Forum Discussion

Dachristianman's avatar
Nov 19, 2013

Critters

What are some good suggestions to keep the critters from tearing up the inside of one's motorhome while parked for the winter. A few traps seems like the answer, but if you don't check them often, it seems like you would have a rotting animal smell in there. I'm mainly concerned with mice. I don't keep any food in it, but last year, a pair of mice were eating some seeds from a nearby tree and my passenger seat smelled of mouse urine. Not a good thing.

What do you do?

Tom
  • We put moth balls on the ground around the camper and put mouse poison in the camper and bounce around inside also we have never had mice in the sundance, our layton that sits out all year has had a mouse or two but they eat the poison and it makes it search out water so the always leave the camper. Never have seen a dead one in the camper!
  • Put this stuff in your coach...interior AND basement compartments

    http://www.earth-kind.com/news/rvrs-guide-to-winter-storage/

    It flat works!
  • Peppermint oil on cotton balls inside of small pill bottles in basements, under sinks, and in the area under drawers. Drill holes in the pill bottles. Keeps the mice at bay and it also makes the coach smell nice. Plus I have a Black & Decker Ultrasonic Pest Repeller in every room and each basement compartment. And to tell if this is working or not, I have set a couple traps. The traps have not caught anything so far, so it appears that the Peppermint Oil and ultrasonic repellers are working. This is the first year I've tried this method. Time will tell!
  • wny_pat wrote:
    Peppermint oil on cotton balls inside of small pill bottles in basements, under sinks, and in the area under drawers. Drill holes in the pill bottles. Keeps the mice at bay and it also makes the coach smell nice. Plus I have a Black & Decker Ultrasonic Pest Repeller in every room and each basement compartment. And to tell if this is working or not, I have set a couple traps. The traps have not caught anything so far, so it appears that the Peppermint Oil and ultrasonic repellers are working. This is the first year I've tried this method. Time will tell!
    I've used peppermint oil for years and it works! IMHO the ultrasonic repeller works best! You don't want to use a attraction bait because that draws them to your coach! Then they eat the bait and search for water and if your water lines are not blown out with air and there is water in any of your lines they will chew thru the water line to get at the water! Been there, done that, a long time ago and don't want to go thru replacing a water line in the floor again. I also removed all the drawers in my coach and filled the cubby holes with very coarse steel wool, anywhere I find a cubby hole it gets filled with #00 (very coarse) steel wool. Good Luck!
  • X3 on the PURE peppermint oil, never had a critter problem with those left in drawers, etc.... To easy, and it smells good too!
  • Several years ago Consumer Reports tested some ultrasonic repelers and they did not do any good.

    One of the seasonal guys in a NH campground we stayed in for a couple of summers called me down to his site when he was opening his trailer for the summer to look at a mouse nest made from Bounce dryer sheets and sitting right next to a sonic repeller.
    He trapped about 12 mice in the next couple of weeks.
    I know that story sounds phony but it is true