Sealing against mice...

[Scott & Heather]

All of this is actually quite amusing. Having mice in our coach, isn't. We are slowly wearing down. Our nerves are shot, and I haven't slept through the night in three and a half weeks. I've spent days sealing the coach on the outside, in the luggage bays, in the wiring compartment in the engine area, inside the coach, in the dash area, and we still have mice/a mouse. Last night we heard one behind our bed head and I realized they were inside the rear cap area. Today, I spent the entire day tearing out the bed head and removing all the insulation I had stuffed back there when we converted the coach three years ago. Sure enough, they were somehow getting into that rear cap area above the radiators and had made a nest in there out of the insulation. I cleared the nest, and sprayed literally 6 cans of spray foam in that area to seal it off. I have placed moth balls in every single luggage bay and the engine compartment and spare tire area. I soaked cotton balls in peppermint oil and placed them everywhere in the rear cap area now that I have it torn apart. Tonight we heard a snap trap go off, and a loud squeaking immediately afterwards. Went into the bedroom and the cheese was gone, trap snapped, no mouse. We've had 2 snap traps, 7 glue mouse traps 4 glue rat traps, 2  bucket/bottle on wire traps, 1 live trap and haven't caught anything in over a week. Daily we vacuum their droppings and have to re-wash all of our dishes because the mouse defecated on everything. We cannot leave any food out so our fridge and freezer are jam packed with all of our food from crackers to cereal to pasta to potato chips. Every night I take the trash out even if it's not full, every night I'm awoke by mice activity around 3 am. I'm done. We've moved out of the bus tonight and are staying at a friends house. The mice will own the coach tonight...tomorrow we will be working on a plan to borrow a cat from some friends and let her go at them in the coach for the next week or so while we stay with friends. After that we will see about getting one for ourselves as much as we don't want to as our schedule is hectic and we travel the country frequently and just don't need a pet to take care of but we are both at the end of our wits on this. We have spent well over $100 over the past nearly 4 weeks trying to deal with this. If someone wants to make an offer on the bus, we would consider it. there just doesn't seem to be a logical way to hermetically seal the coach.


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[B_K]

Scott in all seriousness use peanut butter on yer snap traps and be sure to smear it deep in the holes!
Always works for us!
  BK 

[Scott & Heather]

Scott in all seriousness use peanut butter on yer snap traps and be sure to smear it deep in the holes!
Always works for us!
  BK 

Thanks BK. Will try that today. We've used peanut butter ok all the other traps and the mice haven't touched them. So we bought strong smelling aged asiago hard cheese and they snapped the snap trap the same day. Seems to be interested in the cheese for sure. But I'm trying anything now. Peanut butter it is.


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[TexasBorderDude]

TomCat makes a mouse attractant gel that it says is better than peanut butter.  I found it at Wal-Mart with the glue-traps and traditional spring traps.  Haven't had any inside yet this season that I know of, but had a B-I-G rat in one of the bays.  His poo was gianormous!  I cleaned out his hiding places and am looking for signs again.   Hoping he's moved on.  Interesting he brought in some cedar berries for a snack.  My experience is that the spring traps are safest and work best and once you get the current batch under control you have peace for the rest of the season.  My only female companion is the dog, so I don't have the "F-factor" to contend with as you do.  I hope you get some peace soon and hope you are just joking about selling your bus!

[Scott & Heather]

TomCat makes a mouse attractant gel that it says is better than peanut butter.  I found it at Wal-Mart with the glue-traps and traditional spring traps.  Haven't had any inside yet this season that I know of, but had a B-I-G rat in one of the bays.  His poo was gianormous!  I cleaned out his hiding places and am looking for signs again.   Hoping he's moved on.  Interesting he brought in some cedar berries for a snack.  My experience is that the spring traps are safest and work best and once you get the current batch under control you have peace for the rest of the season.  My only female companion is the dog, so I don't have the "F-factor" to contend with as you do.  I hope you get some peace soon and hope you are just joking about selling your bus!

We saw the gel advertised but Lowes didn't sell it. Was weird. Now that I know Walmart does, we'll pick some up today. I'll stick some inside our live trap and a dab on our spring traps. picking up two cans of two-part pour foam today from the local marina and will fill the tray behind the bed completely with foam. Slept last night at a friends house and had the best sleep i've had in the nearly 4 weeks of this. Having a mouse in your house...is one thing...lots of space, usually they hang out in the kitchen so you can at least sleep in your bedroom, but in a coach, it's far too cozy. They are walking literally across our comforter under our noses...literally...no kidding. these things want to snuggle. We are moved out of the coach until this is resolved. They didn't spring any of our traps last night but they left poo behind so they are still here I assume. Cleaning up all the poo again for the millionth time and then going to use the attractant gel and seal the tray with foam and tomorrow morning we'll come back and see if we have had more mouse poo. Chatted with another friend last night and their cat is an excellent mouser, so they are on standby. With allergies and just a general "not" love for cats, it's a last resort...but it's a resort.

[Mike in GA]

Scott- hang in there. You'll eventually get ahead of the problem.
     Two things that I mentioned in a similar post a few months back - Great Stuff now makes an expanding spray foam that has a pesticide in it. Mice can't stomach the taste. Their regular product can be gnawed through, but not the new stuff. Look for it at Home Depot.
     Second, I had the same problem as you, and started sealing up likely entrance points. Found that the steering column in my MCI has a through-floor access point in the ceiling of the spare tire compartment for lots of control cables and wiring. The felt insulation that MCI used to seal the hole had been breeched by rodents. It is now filled with the above foam.
     Keeping my fingers crossed, but so far no more mice,
Mike in GA
PS:  For long-term protection, after you have found and killed off the current intruders, I suggest placing a few random snap traps in the bays, etc., loaded with one large sunflower seed. Unlike cheese and peanut butter the seed doesn't age out and dry up. Mice seem to like the taste if all other food is secured.

[TexasBorderDude]

Scott, I misspoke, Wal-Mart does not have the TomCat mouse attractant gel.  It was HEB a Texas chain of grocery stores.  Perhaps a Kroger or whomever you have in your market.  Sorry!

[Seangie]

Scott -

Did it ever occur to you that the mice are also reading this MAK board?

Might be why they have been able avoid all your traps!

Just saying....

-Sean


www.herdofturtles.org
1984 Eagle Model 10S

[OneLapper]

No love for cats in this thread, huh?  I live in the middle of the woods and I haven't seen a mouse in years.  I have an indoor cat and an outdoor cat that lives outside 98% of the time. The outdoor cat got rid of every mouse that was living in the backhoe, crawler, pickup and the bus in about six months.  All gone.  She's independent to say the least, shares the old dog house with a young skunk occasionally.   I leave her water and half a cup of dry cat food daily. That's it.  Happy cat.  Happy bus owner.  Dead mice.  The world is in balance.

[trucktramp]

If you're still thinking about poisoning the little devils, a friend that raises hawks tells me that normal rat poison does, in fact, harm the animals up the food chain.  She recommends cement/concrete mix (quickrete) that has not been mixed with gravel or water and add some of that to some oats or corn.  The mice eat it and die just like regular poison but it does no harm to other critters that may eat the remains.  Of course you still have to deal with the odor if they die some place that you can't easily access.

[Charles in SC]

I read this thread and wanted to make a couple of comments. I was told years ago that it is important to put the traps or poison or what ever you use in the paths where the mice travel. If you stop and think about it a mouse's eyes are very close to the ground so they quite often don't see things more than a foot or two away from their normal route of travel. I have heard that mice often live their whole life within a few feet of where they are born. Something I have noticed is that mice are attracted to places where there have been mice before. If you have an old car or bus that has had mice in it at some time then a lot of times you will find them in the same places again, I think they can smell it and are drawn to it. I know you do not want to use poison but the thing I have found works best for me is to buy about 5 pounds of poison  then I put about a cup a piece in a bunch of ziplock  bags. Then I put 3 or 4 around each tire. Of course this is inside a building not outside.

[Scott Crosby]

The best I've used is the regular old mouse trap.  Not the kind with the big plastic fake piece of cheese as the trigger area.  I tried those and had a lot of sprung traps but no mice.  Get the kind with the tiny little metal trigger device in the middle and it catches mice with peanut butter every time.

[TexasBorderDude]

Get the kind with the tiny little metal trigger device in the middle and it catches mice with peanut butter every time.

Scott, ya mean there is NO BETTER MOUSE TRAP to build?

[Dave5Cs]

Is that is that Mouusse Sole-ye. 

Dave5Cs

[Scott & Heather]

Ok, so update. Wife called me today and also suggested the mouse trap with the metal release instead of the plastic cheese. Going out right now to pick some up. Mouse sprung the trap again last night, ate all the jelly and didn't get caught. We've accidentally sealed him in our coach at this point but he's now too smart for glue traps, snap traps and won't go into the love trap or the bucket/bottle/can spinnynthingy traps. We are picking up two cats tomorrow from a friend who claims they are unbelievable mousers. We will live with them for a week and of course remove all mouse traps while they are here to prevent little paws from injury. On a positive note, the past week we've been sleeping at a friends house and I've slept very well. Having had the mouse get into all of our food and dishes, we finally sprung for cabinetry and now have sealed everything in cabinets.


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