Mice smell from furnace vents

[vampirefish]

I have 2004 Jamboree GT (class C) with basement. There were signs of mice so eradicated them; however, upon using my furnace the smell is unbearable. I waited a few minutes to see if it would subside and couldn’t stand it anymore. When I’m done camping I’ll investigate further. The only evidence was mice droppings and one area they had nested (in my sewer hose) and no other apparent damage. Seems like they were in my furnace hose as well? Any ideas on troubleshooting this/getting rid of smell? I know there are no longer mice in the coach. Thanks ahead of time!

[vampirefish]

UPDATE: I opened an access point that went under my shower and BAM, found a huge nest with a dead mouse. Cleaned it all out but still smells. Thinking on spraying KILLZ down there. Set 4 snap traps, 3 were clean and not tripped, but 1 had a mouse! Now I will set bait traps as I don’t want to attack any of them critters back in. What a mess! I have one more area I think has a nest (due to smell) but not sure how to get to it… I’ll report again later.

[vampirefish]

Thanks all! Ya the mice are gone but the urine and feces obviously are not! I’ll have to get to the access doors and see what I can do. I’ll check back in once done.

[wa8yxm]

2oldman wrote:
Sounds like there's a carcass or two in there rotting. You do not want to be breathing mice poop either. I'd look at a duct cleaning service.

Ditto. or a good size shop vac with a hose long enough and do it yourself... The problem is the ducts in Rvs kind of small.

And once it's done do two thigns.

1 Install Cat (Mice for some strange reason don like to stick around when they sniff eu-de-cat)

2; Go camping

NOTE the cat will be effective for some time after you uninstall it from RV and re-install in house. Transer as needed.

[2oldman]

I would suggest, in the future, putting traps inside. They love peanut butter. I've been roundly criticized for this before as attracting mice, and perhaps that's true, but at least they'll end up dead a lot faster than not having traps.

[ktmrfs]

we once had a mouse in our house hot air vents somewhere. Called around to see what someone could do. Best advice we got from one furnace company was:

since we both worked and it was fall they said when you leave in the morning, crack the windows, turn the furnace to around 80F and let it run all day. that will desicate the mouse and get rid of the smell.

Tried that, came home in the evening, problem solved. You might give that a try in the trailer.

BTW on our trailer the el chepo ducting restricted airflow so I dropped the corplast and replaced the ducting with the rigid snap together pipes and appropriate angle fittings. made a huge difference.

[SJ-Chris]

Mice will often chew a hole in your long, winding 4" (or are they 3"?) furnace ducts and get inside the vents. There they often will next too. Laying droppings and wetting all over the place. Often times by removing some of the paneling you can get access to some/much/all of the ducting. If you can, it is fairly easy to replace and not too expensive.

You might find that some of the vents ducts are okay and others need replacing...your nose will help you determine which ones if you cannot see them all easily.

To date, I haven't had the occasion to open up the furnace to see what sort of cleaning might be needed there so others can comment on that if changing ducts doesn't fix your problem.

Good luck!
Chris

[Boon_Docker]

Had the same problem a few years ago. Dumped liquid Nilodor at the air inlet of the furnace (inside). Took all summer with repeated Nilodor dumps to get rid of the smell.

[Gdetrailer]

Ahh.. Nothing like the smell of ancient mice waste in the furnace ducts..

Nothing short of replacing ductwork is going to eliminate the odor on a permanent basis.

They not only "drop" stuff but also "wet" everywhere they go, it is the old dried "wet" item you smell each and every time your furnace starts heating that item. Worst of all, since they had access to the ductwork, they most likely also had accessed the inside of the furnace giving you a real memory burning lasting smell..

I had a TT that mice had been in the furnace ductwork when the previous owner had the trailer.. I replaced the ductwork but yet that nasty smell would come back everytime the furnace ran.. I eventually replaced the RV..

I am working on an antique car, which also had mice nesting in it.. Have removed every stitch of soft material, the entire interior is out, yet, on some days when the humidity and temperature is just right, I can still smell the mouse odor.. Gonna take several good coats of primer and several good coats of paint on the inside to cover that for good..

Lots of folks will chime in with all kinds of remedies, some may work for a short time some may not work at all but the only real good fix I have found is to replace as much of the affected items and what can't be replaced finding some means of neutralizing the caustic effects (mouse "wet" if left unchecked, eats holes in steel) and then sealing with some good paint.

[2oldman]

Sounds like there's a carcass or two in there rotting. You do not want to be breathing mice poop either. I'd look at a duct cleaning service.