Mice!

[CUB44]

I have a travel trailer parked on my 80 acres in Hillman. I can't seem to keep the mice from coming in and making a nice home for themselves.I've tried traps but they are for the most part useless. Any suggestions as to how to keep the vermin out. I am getting tired of the stink & mess.
Thanks, Cub

[spiritofthewild_06]

Try to find where they are comming in at and plug up the holes with copper scrub pads (like sos pads only the copper kind). The mice will try to chew through them but it irritates there teeth and they will quit. Before you do that though make sure you have all of them out of your camper. I have found that Jaguar bait blocks work well, you can find them at any Tractor supply store. What that bait does is acts as an irritant to there stomachs so they will go outside looking for a water source and then die (intead of them dying in your camper and stinking up the place. I also use some silicone caulk to hold that copper "stuffit" in place. I worked with my uncle doing wildlife control for many years and that seemed to do the best when dealing with those pesky things!

[Ferg]

Agree with the copper pads - in addition - I stuff them around all incoming pipes and holes - and spray with that expanding foam stuff from the outside and inside - seems to help.

Sorry can't think of the name of the foam stuff - but you can get it any hardware store -

ferg....

[Steve]

You can also buy brass "steel wool". That's what I used. I found in my travel trailer their highway in and out was the ends of the frame rails which where hollow and gave them complete access to the inside with no resistance. In fact when I went to fill one of those holes with foam, there was a mouse staring back at me. I blasted him with the foam but don't think I caught him in it :SHOCKED: I later caught him and some others that were trapped on the inside with the plastic mouse traps with the red V on them (my favorite). Find out where they are gaining access and you will be a lot happier than trying to trap them all the time. Once I plugged their final access hole I haven't had another mouse in my trap line.

[dsmithgall]

The copper and steel wool are great ideas if you know thats the only place there coming in. Make a perimeter check and make sure every access hole is gone, as for the ones left inside the old 5 gallon bucket trick seems to work well. I told a guy I work with and he has managed to catch over 60 already in his barn.....

[stick bow]

Work like a charm, I don't have one mouse around my place.

Steve.

[spiritofthewild_06]

Work like a charm, I don't have one mouse around my place.

Steve.

Pellets work ok, the only problem with those are mice like to hord things so what they'll do is shove a bunch in there cheeks, and they may not actually eat the stuff for several days. With those Jaguar bait blocks, they actually have to sit there and eat off the block.

[eddiejohn4]

I use fabric softner sheets, this does a good job. I put them in all the drawers and along theinsides of my trailer. SO far so good.

[spiritofthewild_06]

I use fabric softner sheets, this does a good job. I put them in all the drawers and along theinsides of my trailer. SO far so good.

I've seen mice nest's made from chewed up dryer sheets!

[eddiejohn4]

Well they must be carrying them else where to make them as they are not in my trailer or 47 chevy.:)Maybe your place,lol

I have had luck so far I hope it lasts as I have tried many other methods.

[FYRE926]

I use mothballs all around my boat every winter, I pour em around the tires & the jack and I've not had a mouse ever.

[warn]

Try to eliminate hiding areas around your camper, such as tall weeds and such.. If they have no where to hide while making their way to your camper they are alot less likely to invade.

[Mr Jinx]

I use fabric softner sheets, this does a good job. I put them in all the drawers and along theinsides of my trailer. SO far so good.

Never heard of this for mice but they work well for insects. We use them all the time at Flecters

[Mr Jinx]

Jinx and his brother Red are available for rent:)

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/Jinxlady/IMG_0961.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y30/Jinxlady/redsleeping.bmp

[wyldkat49766]

My uncle tried that too in the cabin. Last november we just found that stuff 'moved' into boots and empty pots, etc. Also, I lost a house cat that ate a mouse that had been poisoned with decon. I will NEVER use decon because of that anywhere where there is a chance of a housepet getting a hold of said mouse.

[Garret]

The bucket or pail trick works very well. Just returned from the U.P. and the tall garbage pail we left the top off of had 3 dead in it. Our garbage pail was dry on the bottom but I know that if you put 3” of water in a bucket or pail there’s no way in hell the little chewers and poopers can get out. If you don’t get to the trailer very often (3-4 times a year for us) I would go without the water and just use an empty tall garbage pail. The stink can be something awful with dead mice in the water in the bottom of the pail.

just my 2 cents

G-MAN

[TrekJeff]

I went up to the cabin a few weeks ago to get it ready for this fall. Before I left it last year I set out the packets of pellets. When I got to the cabin and started to clean things up, move around the cushions on the couch I found a nest via mouse littered with blue pellets. They even got in the cupboards and chewed through un opened packs of the blue pellets. They must have thought it was candy. I had mouse crap all over the counter, in the cupboards ect. So I'm going to have to try that bait block, so long to the pellets.

[Jimbos]

Mice,,,what a pain.

The first winter after my house up north was built I learned my lesson. I got up there in the spring, and it was mouse hell. I had mice crap everywhere, in every drawer, in the stove, oven, dish towels were eaten. After that clean up fiasco, I got a bunch of the electronic pest things, and for the next 3 years I had no sign of mice, or so very little, maybe a dropping and nothing more, not much to worry about.
This year it's been a tad more all year, more droppings, a sighting, then about a month a go I had cut some onions on a cutting board, and then ran out without cleaning up real good, and after an hour I had crap all over the counters. I started putting out the sticky pads, and getting one here and there.
My furnace is in my crawl space, and those scum bags are in the crawl space and getting up into the house through the ducts. As soon as I get back up there, it's going to be the 5 gallon pail/peanut butter, pop bottle trick for me.:SHOCKED:

[ThumbBum]

I like the TomCat system you get at TSC or Lowes.
It uses a bait block like Jaguar, but it also comes with a nifty little triangular block holder that keeps the dog and the kids out of it. As long as I keep a fresh block in there I never see a mouse.

[Firecracker]

I just found a area well my boxer did, and he dug a very *CUTE* hole into my floor to get to them !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


What is going on this year? I have NEVER had so many problems with Mice!!!!!!!!!!!

[stevevdw]

Check out a website called www.rv.net (http://www.rv.net) & do a search under mice. You could read for days on everybody's favorite method. We found dryer sheets made nice nests for the little *****'s. I now put bait boxes around the ground under the Travel Trailer by the wheels & glue traps inside just in case. Some people swear by fox urine or similar predator smell sprayed around the tires & jack stand. My bait boxes seem to be working well so far. It takes a little time to re-bait but at least I know they're eating the stuff. I change bait every once in a while to diff. brands in case they're resistant. Good luck.

[Garret]

The real deal for killing mice! Used this trick this year for the first time at our U.P. hunt camp and it was absolutely the best mouse killer I’ve ever seen. We had 7 mice in the bucket in the first day and 11 total over a 5 day period. We never saw or heard a single mouse or found a single poop in the trailer the entire hunting trip after setting up one of these traps on the first day we arrived at camp. I even set up 8 baited mouse traps inside our trailer and not a single one was touched by mice the entire time. (Because they were all dead in the bucket outside!) We set our bucket outside the trailer under the corner where we had seen mice outside. This can be used inside a cabin or house as well as well as outside. Again, we used our bucket mouse trap outside our trailer and just before leaving camp we dumped out 11 dead mice and re-anti freezed the bottom of the bucket. This will stay in our trailer until next spring when we go back to camp to do another dead mouse count. .

Take a 3, 4 or 5 gal bucket and run a steel bar or any kind of bar (.25” dia or .50” dia. bar) through the very top rim of the bucket from one side to the other. Take a plastic bottle (12 oz, 16 oz or 22 oz) remove the cap and put a small hole through the bottom of the bottle. Run the steel bar through the hole in the rim of the bucket then through the plastic bottle then through the hole in the rim of the bucket on the opposite side. This will allow the plastic bottle to spin freely on the bar positioned over the bucket. The steel bar doesn’t need to spin only the plastic bottle. Take a good amount of peanut butter and spread it all over the plastic bottle. (Crunchy worked good for us) Then, add about 3”-4" of anti freeze in the bottom of the bucket. Next, take two sticks from outside or two 1" wide pieces of wood and make a ramp on each side of the bucket from the ground to where the steel bar sticks out for the little mice to climb up at either end of the plastic bottle.

Mice will then climb up the stick or wood ramp and try to climb onto the plastic bottle to get to the peanut butter. Once the mouse steps on the bottle the bottle spins and the mouse drops into the bucket for a nice anti freeze bath. The anti frees serves two purposes. 1. To not allow the mouse to get leverage off the bottom of the bucket to jump out. 2. The mouse will quickly drown in the anti freeze. Anti freeze will also not freeze up so you can use this in even the coldest weather. At one time we thought the mice may try jumping off their stacked up dead buddy’s in the bottom of the bucket to get out but they couldn’t do it. That’s why we put 3”-4” of anti freeze in the bottom. No way to get out! It’s a sure mouse death trap!

I can truly say that we have tried many mouse killing techniques but this by far works the best. Be sure that your pets can’t get into the bucket or knock it over. Every mouse in the area will find the bucket and be gone soon after.

Good luck and post your mouse kill count if you get a chance to try this trap of all traps.

Good hunting!

G-MAN

[TrekJeff]

Now that's one heck of an idea!

[Steve]

The aforementioned "wheel of death" as I call it works great. Keeps whacking them unattended for months. I put mine in an old enclosed workbench that is outside. This mice can get in the workbench and then in the bucket, but it keeps the bigger critters from tipping the whole setup over.

[mwp]

That method has been around and mentioned on here numerous times.I'm a 100% supporter of that method.I did the antifreeze thing as well.I put in my garden shed in the back of the house after the mice got into my ice shanty,little bast****!!Needless to say,I nailed well over 30 of those critters over last winter.Matter of fact I have one in there right now all done up with some JiFF Crunchy,bring it on mice!!!!:evil:

[Steve]

I switched to RV waterline antifreeze this year. It's cheaper, still doesn't evaporate much and the mice don't seem to mind it at all.

[Jimbos]

Yup, the bucket method works. I put one in my crawl space and one in my garage, and 2 weeks later had caught 4 of the critters. That 1.7 million less of the pests in 18 months later.:)

[Firecracker]

under the bathrooom sink? in my house?

got them in Garage, because of the Corn ...... so that be a the plan now,