Needing some advice

[Junglist]

We rented an RV spot from a man in February of this year. Private residence. Moved in when a lot of snow was there. Once the snow went away we noticed little white worms coming up from his RV sewer connection into our Rhino tube, into our airstream. My husband took off the toilet and platform and saw pinkish/red and blue worms in our airstream. We told him what was happening. He also told us he ran over his sewer connection with his lawnmower and glued it back together. We left pretty much immediately. All of our tanks are ruined along with pretty much everything in the airstream. Since then we have been cleaning and trying to replace and repair the damage caused. I finally called Progressive and filed a claim. My husband, our daughter, our 2 cats and myself have not been feeling well and our airstream is now damaged and stinks no matter how much I clean. We live in our airstream so this is a huge deal. It doesn't feel safe in our home anymore. Seems a huge infestation has occured along with bacteria. I am at a loss and extremely upset. Hoping our insurance will help and also considering taking him to court. I'm wondering what we should do. Looking for advice or what others would do in this situation. Thanks in advance.

[Lily&Me]

How awful!

You might contact your local health department for advice on how to clean and sanitize your systems, as well ask for how to protect yourselves and address any resultant health issues.

Maggie

[Bill M.]

There should be a company somewhere that will clean the tanks for you. Maybe a boat repair place. There is a system where they pressure clean the inside of the tanks. There was a catchy name for it but I have forgotten it. About 15 years ago I had one come to our campsite and clean the tanks before I changed the dump valves. Airstream repair in Jackson Center can do it also.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

Get a jug of bleach, maybe get 4 jugs of bleach ....

Fill the gray tank with water and a jug (or part of one) of bleach.

Fill the black tank with water and a jug (or part of one) of bleach.

Fill the fresh water tank with water and a jug (or part of one) of bleach.

Let them all sit there for 24 hours.

Dump the black and gray tanks.

Pump the fresh water through the (both hot and cold sides):

1) Indoor shower

2) Outdoor shower

3) Bath sink

4) Kitchen sink

5) Drain valves.

Now hook up to a water supply and flush everything with fresh water. Let it sit in the tanks for 20 minutes or so "each pass". Probably spend an afternoon doing this.

At this point the water system should be reasonably "clean".

Now grab a pressure washer and spray off the underside of the trailer. Yes, this will be a bit of a messy thing to do.

If there are bugs crawling around inside the trailer, you need an exterminator. They can tent and fumigate things.

Is this 100% sure to fix everything? Of course not. However it's a pretty good first thing to try.

Bob

[sfranklin]

Not sure about you, but I only have my waste valves open as the tank fills, even with full hookups and then close them. I never keep them open all the time. Did you leave the valves open all the time? Just trying to understand how your tanks got so full of worms in roughly 6 mos.

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by sfranklin

Not sure about you, but I only have my waste valves open as the tank fills, even with full hookups and then close them. I never keep them open all the time. Did you leave the valves open all the time? Just trying to understand how your tanks got so full of worms in roughly 6 mos.

Hi

You might also have more than just worms coming in through that "open door". It *is* attached to a sewer system. There will *always* be a range of interesting things down there. Just what depends a bit on the system.

One of the "interesting things" is sewer gas ( = stink). There is no back flow valve at the tank outlet(s). Indeed if you have both black and gray open at once, there is a local source .... ( = even if you are on a full hookup system, you would only keep the gray water open).

Bob

[Lily&Me]

Originally Posted by sfranklin

Not sure about you, but I only have my waste valves open as the tank fills, even with full hookups and then close them. I never keep them open all the time. Did you leave the valves open all the time? Just trying to understand how your tanks got so full of worms in roughly 6 mos.

I’d had this thought, too.

Common wisdom being to open valves to empty them, then close until the next time.

Maggie

[kb0zke]

We've been full-timing for 10 years now, and we've left the sewer hose connected twice. Both times we had sewer flies in the trailer. After the second time we decided that the only time the sewer hose is out is when I'm dumping. The grey tank can fill up just as well as the black tank, and then it can be used to help rinse the black tank and finally the sewer hose.


When I'm flushing the black tank with grey tank water we sometimes get a bit of sewer smell inside, but not much.

[Junglist]

We removed all the tanks. It was so bad they were coming in from underneath the fridge where the junction box vents are. They are nematodes I think. He also had a seasonal pond to the right side of our airstream. They also were pushing up through the floor right above where the fresh water tank was so my floors are pitted and cracked. We were sanitizing our system with the clean water method and I guess they were getting angry or something or just trying to get away from the black water. We used to always sanitize our system when we'd get to a new place, or we used to. He also totally over watered the property we were on Since then, we have only replaced the grey tank and have to stay in an RV park with facilities until we put in a new toilet and black tank. We usually do not leave our tank open. We've learned not to do that early on. His land smelled badly of sewer for lack of a different word. He also totally over watered his property. Odd thing is the other property he owned which was next door did not smell when we watered. Between gluing back together his sewer line that had cracks in it that we noticed after he said something and also had mentioned his pipes might have a crack and/or needed repair I was flabbergasted that he would rent out in that condition. I did contact the county and my complaint was apparently dismissed. I am thinking of maybe taking him to small claims court perhaps because this has and will be costing us a lot and also all the time and energy that my husband and I have been putting into this. Not too mention putting all of lives in danger. We wanted to remodel our rig, but I would have rather done it in time instead of this way. Ugh.

[farafield]

Originally Posted by Junglist

We removed all the tanks. It was so bad they were coming in from underneath the fridge where the junction box vents are. They are nematodes I think. He also had a seasonal pond to the right side of our airstream. They also were pushing up through the floor right above where the fresh water tank was so my floors are pitted and cracked. We were sanitizing our system with the clean water method and I guess they were getting angry or something or just trying to get away from the black water. We used to always sanitize our system when we'd get to a new place, or we used to. He also totally over watered the property we were on Since then, we have only replaced the grey tank and have to stay in an RV park with facilities until we put in a new toilet and black tank. We usually do not leave our tank open. We've learned not to do that early on. His land smelled badly of sewer for lack of a different word. He also totally over watered his property. Odd thing is the other property he owned which was next door did not smell when we watered. Between gluing back together his sewer line that had cracks in it that we noticed after he said something and also had mentioned his pipes might have a crack and/or needed repair I was flabbergasted that he would rent out in that condition. I did contact the county and my complaint was apparently dismissed. I am thinking of maybe taking him to small claims court perhaps because this has and will be costing us a lot and also all the time and energy that my husband and I have been putting into this. Not too mention putting all of lives in danger. We wanted to remodel our rig, but I would have rather done it in time instead of this way. Ugh.

This sounds just awful. I'm so sorry. It's a good lesson for all of us when staying/renting a place that you don't know what's been going on there. I hope you find a way to get all cleaned up and feel better soon.

[LilBird]

I, too, am so sorry. How awful for you!

Read your policy, then contact your insurance company. What is and isn’t covered varies on age of travel trailer, whether it’s considered a full time residence (based on number of nights used), the type of coverage you purchased and the riders you have. Assuming you have comprehensive coverage with “agreed value” in the event of what the company deems a total loss, they may cover at least some of the damage. Comprehensive coverage covers damage or loss outside of your control (excluding collisions and accidents): sadly, it doesn’t usually cover mold, fungi or rot. Regardless, it can’t hurt to ask. Hopefully you have photos and all of your receipts — the claims rep will find it a much more straightforward claim, though s/he will want to know why the delay. If it’s a covered loss, Progressive is likely to subrogate the claim (go after his insurance company for reimbursement).

PS — I have no clue why this post has a title, let alone “Brogate!)

[LilBird]

I apologize. I missed that you already filed a claim. Please ignore my post.

[DaveG]

What a nightmare! Maybe a vacation to Death Valley? Drain out all liquids & etc. Rent a motel room and leave the trailer to bake. I read high temperature is no friend to a nematode. ��*♂️
Good luck!

[jcanavera]

I've always left the grey tank valve open when I've been at a full hookup site. Black stays closed till it's time to dump and typically I close the grey when I'm dumping the black tank, followed up by a full grey tank of water immediately being dumped after completing the black tank dump. Never any signs of anything in the tanks and the trailer always is dumped at the end of a trip.

Now one time I did come home with the black tank about 25% full. I then didn't use the trailer for about a month. I had put in an additive into the black tank. At my next trip I notice some type of flying bugs that came out of the toilet bowl when I flushed it. I assumed that flying bugs probably got into the tank via the venting of the trailer at the roof. So bottom line I got some buckets of water and quickly filled the black tank. I flushed it and then added bleach and water....I forget how much bleach but it was significant. I let it sit about 24 hours and then dumped the tank. No bugs and I never had any issues in the grey tank or any of the grey water drains in the trailer.

Jack

[StogieMan]

I have a pest control company and am a exterminator full time as a trade. Flies originally come from a source. Once the source is eliminated so are the flies. Bleach will usually take care of the breeding site.

Drain your tanks along with flushing them out with bleach and your problem will also be eliminated.

Flies need a breeding ground site such as organic material and once that is gone so are the flies. Once you flush out your tanks and so will the source along with fly larvae. The breeding site might have been in the main holding tank below ground and the flies traveling through the pipe into your holding tanks.

I don’t think that you have a major issue. I’m sorry to say but most of the anxiety itself is created by us humans. I can’t see how this can create a health hazard.

A very good chance that the owner has not had his tank emptied for a while and there is a lot of organic material build up in the tank.

[Coopdejour]

Originally Posted by Lily&Me

I’d had this thought, too.

Common wisdom being to open valves to empty them, then close until the next time.

Maggie

Amen! Well worth the minor inconvenience and great sleep insurance.
Just sayin

[sfranklin]

Originally Posted by Lily&Me

I’d had this thought, too.

Common wisdom being to open valves to empty them, then close until the next time.

Maggie

Originally Posted by kb0zke

We've been full-timing for 10 years now

I've been RVing for roughly 35 years and leave the hose connected all the time when I have sewer hookups. Anything that crawls up the hose is going to get blown out when I empty tanks, not to mention the tank chemicals that will most likely kill them and have never had anything remotely close to what's being described, which lead me to suggest moving forward closing the valves and letting the tanks fill, then dump.

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by sfranklin

I've been RVing for roughly 35 years and leave the hose connected all the time when I have sewer hookups. Anything that crawls up the hose is going to get blown out when I empty tanks, not to mention the tank chemicals that will most likely kill them and have never had anything remotely close to what's being described, which lead me to suggest moving forward closing the valves and letting the tanks fill, then dump.

Hi

Variables:

1) You *can* open both the gray and black valves and leave them both open.

2) You can only open a valve when the trailer is in use

3) You can put the trailer in storage (for months) with valve(s) open and the slinky connected.

No that's not a full list, but it's enough for right now.

Go with number 1 and you *will* have problems. If you leave valves open, the gray is the only one to do that with. Otherwise the two tanks "get into each other". The outcome is not good.

In number 2, if you and the family are living in the trailer and using the gray water on a "many times a day" basis, you may well flush things down. Your slinky also just might act as a trap (= it has a section with water in it). That trap will keep a lot of things from coming back up into the tank.

With number 3, no matter how much water you might have in the slinky on day one, it's pretty much sure to all dry out. The same thing is true of water in the pipes you feed. Welcome to a highway for pests to navigate to your trailer.

Just about anywhere you *could* be in a flood plane. When your site turns into a swamp as a result, you will have issues. They have very little to do with valves being open or shut. Campgrounds flood, homes flood, cities flood ....

Fun

Bob

[Bright67]

It was sewer flies for me. It only happened once and since then I never leave my sewer hose connected to the sewer inlet. I only connect the hose when ready to dump then immediately disconnect. You can fumigate the interior and clean tanks but it is likely the smell will persist from the current and future dead insects. The only other thing you can try and do is mask the odor with common home deodorizers. Good luck.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

You can tent the trailer and fumigate both inside and out. You can blow out / clean out a lot of odd areas in the trailer. (might involve some work removing this and that). You can also leave it wide open for a few (rain free) weeks. If that does not clear the smell, there's still something dead and rotting (mouse ....) hidden away.

Bob