By the The Never-Bored RVers
In the horror movie “RV,” one of the most memorable scenes was Robin Williams’ battle with the raccoons that had invaded their motorhome oven. He won the battle at the expense of the interior of the coach.
Raccoons have not been a problem for us, although their penchant for finding leftovers in campsites can cause them to congregate. On the other hand, we have recently contended with another invasion.
Nobody likes to talk about it, but apparently visits by mice is a common problem for RVers, particularly those camping in wooded areas. We avoided telling others about our problem, since it implies that our trailer might not be pristine clean, but when we have talked about mice on board, we found RVers nodding their heads in agreement.
Our plight began about two weeks ago while we were parked deep in a National Forest campground in Washington State. A beautiful spot adjacent to a flowing blue-green river, under fir trees that climbed straight up forever, very few mosquitoes. .
Authors and lecturers Joe and Vicki Kieva started out an RV-buying seminar five years ago with, “There is no perfect RV.” We agree, but we add to that the statement, “There is no perfect campground.” Silver Fir Campground was perfect – until …
Night One – the pitter-patter of little feet across our living room (we call it “the Grand Salon”) carpet. “Couldn’t be a mouse. How could he get in here? 
Our trailer is all sealed. Could we have left the door open during the day? Maybe it’s a squirrel. Oooo. That would be worse.” Then I remembered seeing little mice running around the campground dumpster.
We didn’t wait for the little guy to give us an answer. I spotted the tiny mouse with my big Maglite. I swear he was smiling at me, daring me to catch him. Too adorable to try to squish, Monique suggested that I throw a bucket over him. I actually did, but I used a basket woven from loose raffia, which held him in check for all of about three seconds.
He scooted out and was gone under the recliners. Under the counter. Under the door to the bathroom. And from there he disappeared, soon to be heard crawling through the heater ducts. Thank heaven he couldn’t get into the food cabinets.
I filled a humane Spin-TrapTM with peanut butter, a system which had worked perfectly the other time I went on a mouse-hunting trip. Not this time. He avoided the trap that night, a sleepless one for us both.
Having a less humane attitude the next night, I set out two glue-traps, the flat pads that act like quicksand keeping the prey from escaping. Bingo! The problem was solved.
Well, not really. There must have been two that had gotten in at the same time, because the next night was a repeat of little footsteps across the carpet, and this time my flashlight found a little face staring back at me from a basket.
Fortunately, I had six glue traps in the back of our truck (we believe in being prepared), so I put out two more, and dang if a few minutes after lights out we hadn’t caught two more of the little fellas in one trap. We were astounded!
Still wanting to be humane, I dropped the invaders into a plastic bag and killed them before depositing their little carcasses in the dumpster rather than thinking about them in agony awaiting a cat to say, “Suffring Succotash,” before putting them out of their misery.
Alternative Two would be to just toss them outside and dispose of them in the morning, but that would allow time for ants to invade, and if a predator like an owl came by to investigate, he would also get stuck in the glue. So I made the chilly walk to the trash for the second time of the night.
The Spin-Trap and glue traps are, to me, the best remedy for the impossible-to-capture rodents. The traditional mousetrap makes me fear having to clean up debris after the kill. Even worse would be laying out poison they would eat before retreating into some never-to-be found crevasse of the RV.
Let’s see … where was I in this adventure? Shortly after we retired that night we heard tiny footsteps, and within an hour three mice were caught. Next night, another two. Etc., etc., etc. Six nights in a row we were kept awake on our vigil. We captured a total of nine mice. A total ordeal.
Somewhere along the way, we decided they couldn’t all have come in at the same time, because there was total quiet after each capture. It also made sense that it wasn’t one Mama Mouse raising that many offspring in one litter. But we knew that these Mouse-kateers turned our home into House-o’tears.
When we left this almost-perfect resting spot for our next campground, I finally decided to check out the entire trailer underside.
I hadn’t found any suspicious openings in my first two searches, except for a tiny opening for the TV cable, which I ruled out as an entry but stuffed foil into it anyway. This time it didn’t take long to realize that an underside box that houses the heater had separated from the corrugated plastic bottom (possibly on our Alaskan adventure this summer).
I grabbed a can of foam insulation — which always manages to mess up whatever I’m wearing — and sprayed it in the cracks. Voila! We seem to be free of the varmints again.
But even weeks later, every time we hear a noise at night – whether it be a pine twig hitting the awning, a squirrel walking across the roof, a creak caused by the wind or a neighbor’s heater going on, we quickly regain consciousness, awaiting the little scurrying that means another sleepless night.
[By the way, please don’t mention to anyone that we had mice in our RV. It’s very embarrassing!]
From the “Never-Bored RVers,” We’ll see you on down the road.
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Michael Kocis (NEEDTONO)
Talk about coincidence! I just returned from a dry camp in the woods. The second evening there I started to smell LP gas outside the camper. After checking everything and coming up empty I went back to the campfire only to get a real strong smell of LP. A grabbed a bigger flashlight and opened the storage door to my LP tanks and after searching again discovered that a mouse had chewed thru my hose in three places. Lucky for us it was on the left side, so all I had to do was shut off that tank and hoped I had enough in the right tank. Lucky for us I did.
Sophie Kiper
Once after we parked in front of our daughters house in a new sub-division in California we discovered a couple of mice. They call them voles but they are still mice to me. But what have been even worse for us was after a trip to Mexico we found cockroaches. Lots of them. Apparently they found a way in then nested in the area under the water heater. That was disgusting. I used nearly a gallon of bug spray before they were gone. UGH!
Hockeyguy08
Two weeks ago I saw some chewed labels on peanut butter and some other stuff. Figured out it was mice and set a trap . Got one but where you see one there are at least 6 more. I checked the trap and a few other spots and found nothing. I forgot where I had placed some of instant potatoes. I checked there the next visit and found that the 4 packages had all been compromised and so had some of the instant oatmeal packages. I removed everything that was damaged and set the trap and got another one. Both were well fed so they have been dining in for a while. I set the trap again and expect to find one when I go up this weekend. I will set the trap again after cleaning out . I expect to catch at least one more on the weekend. Someone in the park advised putting some ground cloves where you suspect that they may be coming in. I will give it a try.
Kathy
When we were building our home in the Colorado mountains we lived in our RV for 18 months and had a few (30+) come in! We tried the spring traps, sticky traps(it sticks to your shoes if you accidentally step on it!) and finally heard of the solid airwick trick. It has worked ever since. Put some in your compartments and a few inside. They don’t seem to like the smell.
Old Gray
Critters are all part of the “fun” of camping/rv-ing! Your pictures of the mice are too special. No one could ever try to kill-capture one of those little cuties!
Ross
We recently returned from a mouse invasion trip also. At nite, I could hear scratching in the wall near the floor. This was very irritating. I went to Home Depot in Tucson, bought every mouse poison I could find. I saw some electronic plug in mouse repellant devices. I have seen them advertised before, and figured they were a rip off. Being desparate, I purchased 6 of them.
I put out the poison, and plugged in the electronic devices.
Success !!!
No more scratching. Now that I am home in Fresno, Ca, I also have 4 of them. I placed one at each of the motor home tires, to discourage the little critters from even thinking about climbing aboard.
Ross
Jane
That is tooooo funny..Every year that we camp in the Petaluma KOA we pick up a few hitchhikers…It is a beautiful campground…peacocks walking about….cows….petting zoo for kids…goats, lambs, pigs, ….they have everything…We come here twice a year for 10 years…every year we pick up the “hitchhikers”….they love to get in the oven…which we never use…as we use the convection/oven…usually store our bread in it…anyway, they had a good nest going in there…we are here now and the traps are going out…we usually catch about six or seven…We just use the regular spring traps baited with peanut butter and a small piece of bread….We are not full timers, but we travel four and half months every year for the last 12 years…We always know, we have to set our traps out in Petaluma…sometimes we don’t even get them all until the next few stops…we always keep the traps handy…happy travels…Jane
Mike
We carry a trailer cat. She is the most wonderful mouser around the homestead. So far we have not experienced the “I hate meeses to pieces” problem in the TT. That statement probably dates me!
Mike
Steve & Mary Margaret
For someone who hasn’t bought an RV yet (a few more years), I just added another item on the “must have list” for our RV. Thanks for the info.
Dennis Torres
The most humane, more effective mouse and rat catcher is the “Rat Zapper” – Google it. It instantly kills with an electric shock provided by battery – no mess at all. In my many years of property management I have never found a more effective “trap.”
Will
One thing that I learned during flooding in Yosemite was to use mothballs. I throw a couple next to each tire and one or two on each jack pad. This was for dry camping. If you have hookup openings, you may have to be creative in how you solve that, but I have heard that cheesecloth tied to a sewer hose can hold mothballs just fine.
Just a thought…