Rodents

When you say 'storage', do you mean enclosed storage? We keep our coach in an enclosed garage in California. I put the large mouse glue traps at each edge of the garage door. I also spray bug-spray often inside around the perimeter of the garage.

I have caught a lot of small critters on the traps. You definitely don't want mice eating your wires. Our regimen seems to work well, no critters in this coach or in the previous coach.

MM.

I use Decon under drawers ect. Places were pets or kids can't get to.

Our storage is covered, not enclosed. Decon is poison. Don't want a dead rat in some unreachable hole stinking up the coach.

I store ours outdoors. Mothballs under the coach, outside and fabric sheets inside under the bed, under the kitchen table/sleeping quarters as well as the pull out couch. Near the front doors and in the bathrooms. Pretty much a few in sight and a lot outta sight. No problems to date with this method.

A hole big enough for them to squeeze thru is how they get in, but I've parked my trailer about 3 feet from my wood shed for the past 10 + years and have never had a single rodent in the trailer...

Here is a pic of how close it is.. The white lattice thing behind the trailer is a 16'x4' wood shed.



I put the dcon trays in the wood shed and they are empty every couple of weeks...

I find some carcasses in the wood pile from time to time, but with as much as they eat, they must die in other places too?

My Dad parks his 5th wheel inside his huge shop and has gotten rodents in the thing to the point he had to replace all the carpet in it... He sets traps when they seem to be present and gets bodies all the time.. He sets the dcon trays around his shop too, and they empty as well...

This is a $40K RV and my little TT cost $14K brand new and sits outside and has never had one in it.. :)

Anyway, good luck with it!

Mitch.

The only product I use that is cheap...AND it works (100%)...is the simple wood snap/traps. I get (catch) around 5 mice every year my mh is not used during the winter. I use 12 of these traps (more or less) both inside and outside in the storage areas.
I get most of my mice in the generator area. Why? Don't know. It's a shame I have to waste good Skippy Peanut Butter on these guys...but there it is.

Something in the (newer) wire shields the mice find interesting.

Your going to have to use a bait trap to get then out! I prefer not to use bait traps because it draws them to your coach, but once there already in you have to get them out. I don't like using Decon because it makes rodents thristy and they may chew thru one of your water lines to get water, especially under the flooring. I haven't had rodents in my coach in 5 or 6 years. Once I got them out I bought 2 electronic noise devices. I keep one plugged in (inside the coach) the front end of the coach and the other plugged in at the rear of the coach. I also went to Lowes and bought double 00 very coarse steel wool. I took out every drawer in the coach and stuffed steel wool in every crawl space that I could or runway or open space. Did the same with the under storage areas. Any place that I could find a opening I used steel wool. I also used steel wool around my Genset! Rodents got in there one time and chewed up my wiring harness and other wires it was over $1,000.00 repair. I don't worry about it anymore. Good Luck, in the method you choose.

The key is to stop them from entering. First you need to seal all entry points in the floor. This means foaming all pipe holes...wire hole including behind the converter...waste lines and gas lines. Then if you have a heated basement you need to prevent them from entering there. The duct is open in the basement but the basement is not and really can not be sealed. The rodents enter the basement duct then migrate into the furnace and out the ducts into the camper. I removed the 4" and 2" ducts going to my basement and fabricated screens using thin aluminum flashing with lots of 1/8" holes drilled in it and installed in the furnace adaptors. Keep in mind a mouse can enter through a hole the size of a pencil so it needs to be sealed well and have small holes. Upon opening up the furnace I found acorns in the heat exchanger if the furnace. Once sealed I no longer get mice. Another way to seal it is to seal off the heat outlets....but that still allows the mice to deposit urine and feces in the ducts and furnace.

Chances are that the rodents are not in the rv at this time. They are most likely looking for a place to nest during the winter. At any rate, once the rv starts moving, if they are in there they should come out.

Mice (and rats) will chew through the spray foam insulation. Add steel wool to the holes and spaces then foam that.

I've never found the electronic devices to be effective. I have cold cellar in my basement with two of those devises and the spring traps will still catch one or two a month. I asked an extreminator about the electronic ones and he said that if they were really effective he would be out of business!