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05-29-2022, 08:44 PM
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#1
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Member
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 24
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How to prevent mice entry
Hello,
we have a 2004 2720. It is stored inside a barn with a wood floor, but barn doors are not air tight. I have traps and pellets out side the trailer during winter time and I keep that supply up during the Ohio storage season. I put several mouse "houses" with those square green cakes throughout the floor area inside the trailer. We have mattress pads around the bed and benches. The mice have eaten holes through the pads and done minor damage. It was unused for the past two years and yikes when I opened it up last week. several dead ones around. All mouse cakes totally gone. This is one problem, as you cannot get in the trailer to replenish. Anyway, I had a foam pad in the bathroom with a cover over it and that was their headquarters apparently - I just picked the whole thing up and into the trash it was so bad.
So, what methods have you all done? I think they get in under the door and the floor area in the front by the propane gas bottles. I heard of putting steel wool around likely access areas but on this type of trailer, the entry points seem endless - like around the entire sectional folding halves. The undercarriage seems all caulked up fine. I just thought of the A/C unit too - I was going to take the filter cover off and take a look. Oh, and I did see some nuts in the heater exhaust so not sure if that is an entry point or not. Thank you. CB
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05-30-2022, 08:15 AM
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#2
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Site Team
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: The mountains of Scottsdale, AZ, and the beaches of Maine
Posts: 10,105
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This is from my experience with mice getting into our house over a couple winters, rather than our TM, but it should be applicable.
The list of what does NOT work is practically endless. Sonic repellers, dryer sheets, various essential oils, special spray-foam opening sealants, and so forth. I have found steel wool to be marginally effective, because the mice can sometimes work around the edges of it, or push it aside.
Once they are inside, the only real treatments seem to be what you have discovered - poison baits and traps. And then you are left with the damage, as well as endless mouse nuggets everywhere.
The best - and perhaps only - approach is also what you are describing. Don't let them get in. My experience is that they cannot get through 1/4-inch hardware cloth, aka galvanized screen, if the edges of the screen can't be lifted or moved. The stuff is cheap at the hardware store, easily cut with metal snips, easily formed into any needed shape. The trick is sometimes finding a way to fasten it over the opening you are trying to seal.
For example, the air conditioner is easy to seal by forming a big piece of screen into a box that is big enough to drop over the A/C. Then weight it down with a few bricks around the edge. The furnace intake/exhaust panel can be handled in a similar way - you may have to fasten it in place by backing the screws out of the panel, then screwing them back in through the screen. At the factory, openings under the TM are often sealed with fiberglass screen, no challenge to a mouse. Cut a patch of screen that is big enough to cover the opening, and screw it to the underside of the floor. Openings around pipes can be sealed by cutting a patch that is bigger than the opening, then cutting out the center of the patch so it will fit tightly around the pipe. Make the circular cutout a bit smaller than the pipe, so you can bend the edges of the cutout down into the mouse's entry path - the ends of the cut wire are sharp! Cut through the patch from an edge to the circular opening so you can slip it around the pipe. Fasten it in place with a stainless steel hose clamp. And so forth. It takes some ingenuity. The wheel wells will probably be trickiest.
Good luck.
Bill
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05-30-2022, 06:15 PM
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#3
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Member
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 24
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Thank you Bill for your response. Selling is an option we are looking at now, we had a small upright trailer and an old fold up apache stored in this same barn and never had an issue. I think the design of TMs may make them prone to mice.
I'm also wondering if storing outside on my concrete slab in the winter would have a different (better) result?
Besides your suggestions, I'm thinking of making the barn doors airtight. The barn is not used during the winter so I can relatively easily seal off the door and see how that works for a season.
I would be curious if other owners that don't store it in their garage have any mice issues?
thanks again, CB
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07-31-2022, 11:45 AM
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#4
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Site Sponsor
Join Date: May 2022
Location: Logan Lake, BC, Can
Posts: 217
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Keeping an eye on this with interest. I have stored my previous 2 vehicles (GMC motorhome & Bigfoot fibreglass trailer) in my yard on a gravel pad for the past 6 years, and never had any mice or indications there-of.
This year, I am storing the TM that I just acquired in a local RV storage yard rather than my front yard - still a gravel surface. (doing some reno work on that side of the house and it is too awkward to have to work lumber around a trailer).
I have been wondering how folks keep an eye on the interior while in storage. I guess I'll find out in the spring how we have fared regarding rodents. I am keeping my fingers crossed. Next year, once all the dust has settled here at home, I may go back to keeping it here, where I can keep it plugged in, and open it up once in a while when weather permits. Or, if we remain rodent-free, continue to winter it in the storage yard.
__________________
2008 2720SL “The Kobayashi Maru”
2006 Toyota 4Runner, SR5, 4L V6
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08-03-2022, 06:43 AM
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#5
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Member
Join Date: May 2017
Posts: 8
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Had a mouse problem with a 2720SL that seems t be fixed. Underneath I stuffed a couple of small holes around plumbing pipes with stainless steel wool. I don't think that was the entry points. In front of the slide-out there are a couple of posts that go up through a rubber seal that goes across the width of the slide-out. Over the years that seal has lost some flexibility and sealing ability. I put an escutcheon on each post. What's an escutcheon? It's a round plate with a hole designed to go around plumbing pipe where it passes through a wall. It's split in 2 with a hinge that allows it to be opened and closed. Put an escutcheon around each post below the rubber seal and fix it so it can't be spread open. I didn't attach mine to anything. They don't interfere with opening the slide-out.
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08-03-2022, 07:38 AM
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#6
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Site Team
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: The mountains of Scottsdale, AZ, and the beaches of Maine
Posts: 10,105
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That's a great idea, and one I've not heard of. I find that the hinged ones such as you describe, come in a number of sizes. And if you are willing to resize an unhinged escutcheon, such as those that are used on shower valves, using tin snips, really big sizes are available.
Thanks for the tip.
Bill
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09-10-2022, 08:41 AM
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#7
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New Member
Join Date: Jul 2020
Posts: 2
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Our mice access the TM from many points - A/C, grills, gaps in sides, gaps in bottom. There is no way we could seal them all. We pull it out every two or three weeks and clean it. We use lots of sprays/oils, and keep all carpeted/cloth surfaces covered with adhesive carpet protectors. Any time we use it, we discard protectors and do a thorough cleaning. The trickiest part is the A/C - one of their favorite access points. I'll be taking it apart for inspection in the next few weeks. My opinion, if you don't have mice in yours, you don't have mice your area.
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09-10-2022, 11:13 AM
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#8
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TrailManor Master
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Rochester, NY
Posts: 1,837
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Leave a cat in the camper. It’ll take care of the mice.
__________________
2007/21 TM 3326 (Pride of the Fleet)
2000 2720SL (Rebuild Project)
2002 2619 (Parts TM)
SMARTER THAN GOOGLE!
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09-11-2022, 05:14 PM
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#9
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Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2019
Location: Mobile, AL
Posts: 225
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Lots of good advise being given here. We are currently dealing with the painful results of a camper that had LOTS of strange damage caused by a rat infestation. Just when I think I've got it whipped...up pops another rat related problem. You can find my posts here, if interested.
Travis... "Rat Motel!"
__________________
2007 Trailmanor 2720 SL (new to us 04/19) SOLD.
2010 Trailmanor 3023 (new to us 08/2022...The "Rat Motel")
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03-14-2023, 03:50 PM
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#10
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Member
Join Date: Jun 2022
Location: South East Wisconsin
Posts: 3
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If you are going to use steel wool, I always buy some plaster of Paris, and mix it when it starts to thicken with the steel wool. That will keep the mice from pushing it aside. kinda messy, but it works. You could also use some very coarse steel wool, and some spray foam caulking. They won't chew through the steel wool. I have also put ex-lax in peanut shells, and they will crap to death.
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