Nothing can be more frightening and gross than seeing mice scurrying around your camper indoors. Both RV owners and homeowners have had enough of rats scurrying around their premises and would love to end the problem as soon as possible.
Mice and rats are found in literally all the states of the United States but are mainly concentrated around the coastal regions.
Since they are greedy eaters, mice can be a considerable menace in your camper. These uncontrollable rodents gnaw on anything and can damage the structure of your trailer.
Besides chewing on whatever comes their way, they also spread epidemics like jaundice, plague, cowpox virus, rat-bite fever, salmonellosis, and trichinosis.
Additionally, mice inside your camper also contaminate your food. It creates large litters that are hard to control without proper intervention when necessary.
Detecting a Mice Infestation
Before we get to the crux of this content, we will first detect the ways to spot a mice infestation. Unlike other pest infestations, a mice infestation is hard to spot, as they can hide rather skillfully.
Here are a few ways to detect a mice invasion in your home:
- Mice nesting inside your camper or RV can be noisy during certain day hours. If you’re able to hear and locate these noises, you may face a bunch of noisy mice. You may listen to squeaky sounds coming from around the home.
- Mice scurry outside their nest often, looking for food to feed their young ones. So, if you start seeing a lot more mice running across your parked RV on a camping ground, then chances are that you have an invasion. The mice might run into your RV looking for food from time to time.
- Always keep checking your RV’s roof periodically. Roofs are safe havens for mice because they are not frequently visited by you and have access to the inside of the RV when parked. Hence, the mice remain safe and sound.
- Finally, look around for gnaw damage in your RV. Keep an eye on clothes and wires. Mice like using their teeth, be it to chew across some cables.
The steps above can be helpful to locate a mice infestation and get towards promptly removing the source and protecting your RV.
How Bad Can a Mice Infestation Get?
Mice infestations can be tough to deal with. An infestation can take you ages to clear and can also degrade everything you have inside your camper premises right now. Mice gnaw onto wires, clothes, and food, contaminating everything that comes in their way. They are also known to cause severe illnesses, as discussed above.
Mice often prefer darkness over light, so you’ll find these creepy crawlers roaming around during the nighttime. Don’t trust us? Well, you can see for yourself.
Campers with severe mice infestations should try turning the lights in the trailer on after midnight someday after the lights have been left off for more than 2 to 3 hours. You’ll see plenty of mice crawling around and running to safety in the face of light.
A mice infestation can cause serious problems, including scattered droppings behind refrigerators or inside them. An infestation can also lead to a weird and strong musty odor across your RV.
When No Measures Work
You can tell it is time for extreme measures when no protective measures work. Personal DIY solutions can often help, but if they are not working, the chances are that the infestation is too big for you to control yourself. Hence, ditch the DIY methods, and try a permanent solution that can work; a mice exterminator.
Disturbances
If the information above hasn’t yet forced you into action, the final straw in the hat is when you see visible disturbances in your camper because of mice. A mice infestation can scare away your friends, and they may stop visiting your place. Additionally, a mice infestation can lead to rumors that you conduct an unhygienic lifestyle, which is known to attract the mice.
4 Step Solution for Getting Rid of Mice
Controlling mice isn’t that difficult as you can achieve success by complementing the products in the market with this exemplary 4 step plan.
Step 1:
The first step for addressing the problem of mice in your camper is to conduct a detailed inspection of your RV. This will let you know the areas where these mice are hiding and frequently visit. This step is crucial as it will let you know where you should set traps and baits.
All the products and surprises you buy from different stores would be useless if you don’t know where the mice are hiding. So, you can start by locating mice droppings and sounds of squeaks during the night.
Step 2:
The second and most crucial step in the process is to focus on the effectiveness of the products you buy from exterminators. The efficacy of these products can best be experienced through the complete sanitation of your RV. Mice are scurrying around your RV because of access to food and water to live a happy life.
But, once the nourishment is taken away from them, you would have a better chance of catching them in their panic. Remove all water and food sources lying in the open and sanitize your open. As effective as extermination products are, they need some sanitation from your side. Vacuum all bits and pieces of food crumbs, and remove grease/oil lying around the kitchen.
Step 3:
With the sanitation done, you move on toward the implementation stage. You need a complete set of extermination tools to start implementation. It would help if you started by clearing away all the open food sources so that the mice were near starvation.
You can then position a bait like Eradication to capture their attention after the period of drought. The trick would work well when placed in the Aegis bait station. Both the bait and the bait station would complement each other to form a way of putting an end to this menace. The food-hungry mice would scurry towards the appeal and eventually get caught red-handed.
You can also opt for something like the Big Snap-E Rat Snap Trap, which is also suitable for catching mice in their act. Your ultimate choice of products and implementation plan depends on how quickly you want the mice out of the RV and your tolerance threshold.
Step 4:
By the time you come to this step, you will have freed your RV from mice. But, you cannot just start celebrating now. We want complete Eradication, which is why the 4th step deals with discouraging mice from coming in again.
Maintain a clean RV, dispose of trash regularly, seal all gaps, and use copper mesh around plumbing pipes to keep mice from coming in. Even if they come in, catching them is easy using the products mentioned above.
Tips to Protect Your Camper from Mice
Mice can be a lot more than just a benign nuisance. Besides making your RV look ugly and unkempt, these pests also pose a severe health hazard that is best avoided. Mice contaminate all kinds of food surfaces with their unhealthy bacteria-laden feces, which eventually leads to harmful diseases.
Other than the health hazards, these pests also pose a danger to the structural integrity of your RV. Mice are known to cause over $5 billion in structural damages to the cumulative American household. All these staggering figures and the perception associated with pests inside your RV mean that practicing preventive RV pest control is in your best interest.
This section has some tips for building on the importance of preventive RV mice control so that you and your RV stay safe from the nuisance of these stealthy pests.
Store Food in Airtight Containers
If you store food in plastic bags, or worse yet, in the open, you’re giving mice a complimentary invitation to have a midnight party in your RV. All food products are best stored in airtight containers so that mice and other pests’ teeth and prying eyes aren’t attracted to them.
Pet foods are a favorite for mice, so remember to store all pet food in a solid box rather than in the original plastic or paper packaging.
Garbage Can Safety
RV owners that don’t practice essential tips for garbage can safety end up suffering the most from the nuisance of a mice infestation. The dustbin, or the garbage can, is the most frequented place for all pests. It is a haven where they can lie and get their dirty edibles. If you have your garbage can in the middle of your RV, don’t be surprised if you find a troop of mice invading the area.
Always keep your garbage can a safe distance away from the living area of your RV. Additionally, clean the site regularly and ensure that you’re not spilling sodas or disposing of solid waste in the can. Throwing away good edibles will only increase the likelihood of a pest invasion.
Eliminate and Reduce Clutter
Bed bugs, ticks, cockroaches, mice, and insects all love one thing in unison; clutter. Clutter inside your RV is an open invitation for pests to lay control over the area. Rather than being so irresponsible with the clutter, you’re better off clearing and cleaning your RV every once.
RV owners with a mice invasion should try to clear the clutter near their living area. These mice love chaos and make their humble abode inside or near one. Besides the mess inside your RV, make it a habit to clear your cabinets and clean your kitchen periodically.
Most pest infestations start in the kitchen, and as most experts would agree, a pest infestation is best killed in its infancy. Preventive RV pest control can safeguard your interests and lead to a healthier and cleaner lifestyle in your RV.
In Short!
Although this article would be good to get you going in your war against mice, you can let us know your concerns by contacting us via phone, email, or live chat.
How do you deal with a mice infestation in your camper? We would love to know in the comment section below.
