A combination of deep cleaning before storage, deterrents (like smells and materials) and sealing every possible entry point is the only effective way to keep mice out of your RV or travel trailer during winter.\u00a0 Dyer sheets, Irish spring soap, and peppermint essential oils will help deter mice. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ll take a look at why mice enter campers or other vehicles and what you can do to stop them in their tracks. Keep reading to the end, so you don\u2019t miss our handy tricks and tips for keeping rodents like mice out of your RV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keeping mice out is so important. They can do a lot of damage and it may not be covered by insurance. I checked around and found damage from mice is actually covered by one insurance company, Roamly. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Pro Tip: If mice do get into your RV use traps immediately! After trying every trap available and snapping my fingers more than a couple of times, these are my absolute favorite on Amazon. <\/a><\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Update: Actually, I was introduced to a new pet-safe trap on amazon and love these mouse traps too<\/a>!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n For other RV resources, check out:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Mice go where the food and shelter is and they have a good sense of smell. So, a mouse is sure to find your food if you don\u2019t store it in a properly sealed container.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Simply keep things clean! <\/p>\n\n\n\n When you store your RV for the winter, you should remove all traces of food! Make sure that you do not have any food left in the closets and no food particles or crumbs lying around. Sweep, vacuum, sweep and sweep again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not only do you want to keep food from being contaminated by mice, but you don’t want mice to sense the food in the first place. When you are in the camper, keeping things clean will help when it is time to store the trailer for winter. Here are a few tips:<\/p>\n\n\n\n To survive cold weather and rear their young, mice and other rodents are always looking for a safe and warm shelter. This is especially true during the winter season s0 seal every single crack and hole!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Any minor crack or hole is still sufficient for mice to enter your vehicle. These animals are able to squeeze their bodies through small holes of only 1\/4 inch<\/strong> – that’s about the diameter of a pencil eraser. Furthermore, they can even make small holes in plastic and thin metal sheets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Plug all small tiny spaces that a mouse could enter through. You can seal spaces with steal wool, caulk<\/a> or expanding spray foam<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This squeeze tube of caulk<\/a> is easy to keep on hand and does not require a caulking gun. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Look through the inside around the edges of the floor and inside the cabinets. Access points, such as storage often have small space for mice to enter. Don’t forget to check the entire outside of your camper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are some practical ways to prevent mice from getting into <\/em>your RV or travel trailer. This blog is about tricks to keep mice out of<\/em> your RV or camper in storage. No worries – we cover the best mouse traps at the end …. just in case they do get in anyway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s dive right in and see how we can keep these suckers out! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Humans aren\u2019t the only species that tend to avoid nasty smells. However, mice have a different idea of what makes a smell “nasty” than we do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are a few things mice hate the smell of. Use these to your advantage to deter mice from entering your travel trailer. You can find my personal favorite (that I think works the best) at the end of this list. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Smelly soap <\/strong>\u2013 Does Irish Spring soap keep mice out of your travel trailer? <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Irish Spring soap has a very strong smell that mice hate…and I love.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em> **This is my personal favorite deterrent. <\/strong>I like to buy a large package and place bars of Irish Spring all over my travel trailer.\u00a0 You can easily order Irish Spring on Amazon here<\/a>. An added perk is that\u00a0my camper smells like fresh soap when I get it out of storage!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Mice will chew through just about anything to get where they want to go. They are also notorious for fitting into the smallest of holes – the size of a pencil eraser! These facts make mice exceedingly difficult to keep from entering a space. However, there’s still hope because certain materials do a great job of keeping mice out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is a list of five materials you can use to block holes you find where mice could enter your RV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you believe there\u2019s an opening in your RV that\u2019s a gateway for mice, you can wedge some steel wool in there. Steel wool might sound ineffective initially, but mice don\u2019t care to chew the steel wool. You can buy steel wool fill fabric on Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The best physical deterrent aside from a steel plate covering a hole is a rigid wire brush. Think of a wire brush you would use to remove rust from a piece of steel. Here is an example on Amazon. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you can manage to cut a wooden-handled wire brush to orient the wires so they face outward from an opening, this will really prevent mice from trying to squeeze through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A trick I learned from a friend who works on door installation for food-grade manufacturers told me the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMice hate firm bristle brushes. We use it all the time around entrance doors like the shipping and receiving areas in food production plants. For some reason, mice can\u2019t stand this stuff.\u201d <\/p>\nJeremy Shantz – 15 year door technician<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n He is referring to densely bristled door sweep brushes, like this one from Amazon<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n These brushes come in various sizes and mounting types, so you can cut them into the specific size needed to block holes that you can’t seal in other ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We noted earlier that mice can chew through thin sheets of metal, but what about aluminum foil? For whatever reason, mice tend to avoid aluminum. Due to some unknown reasons<\/a>, aluminum is unnatural to them and they try to stay away from it. As a result, aluminum is a considerably good deterrent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The issue with aluminum foil is that you need to make it into fairly compacted balls. The jam them into holes to make it impossible for mice to squeeze in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you can master the art of making aluminum foil balls to fill holes, it works very well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. Don\u2019t Be Fooled By Electric Mouse Repellents<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Electric mouse repellents plug into ordinary wall sockets. They emit high-frequency sound waves that claim to drive mice away. Sonic and ultrasonic waves are intended to be irritating to animals that can hear them – which humans can’t. However, while the science does seem to support that mice can hear these noises, it doesn’t necessarily show that they seem bothered by it at all (source<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another downfall to electric mouse repellents is they need power to work. Mouse invasions typically happen when you are storing your RV. Chances are, your RV will not be receiving power when it’s in storage or winterized, so these devices will be useless. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite all of your best efforts to keep mice out of your camper or RV, you may find it inevitable that one still makes its way in. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There are many different types of mouse traps that you can use in your travel trailer to try and catch them once inside. However, you should always use caution when using mouse traps in your RV, especially if you have kids or pets around. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We’ll briefly talk about some of the pros and cons of different mouse traps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n To sum up, there are many types of mouse or rodent traps you can buy that you can put in your travel trailer or RV if you really need to. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n However, keep in mind that you’re typically dealing with a pretty tight space as-is. When you have other adults, children and pets running around in your RV – like I do – your mouse traps may become dislodged from their small niches and little hands or mouths may quickly find them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Use mouse traps to catch mice in your RV only <\/em>when your camper is in storage for the most effective way to keep everyone safe. Just make sure you’re removing every trap you placed when de-winterizing or getting ready to take it out for the first trip of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re expecting to have to try several different methods of mouse prevention for your RV, I went ahead and created this shopping list with my favorite mouse-repellent products. This way you can pick up more than one product to try out and avoid making several trips to the store. I’ve also linked all of my favorites on Amazon (such as the D-Con No Touch trap<\/a> – it’s seriously my favorite!) to help make your shopping easier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n First, clean up any urine and droppings you can find. Wear rubber, latex, or vinyl gloves and a face mask for safety before getting started. Once you’ve picked up as much as you can, you’ll want to disinfect the entire RV. Mop the floors with a sanitizing cleaner and wipe down the countertops and other hard surfaces with a bleach solution or disinfectant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remove gloves and dispose of them. Wash your hands thoroughly with warm water and soap. Alternately, use hand sanitizer until you can get to the soap and water. Mice can harbor a variety of germs and pathogens that you’ll be smart to avoid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some common places that serve as ideal mouse entrances to your RV include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mice are nocturnal; hence they can stay in your travel trailer for days or even weeks without being seen. They love living in a dark environment and avoid getting close to bright lights – kind of like little furry vampires. However, you don’t need to see them to know they’ve been hiding out in your RV. Try looking for chewed-up spots on clothing and foam seat padding, chewed wires, bedding, shredded food packaging, and of course, the infamous black rice-like droppings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Along with their poor continence manners and tendency to chew up important wires or papers, mice are notorious for carrying a number of nasty germs and diseases. One of the most dangerous diseases that mice are known for spreading to humans is hantavirus<\/a>. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Humans can exhale dust from the droppings of mice that are infected with the disease. This can occur when cleaning up mouse droppings, especially in small, poorly-ventilated areas such as small rooms or cabinets. Hantavirus can lead to severe lung and heart problems in humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have a mouse problem in your travel trailer, follow the steps in this guide to mouse-proof your RV as soon as possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Clean the entire inside and anywhere that mice could get to, or that you see droppings or urine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Wear disposable rubber gloves and a face mask or respirator to prevent inhaling any dangerous germs or viruses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Set traps to catch any mice that may be inside, and keep children and pets out until you’re no longer catching mice or seeing any new signs of their presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mice are generally harmless and won’t intentionally hurt people. However, they can ruin your things and might even do some massive damage to your RV – and even your health – if they aren’t removed immediately. Or, better yet, just don’t let them in or anywhere near your RV. Hopefully, these tips help you do just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you follow this guide, you can plan ahead and enjoy a mouse-free journey. At my Etsy Store<\/a>, there are many other planners <\/a>and journals <\/a>that you may want to check out while planning your next trip. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh – and don’t forget your mouse repellant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n To read more resources on how to care for your RV, read these next:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Imagine opening up your RV just to de-winterize it, but what you see are mice! Yuck!! That’s me, I learned the hard way. So in this guide, I will give you tips on how to keep mice out of your travel trailer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[384,379],"tags":[272],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/familytravelfever.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10372"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/familytravelfever.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/familytravelfever.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familytravelfever.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familytravelfever.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10372"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/familytravelfever.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11213,"href":"https:\/\/familytravelfever.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10372\/revisions\/11213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familytravelfever.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/familytravelfever.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familytravelfever.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familytravelfever.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
How to Keep Mice out of your RV in Winter<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Image source<\/strong>: EllenAI via Canva.com<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nTips on How to Keep Crumbs Out and Food Stored Safely From Mice<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Keep Mice Out by Sealing Every Tiny Space!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Best Mouse Repellents for Campers and Travel Trailers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Use Mouse Repelling Scents<\/h3>\n\n\n
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Use Mouse Repelling Materials<\/h3>\n\n\n
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Image source: <\/strong>Tony at Adobe stock<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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What’s the Best Mouse Trap to Use In My Travel Trailer?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/li>\n\n\n\nCan I Put a Mouse Trap in My Travel Trailer?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Shopping List for Keeping Mice out of Your RV in Winter<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Mice In My RV or Travel Trailer – FAQs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How to Clean Travel Trailer After Mice?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How Do Mice Get Into RVs?<\/h3>\n\n\n
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How to Tell If Mice Were In My RV (Without Seeing Them)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Why Should I Worry About Mice in My RV?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Final Thoughts on Keeping Mice Out of Your Travel Trailer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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