Mice love my TM!!!

[Wavery]

Originally Posted by Dog Lady

You guys are scaring me about mice. We are looking for a 2619 but it will be kept outside under a portable carport in FL

We already have fruit rats roaming around that get into our shed and we have to use decon to kept them away, but I can't imagine having a dead one in our trailer.

What can be done to secure the trailer openings to avoid this?

Annette in FL

Decon is not designed to keep rodents away. It is actually designed to attract rodents. They take it to the nest and feed it to the babies. The Decon kills the rodents but it does not repel them.

If you use Decon, it may be best to plant the stuff around the trailer. However, keep in mind. it will kill your pets too.

[countrygirl]

Annette

We store ours under a portable shelter logic car type canopy and have had no trouble with mice. We live on four acres in Florida between Jacksonville and St. Augustine. We also have had no problem when we stay at the farm in Missouri for over two weeks. It is a lot more acreage...well over 5,000 acres...there are corn silos as well as corn and/or soy bean in the fields. I like farm cats!

The only two things we have discovered is the beginning of a birds nest in the bumper one spring and then there was that time...

We found a really long snake skin shed under the camper...the morning we were to leave for a 2 and 1/2 week trip. The snake skin was actually stuck to part of the camper. We were ready to begin our trip when I found it at about 5 am doing a walk around before we pulled out.

In both cases we think we figured out how they did it. Under our TM there are like long squared (I think they are square) pipes that run the length of the camper.

The bird must/might have hopped into one of the cut outs on this pipe...hopped down the length of pipe to the bumper and hopped into the bumper through a cut out on it. To remedy this we took some tarp type material and covered the hole from the inside of the bumper and secured it with duct tape.

For the more interesting discovery of a shed snake snake skin that we found stuck to the pipe where he entered that same squared pipe but from the front end of the camper. It made for an interesting TM set up...all the cabinets had to be checked and rechecked as well as under the sofa etc. There was no snake inside the TM or in bumper. I even looked down the length of the pipe as best I could with one of those curved type flash lights....and I also flushed it with a garden hose and there was no snake. The way the skin was stuck to the camper the pointy end was at the driveway...so he shed it as he entered the pipe. I have considered closing off those cut outs on the pipe with screen and JB Weld.

My husband told me that he has seen a (long) common black snake the week before in the neighbors yard. It seemed he used the pipe to shed the skin and then left.

[Bill]

Of course, if you encourage the snakes, you'll have fewer mice!

Bill

My experience is that the critters crawl up between the shells, rather than thru the openings in the floor which TrailManor seems to seal pretty well with silicone. I haven't had a problem since stuffing dryer sheets at the bottom shell openings and using two of those quick-release clamps to close the shell gaps rearward of the wheel wells.

Here's the best trap i know of. Take a five gallon bucket, drill a 1/8th hole on opposite sides one inch below the rim.. Cut off a metal hanger to fit through the drilled holes so that the ends stick out one inch. Take a small, empty (12 or 16 ounce) plastic bottle, drill a 1/8 inch hole in the center of the cap and another in the very center of the bottom of the bottle. Insert hanger through the holes in the bottle and through the holes in the bucket. Bend the ends of the hanger so it is secured on the outside of the bucket. Make sure the bottle spins freely, then place a small amount of tape around the hanger between the bottle and the side of the bucket. This keeps the bottle from sliding against the side of the bucket. You want it to spin freely. Now smear peanut butter around the bottle. Fill the bucket with about 4 inches of water and a drop of dish soap. Place a wooden lathe or other piece of material from the ground to the top of the bucket. Any mouse in the area will walk up the "plank",jump for the peanut butter and spin in to the drink. In the winter, substitute RV antifreeze for the water. The water will help hold down the smell, but still you'll need to check once in awhile.... This works over and over and over...all year long... and no toxic substances required...

Cool idea, but if it works it would really be nasty after awhile!

Bought a little 1996-2518 about a week and a half ago out of Santa Cruz California and brought that puppy back to its new home in Oregon.Was doing a systems check as it has only been used twice in the last couple of years according to the last owner.Put the furnace on and noticed that it got real hot on the carpet in front of the furnace where the vents point down.Shut it down and pondered over it awhile letting it cool in the meantime.Remembered something that I read on this forum while(not having a trailer yet)lurking.It was about rodents making nests.I pulled the little wood dinette cover off the top of the furnace and ended up taking one and a half mop buckets of shredded and packed TP from around and under the back half of the unit.Used a yard stick and then a air compressor to get it all out.With the thought of what could have happened I checked and cleaned every compartment inside and outside including taking off all vents.We are still going to go on its(maiden trip)with us next week but it pays not to take anyone's saying of everything works OK.When you are buying used check everything out yourself so at least you know yourself how safe it is.
With that said I want to say that I am very happy with the purchase.A lot of upgrades and safety stuff was added.Being a 2518 with a swing hitch it fits perfectly in our garage.Being in our mid and late 60's we do not have(getting too hard)to tent camp anymore but can now still get up to our favorite fishing spots for three or four days at a crack and the wife will not have to walk up to the porta potty in the middle of the night.I know,a little too long.

Bob

[Brittany Dogs]

My better-half found real peppermint oil at a web site called vitacost.com. My plan is to take Rumbleweed's suggestion to use peppermint oil on the inside.

I'm then going to use mothballs on the outside, like the bumper area and fill a few old socks with about 10 pieces of mothballs and hang those over the wheel area. I also place an old, damaged fry pan with a large amount of moth balls in it and place the pan on the ground under the center of the trailer. The frying pan doesn't blow away in the wind.

I had mice damage on my Coleman tent camper one year and the damage was so bad, the camper was a total loss as defined by the insurance coverage (since the damage exceeded the value of the camper). However with the insurance money and all of my labor, I replaced 80% of the tent panels and boots, plus replaced all the curtains. And yet, I DID use moth balls that winter. It's just that it got so cold that the moth balls did not gas-off that much to prevent the mice. We also now place the Coleman closer to the house instead of the back lot and I think that helped too. The new TrailManor will be placed near the back of the house now that I think that works better than the far side of the back yard.

Since the cost of moth balls is cheap as compared to spending a week of evenings repairing the camper, I have used a full box every winter since. I have not had problems ever since I went to using that many moth balls.

Originally Posted by Brittany Dogs

My better-half found real peppermint oil at a web site called vitacost.com. My plan is to take Rumbleweed's suggestion to use peppermint oil on the inside.

I'm then going to use mothballs on the outside, like the bumper area and fill a few old socks with about 10 pieces of mothballs and hang those over the wheel area. I also place an old, damaged fry pan with a large amount of moth balls in it and place the pan on the ground under the center of the trailer. The frying pan doesn't blow away in the wind.

We have used peppermint for the past 4 years on our boat. Prior to that we used the mothballs. No damage with the peppermint, lots of damage with the mothballs in 2 different storage places.
Now, I use the peppermint inside the boat and place mothballs in strategic locations outside of the boat. I put the oil on cotton balls and then place those in small ziplock round containers in the boat. When spring comes, the boat smells nice and the mice have stayed away!

[Northwoods]

I'd be wary of using moth balls. They are toxic to humans, also, and their after stink is just awful. The dryer sheets didn't work too well for us either. We do remove all food and give it a scrub down before winter. I use metal tins to store dry foods, cereal, pancake mix, etc. during travel anyway and that not only keeps the moisture out, but has kept out the mice, too. We've used granular bait packets and they must go outside to die. That furnace 'test' is a good one. That would have been a real hazard on a cold night.