By Cheri Sicard
Eek! A mouse! After RVing in the New Mexico desert since January, it finally happened in mid-May. Mice in my RV.
Since January, I had been watching various campground neighbors leave their hoods open at night and keep lights on under their RVs (kind of annoying) in an effort to avoid desert rodents. But I had been lucky. No critters in the RV besides myself and the occasional visiting friend or two.
It begins
When it happened, I was house-sitting and dog-sitting for a friend near Santa Fe, NM. My RV was parked on her ranch with breathtaking panoramic desert views all around.
For the most part, when not out hiking, I spent my days inside with my charge, Ringo, a canine of questionable ancestry but impeccable temperament. I did go into the RV to sleep at night, however, as I found my bed more comfortable than my friend’s.
At first, I tried to deny hearing something moving behind a cabinet door. But then when I heard the sound of munching I could no longer ignore it.
Many people consider me a strong, brave, extremely independent woman. For the most part, I am. But when it comes to mice in my home, I turn into one of the wimpiest screechiest of little girls. Snakes? No problem. Rodents? No, thank you!
Having mice anywhere in the RV was freaking me out, to say nothing of the damage they might be doing.
I was at the local hardware store the moment they opened the next morning.
I threw EVERYTHING at the problem, buying a variety of different mousetraps, steel wool, and rodent-repelling insulating foam. People in these parts deal with mice as a part of life, so the small, independent True Value hardware store in El Dorado was well-stocked and their staff well-versed.
How to rodent-proof an RV—dirty work
I started under the trailer: dirty work, but better than having mice. I stuffed even the tiniest of crevices with steel wool and sprayed over that with the rodent-repelling insulating foam. There weren’t any obvious access points that I could see, but there were parts I could not get to, and mice can fit through unbelievably tiny spaces.
I spent the rest of the day emptying and cleaning every cabinet, drawer, nook, and cranny inside, and also the outside pass-through storage. I sprayed everything with Rodent Sheriff, a pleasant-smelling peppermint oil spray that advertised “rodents hate it.” However, I can’t confirm this (more below), but it smells nice.
I was heartened to not find evidence of much of an infestation. One drawer had a few droppings and a tiny amount of paper in a storage closet was chewed and that was all. Whew!
By day’s end, I was exhausted and my trailer smelled pleasantly of peppermint. In my cleaning, I applied the spray liberally to interior cabinet spaces and anywhere I suspected a mouse might be or want to be.
It was getting late, so I set out traps, one in the cabinet where I had heard movement, one in the cabinet where my water heater is, and one in the pass-through storage.
The next morning
The next morning the trap in the pass-through was tripped and the trap broken, peanut butter gone, no mouse.
The trap in the cabinet and the water heater had each caught their prey. Gross! Side note: I had especially doused the water heater cabinet with peppermint oil, yet I still caught a mouse in the small compartment. So I am not sure the peppermint oil works.
I was also heartened that the two mice I had caught were not one of the dreaded pack rats known for chewing through electronics, but rather tiny field mice barely larger than a big beetle.
That day I repeated the steel wool and spray foam routine inside the trailer. Under the dinette, I found the likely entrance, a vent hose whose silicone sealing had let loose through the years. I stuffed the space with steel wool and covered everything in the foam. It didn’t look neat, but if it worked I did not care. (And who sees under the dinette anyway?)
I set out all the traps again. The next morning all traps were clear. Just to be sure, I left them out for the remaining week I stayed with my friend. They have yet to catch anything else and I have not heard any out-of-place noises emanating from my cabinets since. Hopefully, my trailer is rodent-free.
But I do have some hits and misses when it comes to products to keep your RV rodent-free. Here’s what I used and what worked and what didn’t!
The best (and worst) mouse traps
When it came to mouse traps, I did not want to use anything with poison. Since other animals eat the mice, I did not want to pollute the beautiful, natural environment. I also did not want to use glue traps as they seem unnecessarily cruel to me, although I know from past experience when a friend had an infestation in his house that they do work well.
In addition to the traps I tried below, you can also get a live trap that catches the mice that can later be released away from the RV. This is a good option if you have a lot of mice. Thankfully, I did not.
• BEST!: The old-fashioned cheap little wooden mouse traps are classics for a reason. They work, and they work better than most of the fancy, new-fangled “better” mouse traps I bought.
• Also worked well: A little sturdier, Victor’s easy-set mouse traps also got the job done.
• Did not work at all!: Tom Cat’s Press and Set Mouse Traps looked great to me, and I was sure they would do the job. Nope, this was the trap that was tripped without catching a mouse. The bait was gone, and the trap was broken, a small plastic piece being found a few inches away. Skip this one!
• Have high hopes: I bought this OWLTRA electronic mouse trap for extra insurance after I had rid my travel trailer of mice, so I can’t say for sure how well it works, but it sounds great on paper and has good reviews. Battery-powered, the mouse goes in and gets humanely electrocuted. You press a button to dispose of it and never have to go anywhere near the dead mouse. A green light tells you when and if it catches anything. Just in case, I have this mounted under my dinette, the most likely entrance point.
More essentials to rodent-proof an RV
• Steel wool – Honestly, I think this is the most important preventive you can use. Mice hate it and don’t want to chew through it. Fill any and every little crevice with steel wool and your RV will likely remain rodent-free.
• DAP Mouse Shield spray foam – Pleasant smelling and insulating, you can spray this right over the steel-wool-packed crevices.
• Rodent Sheriff spray – As I said, I am not convinced this actually works as I caught a mouse in an area that had been liberally sprayed with it. But I figured it can’t hurt and it smells good.
Lights under the RV
Supposedly, having lights on under your RV will keep rodents away. I don’t like neighbors’ lights burning all night, especially in great star-watching areas, so I did not want to do this. But I did find a good workaround.
These Baxia solar-powered motion sensor LED lights are meant to be mounted around sticks-and-bricks homes. I don’t mount mine but rather place them under the trailer on the inside edges of the wheels at night. They are BRIGHT! Anything that moves under there or anywhere nearby is spotlighted. During the day, I keep them out in the sun to recharge. If I am driving, they sit on the front dash window and soak up the sun.
Of course, if you are worried about security, you can point them out and be alerted anytime an animal or human approaches the rig.
Conclusion
My RV has now been mouse-free for about two weeks! Whew! But there was a day or two of panic when I wondered what if I couldn’t find where they were getting in. Luckily, one of those crevices I blocked with steel wool and foam was the one. Steel wool to the rescue, along with anything else I could throw at the problem just to be sure. And I keep a constant watch now. Catching a mouse infestation early is crucial.
While they are cute in the wild, I do not like mice in my home! Eek!
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##RVT1159
I’ve been at the “There’s a Mouse is in the House” !!!! stuff for many years. You cannot “mouse proof” any RV period stop. What you can do is kill’em all. Victors old fashioned snap traps. Quick, effective kill rate if you can just get past the disposal aspect. The mouse time vs. elimination time and easy to store aspect makes this by far the most mouse effective. Load the traps with a chunky peanut butter(never smooth) and you’ll do just fine. I have found a string of miniature solar holiday lights(string is 50 ft. long) placed under my campervan set to pulsate on and off are very effective also with tree rats which are very prevalent in Fl. over the Winter months.
Steel wool rusts extremely fast and disintegrates if it gets wet. I would suggest you use copper, it’s available on Amazon.
Yes! Brass or Bronze wool as well.
Or use stainless steel, like a stainless steel scouring pad
Prevention is the best cure. Find the holes & plug them.
In bright daylight, pull the shades, kill the lights, open everything – especially screwed on access panels. If you see light, however dim, you have a hole.
In the dark of night, follow the same procedure but turn on every light you can and go outside and look around, under and over. If you see light, however dim, you have a hole.
Obviously this won’t work for engine compartments. You’ll have to plant traps when you arrive and remove before you go. Generally speaking, rodents will go for actual food over plastic coated wires if available.
The “all-lights-on-at-night” technique really works to find potential access points for rodents. Our first class A, a new 1999 Fleetwood Bounder, looked like a Christmas tree underneath when I did that. Took me quite a while to plug all the access points that RV had, but I finally got the rig mouse free.
Also check any rubber gaskets or seals. If you can push a finger around/through it, a mouse can, and will, push through as well. The Bounder taught me that too.
Personally, I would never catch and release mice unless it was into a snake or tarantula cage. 🙂
What works and what doesn’t?
Mousetrapmondays on YouTube does real testing and has the answers.
Spoiler alert: Most products don’t.
Great suggestion, Mikal! 🙂 Shawn is both informative and entertaining! Our next effort is two versions of bucket traps (https://a.co/d/cLEgOQq and https://a.co/d/8W4mDET). We do need to buy a few buckets still. Thanks again for suggesting Mousetrap Mondays and safe travels! 🙂
Thank you, Cheri! 🙂 We have tried all that you listed and some do work, provided the mouse (mice?) deigns to be in the right spot to be caught. We “hardened” our RV barn where Newton (our RV) sits between trips. All has been to some, but not total, success. We have applied for a nearby animal shelter’s barn cat program. Currently they haven’t any, but we are hopeful. A nice (?) side benefit (accompanied with more work and expense) will be enclosing the barn sufficiently to make it comfortable to the cats year ’round. We’ll see how all that goes. Meanwhile, thank you for sharing your efforts, and safe travels! 🙂
Rat Zapper is another electronic trap brand that works well. We live just east of El Dorado so we know the problem well and this is what we use in home and RV when we have to. Generally we just dump the dead mouse out into the woods for other critters to recycle.
I worked with an older gentleman that had a barn and other outbuildings. When we had mice getting into our garage, I tried the peanut butter bait, but a lot of the traps had the peanut butter missing and the trap still set. He told me to tie pieces of a chocolate bar to the trigger with some nylon fishing line. He said the mice will go after the chocolate and get their tiny little teeth stuck in the string trying to get their candy rush, setting off the trap. Worked like a charm.
The only problem with traps is you need to check them every day or so, or you end up with the odor of the rotting carcass.
I’ll probably catch some flack for this but there is one foolproof way to never have a mouse in your RV. It’s called a cat. And it does not necessarily mean the cat has to catch the mouse. I’ll explain. We have been RV’ing for 24 years. 12 of those years full time. We have always travelled with at least one and sometimes two cats. In those 24 years we have never had a mouse in our RV. It seems the mice smell that there is cat around and don’t even try to invade our space.
You don’t full time or don’t have a cat? Try this. Get some used cat litter (no solids please) from someone who does have a cat. Continued next post – Out of space.
Place the litter in a plastic container and punch holes in the lid. Place the container in your unused RV, shed or garage etc. No smells that a human can smell and no rodents.
A quick summary at the beginning of what worked, what didn’t work would be nice. Then we can read the adventure if we want.
Nice article Cheri with some great product tips!
I was so happy to see you didn’t use or recommend glue traps or poison. Great article! So far we have not had a mouse issue but I will save your what works list for future reference. Good luck keeping your rig critter free!