Has anybody experienced problems with mice in storage bins or in the living area? If so, what effective means did you use to eliminate or control them. Appreciate your successful tips etc.
albqkid@earthlink.net 2008 Contessa (425 hp Cat) 38'
We live in a very rural area and our 07 Contessa is parked outside near a wooded area. Needless to say, we have a continual problem with mice in the storage bays and inside the coach. We have tried many things, including snap traps baited with cheese or peanut butter, sticky traps, dryer sheets, moth balls, etc, to no avail. D-con seems to work best, but run the risk of having a decaying body somewhere in the coach. Fortunately, we have not encountered that problem. After eating d-con mice usually seek water and leave the coach. Will be interested in how others have dealt with the problem. Thanks for bringing it up.
One note with using a bait such as D Con is that it swells when the mouse drinks water so putting a water source outside the coach and no water source in the coach gives you a better chance that they will leave before dying as they will seek a source of water after eating the bait.
We had one a few years back and once we got rid of it we were able to seal the entry point and have had no problems since. We have also found that using peanut butter instead of cheese to be a better bait. We have also found that the sticky traps works on the smaller rodents.
I would be careful using poison as the mice may die in the wall or some other inaccessible area of the coach, not a good thing. My parents had mice in a camper they had years ago and were able to trap a total on 7, they multiply fast so put the trap out more than one time.
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We used to raise filberts (hazelnuts), and on the farm I found that half a kernel speared under the bait holder on the old fashioned snap traps was quite effective. I believe mice prefer any kind of nut over cheese, so I'd think a peanut half would work fine also, and the fact that peanut butter works for some is evidence of that. I've also run into some pretty dodgy critters that manage to spirit off with the bait unless it's firmly ensconced. So peanut butter, being soft, may allow for some fed and happy diners unless the trap has a hair trigger.
Most traps today don't have the prong type bait holder, and would be difficult to rig with nuts, so if you can't find the old Victor brand pronged traps, you might have to remake the baitholder or tie half a nut on with thread or something. Half a filbert jams nicely into and under the prong/spear of the older style, and is virtually guaranteed to work. At least it has for me for almost 40 years.
Joel and Lee Ashley 36 ft 2006 Monterey C9 Cat Beaver Believers
I trapped some with a simple mousetrap and a peanut butter cheese cracker for bait. Then I bought some electronic pest repeller things at Costco and they seem to work. Haven't had a mouse since (over 2 yrs). Of course this only works if you are plugged in as they require 110V to work.
We use sticky traps in the coach with good success, we sometimes throw in a spot of peanut butter for attraction.
When I used spring traps at our ranch, I found that the critters would gingerly lick the peanut butter off without tripping the trap. Yes, they did love the peanut butter! Lots of folks like peanut butter and chocolate so I started melting a little chocolate onto the bait tab, making sure that some of it ran through the bait clip. Sure enough, mice also like a little chocolate with their peanut butter! They had to gnaw it off though, so it made a wonderful last meal.
I caught the only one we ever had with a old fashioned mouse trap/cheese. One night was gone and only 1. No more problems. WE suspect it crawled in at Lazy Days in the repair bay. The techs eat lunch in the bays and pizza boxes, etc. sitting around.
We had mice and I did what my grandma would do. I put peppermint oil (I make homemade soap so I had some around) on cotton pads and placed them in the bays and behind drawers and other places. Mice hate the smell of peppermint and it seemed to drive them off. Sherol Roy Baldwin
This really works......I had an old GMC motorhome in Vermont and the mice loved to get inside for the winter. First you need a pail. I used a sheetrock bucket which had very vertical sides. You take a plastic sode or water bottle and drill a hole in the center of the bottom end. Drill a hole near the rim of the bucket on opposite sides. Run a coathanger through the hole in the bucket, then the bottle, then back through the outside of the bucket. Put a bend in each end of the coat hanger to secure it in the pail and cut the excess off. You will have suspended the bottle centered over the top of the bucket with the coathanger as an axle that the bottle will spin on. Coat the outside of the bottle with peanut butter. Put a gallon or two of propelyne glycol in the bucket and then place a ramp board from the floor up to the rim at the end of one of the coat hangers. The mice will climb the board, go out to the bottle and when it spins they end up falling into the glycol and quickly drown. It works for the whole season with no odor, given the mice remain in the glycol until disposed of. I would place one in the bay and maybe one inside of the coach. Best solution ever....
The pop bottle - bucket - peanut butter device is brilliant!
If you like motorhomes, odds are you like gadgets and hate mice.
Consider the 10 mouse Victor Multi-Kill. There is a video at [url] http://www.victorpest.com/[/url]. The video is entertaining!
There is a one mouse at a time version too! It is called the Victor Electronic Mouse Trap and you can get it at Amazon, Home Depot, etc. The 90 five star reviews on Amazon are almost as entertaining as the Multi-Kill video.
Try not to use mouse bait if you can. I think one of my dogs ate a mouse or two that had been poisoned with bait. It was not sure, but the dog was very sick and had to be "put down" not long after.