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jbobst's avatar
jbobst
Explorer
Apr 23, 2014

How to get rid of mice "smells"

I live in the Arizona desert and all our houses here are pretty much built on concrete slabs and I've never had any issues with mice here (I've lived here all my life for the past 40 years). I mention this because my parents retired to live in the mountains of North Carolina, and they have mice on their property. Under their house, they have a musty crawl space where my dad leaves mouse traps. The smell under his house is the same smell I now have in my Class A diesel pusher and I really don't like it.

So, back to the question... About two years ago, my Class A was sitting unused in the storage facility for about a year without any use. I did go out every couple of months and run the generator and start the engine, but we didn't do any camping for at least a year. When we finally got it out of storage to take a camping trip, we found that mice had been in the basement storage area and in a few of the kitchen drawers. There were mouse droppings in the basement and in the drawers and they had chewed through a box of rice and some other items that had been left in the kitchen drawers. We took everything out of the motorhome and cleaned up all the mouse droppings and cleaned the drawers in the kitchen. Since then, I can't get rid of the "mouse" smell (just like the crawl space in my dad's house in NC). I at first thought maybe there was a dead mouse in some crevice I hadn't found yet, but then I thought that it's probably the smell of their urine in the suedo carpet lining that is in the basement area. I've sprayed Febreeze in the basement storage area, but it didn't make a difference. Is there any sort of device I can put in the basement area that would absorb these odors? I could put some sort of air freshener thing, but that would probably smell worse (sweet air freshener along with mouse smell). Anyone have a suggestion or have this same problem?
  • Leave a 5lb bag of potato's in the coach for about 3 weeks in the middle of an az summer. You will welcome the Mice smell. Don't ask how I know this just take my word for. :S
  • Hantavirus

    Before you start messing with rodent waste products, (urine and feces soaked carpet) read up on this potentially lethal virus.
  • 2012Coleman wrote:
    We used Nature's Miracle to get rid of cat urine oder - used something else to get rid of the cat.


    As a forward to my earlier post concerning the "Royal Rodents" Nature's Miracle is what I used too. A really good product!
    Steve
  • Had a similiar problem with our 5th wheel. Little critters setting up shop! lol I swear by a product called Freshana Organic Solutions. Don't use Febreze. Just masks the odors.
  • Give Biocide a try. Will probably take two treatments. Just open the package and let it sit. They do have a website. Worked for us, good luck.
  • Quick update: I ended up buying the Nature Miracle product from my local pet store (I bought the "expensive" bottle...the Advanced or heavy duty...or something like that). I sprayed the whole basement area about 4 days ago. The mouse smell is as strong as ever so no luck with that. The mice must have a nest somewhere or there must be a dead mouse somewhere in that basement area. It's a big 42' diesel motorhome and there are probably a ton of areas where a mouse can go and die and never be seen again.
  • Try several shallow pans of T S T holding tank chemical shut up for about a week. I don't think you will have too many for that large an area.

    It will be cheap and it worked on our frig after the power went off when we were gone.

    Good luck.

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