Keeping the mice out?

[bartzstream2]

Originally Posted by highlandsnc

Hi - we have a 1994 34' AS Excella that is permanently set up in the Western NC mountains. Looking for successful rodent strategies. Excella can be unoccupied for months at a time. Have tried "Fresh Cab" balsam scent and peppermint oil. Not much help. Anyone had better luck? Thanks

Get out and get under. Survey the entire underside of the trailer. Check the wheelwells and the front end at the coupler triangle. EVERY hole into which you could stick the end of your baby finger is a potential mouse doorway/portal to the luxury of an Airstream. ALL such portals need to be covered, preferably with a piece of aluminum (think flashing material) attached with short screws. In the wheelwells you may need to caulk with some kind of tough caulk that dries thoroughly. Every place that wires (think about where all the wiring for the running/brake/tail lights enter the trailer to get to the DC fuse panel. I made block off plates for the front ends of the frame members where the coupler is attached. If the mice can get into the belly pan, they can find their way into the trailer, so EVERY intrusion of plumbing or wiring through the subfloor is available to them. I have blocked off EVERY hole I could find with aluminum plates. My Classic 34 S/O has a drawer in the rear where I keep my electrical cables, wheel chocks, and awning pulls. I removed it and constructed some block-off plates as described above. Also set a mousetrap or 2 with a very tiny bit of peanut butter as bait, particularly under the kitchen counter where the garbage can is. The tiny bit of bait is to entice the mouse to self destruct, not to provide sustenance to any who come by later. If you poison them, particularly inside the trailer, they may die under the floor in the belly pan and you will soon know about them by the aroma. I also set a trap under my master closet where the water pump is, which is a hotbed of potential mouse portals, between heat ducts, plumbing, and wiring. Good luck.

[BoscoMN]

I placed copper mesh in holes that were larger than 1/4" wherever I found them during my exterior inspection. That included around the wires going into the battery box.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Smaller gaps were all caulked.


This may be a bit expensive but one Goodnature trap by each tire pair and one at the tongue jack may be worth the investment. I would pull up the stabilizers when I left so as to limit the footprint that the critters could use to climb up onto the Airstream. And I'd place the Airstream on a cement or pea gravel pad to keep brush away from the undercarriage.

https://www.amazon.com/stores/node/1...eb_16055824011

[MesaTableArt]

The advise I got is simple. You have to think like mice to solve this problem. They have 24/ 7 and 365 days a year to figure out how to get in. So forget all these poisons and herbal stuff ... go mechanical!! In other words sealing all little gaps and holes is the only way to solve this issue long term.
Good luck
Fv

[Afi]

I live just outside Vancouver BC, along the Fraser river, with big rats and small mice. The best "killer" is one that doesn't continue killing, the birds and other animals get the carcass and die from the poison.
I found mixing powder cement with dry chocolate milk powder, maybe 50/50, they love it, but then the cement starts to set-up, they flee looking for water, all that's left in a couple weeks is a casting of the stomach. The scavengers don't die. The problem can be moisture, but inside a trailer or shop should be fine.

[rmkrum]

Stunningly simple and totally clever!

Should work really well in our very dry SoCal desert climate.

[JDHinMaine]

Three Years ago we got a tip that mice don't like mint. The place we have our AS is in country and every year we had to clean every draw of Mice poop and store everything in taped up boxes. and nests were still a problem. Since we had a large patch of spearmint we gave it a try. The first year I placed three or four sprigs in each draw and several clusters in closets and under the bed. Next spring we had to clean up the dried mint leaves (which still had lots of fragrance, but not a single Mice poop.

The next year I saved, throughout the year, plastic water bottle and cut off the tops. I stuffed the mint in them and put them in the draws, closets and under bed and several just out in open counter tops. Next spring I had only to dump the leaves out of the bottles. Easy clean up.

Now I keep the bottles bottoms in the draws and put fresh mint in throughout the summer. It smells nice and seem to prevent any visits throughout the year.

We now have planted some mint around the trailer. It looks great and smells fresh . You can get plants at most garden shops in the spring. Only a couple are needed. It can be invasive and spread quickly. We have to weed wack it to keep it under control.

Some other people had Sweet Anna(??) and had good results.

[madpiper]

We found that fresh cab pouches with a Tin Cat and steel wool crammed into openings to be very effective. You can buy the fresh cab and Tin Cat at Amazon. My better half won't let me use the traditional mouse traps claiming they are cruel so the Tin Cat (a live catch trap) came to the rescue. Only problem is that when you release mice from the Tin Cat you have to do it miles away because mice can range long distances and will return but it's worth the drive to keep the wife happy!

[pappy19]

Originally Posted by Jenner515

Passing on info learned from the CU Boulder pest guy.

Mice can fit in a crack 1/4” or smaller. They can squeeze through a hole the size of a dime, and they can vertically jump about 18”.

His Integrated Pest Management (IPM) solutions includes using copper mesh wire, you can purchase it by the roll, to stuff into cracks. Copper doesn’t rust (don’t buy chore boys, they are more expensive and surprisingly rust).

He also recommended and used the plastic black traps with a well, filling the well with Hershey’s chocolate syrup. The mice have to stand on the trigger plate to get into the well and trigger it. These traps are more effective than the wood and peanut butter is not recommended.

Here’s a link to a video I made while working on this issue. https://youtu.be/p8F_00vQA5I

There should be another video in this CCIPM group about using the copper mesh wire.

Good luck, I commend you on trying to avoid pesticides where possible. VelRey

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Here's a new product I just saw on FB.

[dwilsosh]

Sounds strange but a bar of Irish Spring soap seems to work well. My father in law used it in his as well as my brother in law. For whatever reason they didn’t like the smell. He got the tip from a pest controller. Worth a try, cheap and easy.

[Firefly77]

We live surrounded by woods and prairie and have had terrible issues with mice, squirrels, chipmunks and groundhogs getting into our vehicles and RV gnawing wires, insulation, gas line etc. Squirrels and groundhogs even tried to gnaw through the bottom of our AS a couple years ago. Our mechanic told us this is a growing problem as more mfgs use wire sheathing and tubing made from "corn plastic". I agree plugging entry holes is essential, but while more practical on the AS, not so much on our other vehicles. We won't use poisons with all the kids, pets, farm animals and wildlife around, not to mention it's a nasty way to go. Otherwise, we have tried about everything listed in this thread over the years and so far our experience is:

• ultrasonic sound deterrents worked only sometimes (which may as well be not at all), were expensive compared to other options and relied on either batteries which eventually fail or electricity which was not readily available or handy for all vehicles

• LED light ropes and strobes seemed to help for mice but not for the other critters. In fact the squirrels just chewed the plastic casing on the light ropes to bits.

• snap traps and glue traps work on mice but need to be constantly checked and reset, and are ineffective for larger critters like the squirrels and woodchucks. Tin Cats and other live traps are OK if you can monitor them frequently, but like the snaps and glue, don't get them all, and some mice may get past the traps

• the best results we found were scent deterrents. They were inexpensive, easy to apply and some lasted for a long time without needing a power source...a good solution for lengthy unattended periods with vehicles or trailers. The best overall are mothballs. Potentially toxic yes, but if applied with care are very effective at keeping all the furry chewers at bay. We bought mothballs in mesh bag packs that we placed in 1 qt tupperware type storage containers with sealed lids that we drilled numerous 1/4" holes in (lid only) to allow the vapors to escape. We then placed 4 containers under each vehicle and one in the engine compartment (don't forget to remove before driving off!). The AS got 6-8 containers spaced evenly underneath and by the tires. We have never had another chewing or home invasion since from any type of critter.

Other scent deterrents that worked to varying degrees were:

• fresh mint...we started planting peppermint and spearmint around our chicken coop and hanging bundles of cut mint inside to keep mice out. It worked great, but did not transfer as well to squirrels and groundhogs around the vehicles, and you need a boatload of mint, and a greenhouse to grow it in the winter.
• Irish Spring soap chips do well for a while, but you have to keep refreshing them and we found that the critters seemed to get used to them after a few months.
• If you would rather not use mothballs, a decent substitute is rags soaked in ammonia placed in those same "tupperware" containers. These need to be refreshed every few days as they evaporate and so would not be good for an extended unattended situation

Sometimes you have to rotate or combine some of the options to get the best results. For the AS though, I would start with plugging holes to make it tough for them, and add other deterrents you are comfortable using.

[Tater]

Wow. Well done and covered all that I have heard of.

[RJCadd]

Originally Posted by mpsgolf

Following ...

i was a camp host we used moth balls works great good luck, sp

[Mollysdad]

Originally Posted by datwyver

I use Rid-a-Rat strobes, available on Amazon. Works under the hoods of my stored cars, inside my pool heater to protect the wiring, and, so far, in my 2019 FC 27FB. Two AA batteries last for months. Only problem is finding places on the AS that magnets will stick to...

I looked on Amazon.
1. $45.
2. SIX AA batteries.
3. No sound repellant, it only flashes the LED to annoy the rodents.

Still, if it works it would be worth it. I'm skeptical.

[waninae39]

Irish Spring soap DOES NOT work!

we tried it two years. each time we saw mouse nibbles all over it

now we use steel wool and sticky pads. hard to get it and they die if they get in.
thus they cant pass on the news on mouse Net any more

[wave man]

It’s almost like repellent ideas work regionally, I’ve seen people vouch for everything on this forum and others too... and then seen all of them be completely refuted too....

Either there’s something fishy going on or the northern mice have different dislikes then the southern mice etc etc

[gator.bigfoot]

Originally Posted by dwilsosh

Sounds strange but a bar of Irish Spring soap seems to work well. My father in law used it in his as well as my brother in law. For whatever reason they didn’t like the smell. He got the tip from a pest controller. Worth a try, cheap and easy.

I think the mice we have consider it a delicacy. They ate it. I've just about tried every fable out there. The only thing that worked for me is seal up the holes. Although I haven't tried the mint yet. Might give that a try. Lol.