Through the years, we’ve written about a dozen ways to keep mice, squirrels and other rodents out of your RV. Some probably work, some probably don’t. Nobody seems to agree on the absolute best way.
Well, could this be it? There’s one way to keep these pests (and even bigger ones like possums and bears) away from your RV according to an RVer named Jeff Schwartz, who outlined his method in a comment to our YouTube video “How to keep mice out of your RV.” We doubt you have heard of this technique before. Here, shortened for brevity, is what Schwartz wrote:
There is one known foolproof, usually free, way to keep all animals (mice, cats, dogs, possums, bears, etc.) away from your home or RV! Go to your local zoo and ask for some lion or tiger poop and line your property with it. Zoos will usually give you all you want. It works every time. Carry it home in garbage bags.
Just spread it lightly where you do not want animals to go and they will all stay away forever. I have seen neighborhood dogs (several times) walk around my property. They will no longer cross a line of lion poop that I laid out about a month ago. Best of all, there is absolutely no smell for humans!
I didn’t believe it until I saw it work—100 percent of the time. Try it—you will be amazed. I even tested it with cockroaches and they turned around when they came to the line of poop. Nothing alive will cross that line!
But be careful if you have pets. My dog will no longer get into my Blazer because I spilled the lion poop in the very back about six months ago. (I have since had the interior cleaned.) My dog still will not come close to my car.
OK, If you do not wish to track down a friendly lion keeper at your zoo, you can purchase urine at Amazon from foxes, mountain lions, bobcats and coyotes, which is supposed to do the same thing as what Schwartz suggests (although we’ll guess that it won’t keep a bear away!).
If you have a yard, putting this urine around your yard should keep all small animals, pests and other predators away. And yes, especially mice!
Have you tried anything like this before? Did it work?
##RVTDT2255
Maybe 2 mice in 45 years. Used mouse trap with peanut butter and threw there little dead bodies out the door. Weren’t there in morning.
I am betting there will be a lot of zoo keepers scratching their heads wondering why the sudden demand for lion poop!
Sounds like clever idea, except that we enjoy the critters coming out of the woods and through our yard. Deer, racoons, etc. We get mice too, but we use a mint spray indoors that we get from Amazon. Seems to work well and smells pleasant.
How come I never thought of that?
Is it April 1st already?
Something kinda smells about this report….
Thank you, Chuck! No, never tried this. Have tried many of remedies ballyhooed on the internet — essential oils on cotton balls, shavings of Irish Spring soap, light (flickering and steady), electronic sound emitters, and bags of “natural” repellant — with no apparent success. Steel wool, wire mesh, blocks of poison, sticky boards, mouse traps, and bagged poison sold at the farmers’ co-op have all helped. Steel wool and wire mesh probably prevented their entry. The poison blocks, sticky boards, and mouse trap all have helped. The co-op poison was recommended by a wildlife expert and seems the most effective. We also successfully (?) “hardened” our RV barn to prevent entry into the barn.
Barn cats and rat snakes may be the most fool-proof ways to address mice problems. 🤔
Coyotes likely would eat the cats if we tried that. 😲 Also, I am not keen on a large, well-fed snake unexpectedly slithering from a hiding place while driving the RV, having dinner, entertaining guests, sleeping, or most anything else, so that’s a non-starter with me. 😲
Are there no mice in Africa or zoos?
A local airport had a deer problem. Putting lion urine around perimeter solved it.
Zoo keeper daughter says zoos won’t let you have feline poop because of the danger of toxoplasmosis. Maybe a non AZA facility would not be as cautious. She also said it smells a lot worse than you might think.