellants aren't used in professional pest control because they don't work. None, nada, zip, zilch. This was repeated every year in our recert classes because rodents are such a common pest. They cost billion in lost and contaminated foodsuffs, damaged equipment and structures. Coundless people have dedicated their lives to the problem. Million in research world wide. If repellants did work, they'd be SOP and I'd be suggesting their use. Sure would have made my work life a whole lot easier.

Here's why strong odors don't work: While at first a strong odor might have some small deterrent effect, it doesn't take long before a smell fades into the background. This is an actual function of the brain, and it's done so that new smells can be detected. Do you remember the Fabreze commercial of few years back that asked: "Have you become nose blind?" It's a real effect. Besides, rodents live and thrive in all kinds of nasty places. Places with bright lights, loud noises, and strong smells. We had Janitorial closest scattered through our facilities, and all kinds of heavily perfumed cleaning chemicals were stored there. Guess what? That's right, some had signs of mice. Many people suggest peppermint oil and a few months back we camped in an area where peppermint was farmed. Acres of it, you could smell it driving down the road. As we passed the fields I thought to myself, do people really think those fields are pest free? That's there's no mice entering those fields? I bet the local mint farmers would find the idea funny.

I wish I had an easier answer but even after years of research the same methods are SOP for rodent control.

Exclusion is #1 (seal up the holes)
Baiting is #2 (Outside) to reduce local populations which reduces "Pest Pressure"
Monitoring with traps or sticky boards is #3 because you MUST monitor and not assume you've won. The enemy never sleeps and they are the pros.

I've been full timing for over two years and don't use lights, or any kind of repellents, and the only time I've had any mice is when a piece of factory foam broke loose leaving a hole into my main storage compartment AND in the 24 hours I had a gap under my slide after removing the lower seal to replace it one mouse got in.

It's because I spent a lot of time rolling around under my rig looking and poking about. Even knowing what to look for didn't save me at first. I'd still get an occasional mouse in a trap, so I'd go on the hunt again and sure enough found a small hole I'd missed before. The last one was in the center of a bundle of factory foamed wires that come up through the floor under the dash. It LOOKED well sealed until I poke a finger in the center of the bundle and found a perfect mouse sized gap in the middle.

I still keep a loaded trap in a lower cabinet near my pantry, and one in the main compartment. All other compartments are sheet metal boxes and are sealed.

While it certainly helps to clean your rig and remove all food before storing, the fact is, if you cooked in your rig, it will still smell like food, plus mice are also looking for nesting areas - a dry place safe from predators. They'll be perfectly happy to make a home in your rig and go in and out to forage for food.

Wish I had better news.

[BoomtownDave]

Originally Posted by astrnmrtom

No, on any repellant. Repellants aren't used in professional pest control because they don't work. None, nada, zip, zilch. This was repeated every year in our recert classes because rodents are such a common pest. They cost billion in lost and contaminated foodsuffs, damaged equipment and structures. Coundless people have dedicated their lives to the problem. Million in research world wide. If repellants did work, they'd be SOP and I'd be suggesting their use. Sure would have made my work life a whole lot easier.

Here's why strong odors don't work: While at first a strong odor might have some small deterrent effect, it doesn't take long before a smell fades into the background. This is an actual function of the brain, and it's done so that new smells can be detected. Do you remember the Fabreze commercial of few years back that asked: "Have you become nose blind?" It's a real effect. Besides, rodents live and thrive in all kinds of nasty places. Places with bright lights, loud noises, and strong smells. We had Janitorial closest scattered through our facilities, and all kinds of heavily perfumed cleaning chemicals were stored there. Guess what? That's right, some had signs of mice. Many people suggest peppermint oil and a few months back we camped in an area where peppermint was farmed. Acres of it, you could smell it driving down the road. As we passed the fields I thought to myself, do people really think those fields are pest free? That's there's no mice entering those fields? I bet the local mint farmers would find the idea funny.

I wish I had an easier answer but even after years of research the same methods are SOP for rodent control.

Exclusion is #1 (seal up the holes)
Baiting is #2 (Outside) to reduce local populations which reduces "Pest Pressure"
Monitoring with traps or sticky boards is #3 because you MUST monitor and not assume you've won. The enemy never sleeps and they are the pros.

I've been full timing for over two years and don't use lights, or any kind of repellents, and the only time I've had any mice is when a piece of factory foam broke loose leaving a hole into my main storage compartment AND in the 24 hours I had a gap under my slide after removing the lower seal to replace it one mouse got in.

It's because I spent a lot of time rolling around under my rig looking and poking about. Even knowing what to look for didn't save me at first. I'd still get an occasional mouse in a trap, so I'd go on the hunt again and sure enough found a small hole I'd missed before. The last one was in the center of a bundle of factory foamed wires that come up through the floor under the dash. It LOOKED well sealed until I poke a finger in the center of the bundle and found a perfect mouse sized gap in the middle.

I still keep a loaded trap in a lower cabinet near my pantry, and one in the main compartment. All other compartments are sheet metal boxes and are sealed.

While it certainly helps to clean your rig and remove all food before storing, the fact is, if you cooked in your rig, it will still smell like food, plus mice are also looking for nesting areas - a dry place safe from predators. They'll be perfectly happy to make a home in your rig and go in and out to forage for food.

Wish I had better news.

Of all the advice out there, Astrnmrtom's tends to be the best. It has worked for me. Not soap. Not dryer sheets. Not moth balls. Not sonic gimmicks. And certainly not poison inside that they crawl away and die where you can smell them, just not find them. Thank you!