Damage to RV while in storage by Rodents

06Fargo wrote:

2012Coleman wrote:

06Fargo wrote:
Wabbit Season!

Duck Season!!!

Wwwwabbit season!!!!

Elmer Season!

If you use poison get the kind that is solid and you can run a wire through the center to keep it from being dragged away and used as winter food.

I use this to stop the pack rats under the car hoods it also takes care of mice, rabbits, chipmuck etc.. Deadly for pets or people so make sure it does not get pulled out from under the hood where a kid or pet can find it. You must also find the dead critters before the dog does. The critters will seek water after being poisoned, so leave a water bowl out with a milk crate over it to keep fido away.

Don't let rodents store it! Maybe your title should be . . "damaged by rodents while in storage".

If you have power where you store your trailer or vehicle, how about one of those plug-in gizmos that give out a sound to chase the critters away? Inaudible to humans.

Countless posts come on here saying they have found mice using dryer sheets to build a nest...yet someone always posts that you should use dryer sheets to keep mice away....Did it ever occur to these nice folks that only want to help, that the dryer sheets seem to work only because there are no mice?

B.O.

2012Coleman wrote:

06Fargo wrote:
Wabbit Season!

Duck Season!!!

Wwwwabbit season!!!!

We had mice/voles chew the outer insulation off our stored power cord on our 5er. Apparently that tasted good - they nicked some of the 12v wires, but pretty much left it alone. If we had kept the 5er, I would have plugged as many holes as possible; then surrounded it with mothballs on the outside, along with some snap traps.

The problem with Dcon poison is it kills pretty quick , the rodent crawls into a cubby hole and dies now the smell/stain on ? as it decomposes !
And it can be a secondary kill to if a cat or? gets ahold of it and eats it.

Same with snap traps and glue boards , Not really the good choice for long storage the rodent get stuck on the glue board or in the trap , no it decomposes (sometimes will get eaten by another rodent? But the stench smell.

Like others have posted try to seal up all entry places best you can.
There is non-secondary kill bait that comes in blocks similar to the D-con little blocks, the ones we used were green and worked quite well.
That way if you have cats or ? they won't die or get deathly ill from eating the rodents..

Mr-MrsPete wrote:
Buy a box of dryer sheets and use the whole box. Put them in the cupboards. storage bins, etc. No creatures will bother you! ;)

I'd heard the same - cloves were supposed to help too. Forgive me for taking the wind out of your sails, but here's how our trailer came out of storage this spring. Note the urine on the bounce sheet and the two droppings on the far side of the cloves.



We always put poison in the trailer before storage and thankfully they've always gone straight for it - no damage other than cleanup. This year we decided we'd had enough, so we set out to plug all the access points.

Steel wool works, but it rusts. Brass wool is better; I have never found a source for it but luckily these brass scrubbers are just as good. It can be cut into whatever size you need.



To form the best defense we used expanding foam too. This stuff contains a pest deterrent. The can works be when it's upright; to allow us to shoot foam into gaps above and below the nozzle we purchased several feet of clear tubing. Bonus: When foam dries and clogs the tube, throw it out and install another one.



Each access point got stuffed with brass and filled with foam.



Here's the biggest access hole of all, and it was well used:



That was another job.

If mice are inside the camper I'd use a 3-pronged approach, traps, poison and sticky pads. Before we put our home up on our property we had a large mobile home which was left empty most of the year and drew mice. We found D-con pellets effective. 25 years later we often get mice inside the house, it sits on pretty much the same ground as the trailer did.

Our mice are small and often feast on the peanut butter, cheese, etc., and await their next meal. Poison and dogs don't mix well, so I've also used sticky pads. Never fails.

Strangely, our camper is in a pole barn about 75 yards away and we are yet to have a single rodent problem with it. Maybe it's the cold climate and the warmth of the home attracts them. And DW makes sure there's no human or dog food they can get to.

We also have rabbits that haven't been a problem, but if they become one I'll set out some traps. They live away from the dogs, so no problem there.

Maybe the OP can get some ideas from this.