Mice, rats, squirrels… Sure they’re cute (OK, that’s subjective…), but they can be a real nightmare for RVers. When you park your rig outside year-round, it’s bound to be visited by some of these love-to-chew-through-wires-and-everything-else pests.
Have rodents ever damaged the wiring in your RV or your tow vehicle? If so, will you please leave a comment and tell us about the damage they caused? If not, can you please share what you do to keep them away? Irish Spring soap? (Does it really work?) Mint oil? (Does it really work?) Spray foam? (Does IT really work?)
As always, thank you for voting.
Four cats equals no rodents.
So does Tom Cat Rodent Spray. They do not like the smell and stay away.
Amazon won’t sell it to me in Kookiefornia
Where’s Kookiefornia??
Guessing California
It depends on the cats or cat and food left out for cats is a strong attraction
We were camping in Myrtle Beach State Park and came back after time at the beach to find our propane tank covered in thick ice. Neighbour said he saw it, heard the hssssss sound but didn’t shut it off “because he didn’t know what we needed to power with it inside the trailer”. Well, nothing, if the propane runs out! Anyway, it turned out that the hose had been chewed by squirrels, who apparently find it tasty. Or so the guy at the local hardware store told us as soon as he saw the hose. “Squirrels. You must be camping at the park”. That was an education for us and lesson learned.
While camping in the Florida Keys the tow vehicle air conditioner quit working. Automotive tech eventually found chewed wiring and a small dead rat underneath the fuse block in the engine compartment. Thanks karma! I then installed led strip lighting around in the engine compartment controlled by a dusk to dawn sensor. No more issues.
We had a porcupine chewed the wiring in my truck and the transmission line on our son’s car at home. Cost over $1000.00 in repairs.
Poor thing died of lead poisoning.
Rodents also toreup the hood insulation to use as nesting material in my air filter box
As far as mice inside an RV, we all know the key is plugging any entry points. Just how small of a hole or gap can they fit through? This experiment by Shawn Woods of Mousetrapmondays on YouTube shows you:
https://youtu.be/pNaz4keivMk?feature=shared
Use 100% peppermint oil around your engine compartment and wheel wells. Rodents don’t like it and will pass on by. You can dilute it in a spray bottle and spray various areas, or dip a cotton ball and place in safe areas for the running gear of your vehicle. Works like a champ.
Mice or rats ate the wire right off the right front ABS sensor on my truck. It was a $250 meal that I had to pay for.
Pack rats ate the wiring harness on our Kia Niro, cruise control and other things didn’t work. Thankfully, insurance picked up the bulk of the $$$$$ to replace it!
Only once. That was enough for me to seek a more permanent solution. I live in the woods with plenty of creatures seeking shelter and have my RV parked in a carport. I invested $ in a Ratmat which surrounds my RV on the pad. It’s plugged in and gives a small electric shock to anything stepping on it. No more rodent problems in 5 years. It doesn’t, however, protect me in a campground, but I haven’t had any problems so far. 🤞
Thank you, RV Travel! We have dealt with mice in the RV on a few different occasions, but never have had any wiring damaged. Safe travels! 🙂
Never our RV, but dad became too old to drive and his nice car sat in the garage for several years. After his passing it was noticed mice and or rats had built nest and chewed the wires inside the engine compartment.
A little D Con goes a long way to eliminating that problem.
A nice little cup of the old-fashioned antifreeze set on top of the engine will kill off any of the vermin that try to move in and build a nest. This worked for us when we discovered pack rats in our engine compartment only two days after parking in the RV park. I’m not interested in repelling them. I’m interested in helping them shorten their lives.
We had the same problem with our Tacoma, nice nest on top of the engine. 🙁
Squirrels. Came in through the roof fridge vent and made a nest. Chewed all the wires off the back of the Norcold 1200 fridge. Cost $1300 to fix. Also chewed some wires under the hood of my truck. Another $350. These were in my driveway and truck was used every couple of days.
Not with our MH or toad, but with our other car. It’s kept in the garage and may sit for a month or two not being driven. Mice chewed a high pressure. coolant line causing a rapid loss of fluid when the car was started and driven before a warning light came on. Months after this occurred, a check engine light came on. Mice built a nest behind the rear wheel fender where the evaporator is. This is going to cost upwards of $300 at the dealer.
When visiting one of Utah’s parks, saw the Workampers sites ringed w/ orange construction netting to keep away the porcupines! One rig the prior year had needed a tow >100 miles to get fixed.
A porcupine chewed through my automatic transmission fluid line while camping near the Maroon Bells outside of Aspen, CO. Had to jury-rig a patch with duct tape to drive into Aspen for parts.
We had one do the same to my son’s car. Also chewed my truck wiring.
DON’T GET ME STARTED!!! Them little somes of beaches!
I think we may take the prize….rats and mice found a nice home in our coach…our first issue was with the airing harness that they chewed up…$2,400 to replace the wiring….we never kept food inside, and tried (in no particular order – but indeed, ALL of these) TomCat, CabFresh, Irish Spring, Bounce sheets, coyote urine, peppermint spray, spring traps, Decon, water bucket trap, and I’m probably forgetting a few. After another episode, the mechanic found a big rat nest in the front dash compartment but alas, rat urine and feces ALL over the RV—in the air ducts, on the bed, almost every compartment…and repairs to the tune of $24,000! nope, that’s not a typo.
part 2 – the only thing that seems to have kept the critters at bay – at least for now – is a $75/mo pest service that uses Ditrac pellets, a strip of flashing string lights under the coach, and sticky traps loaded with peanut butter inside. Good luck y’all, those pests are really PESTS!
I’ve had squirrels destroy the refrigerator wiring on my fifth wheel sitting in my back yard 2 different times about 2 years apart. The first one was Krispy kritter when I found it. He paid the ultimate price for doing so. He got the shock of his life (120 volts AC). He definitely won’t do it again.
When they pulled out my fridge to fix it, 5 dead baby squirrels fell out. That’s 5 less in my backyard!
Had seven get into our trailer on a camping trip. We caught them all and hubby found the way they got in after a repair done at a RV service center. No problem since but they did make a huge mess and one got caught in the heater fan! YUCK!
If soy is used in the manufacture of electrical wire insulation, it is thought to attract rodents over non-soy-based insulation. However, since rodents teeth grow like our hair and fingernails, they must keep chewing on something to keep their teeth from becoming too long.
Wiring on top of our engine was chewed, requiring some wires to be replaced. Of Course the nuts left on the intake manifold, and inside the air cleaner was another matter entirely.
We’ve had mice chew up wires on construction equipment.
Not that I know of. Once had a mouse chew its way through my cars air cleaner and deposited sunflower seeds from the bird feeder next to the throttle body. Of course I did not notice it until I tried to start the car. I called the Ford garage and they advised me that if any damage was done I would know about already, I cleaned as much out as I could and finally got it started, it smelled like roasted sunflowers and I had to change out all of the spark plugs.