Just got back from lovely weekend with family and onthe whole very successful outing. However, we discovered when opening the caravan that there were remains of eaten acorn/hazelneuts on seats, mice droppings on carpet. But then we opened sleeping bags we foolishly left in the caravan and didn't bother to pack into their drawstring bags and they were plastered in browny greeny remains in concentrated areas with chewed holes in otherareas of teh sleeping bags. It was disgusting and naturally we threw the sleeping bags out.
We now have the problem of how do we rid the caravan of mice considering we store the caravan at a garden centre storage compound where lots of other vans are stored in a very rural location surrounded by fields? A friend told me to fill the holes with Expanding foam, I have noticed a few holes around water heater area under one Front dinette storage.
Seal up any gaps that they might get through, but prefareably with very fine wire netting, as the little bu**ers will nibble at almost anything including expanding foam,
but here common sense must prevail, and what you must NOT do is seal up the ventilation holes around gas appliances or the fresh air vents that allow your van to stay aired and fresh, otherwise you would not only risk you and your families health, but also encourage mildew to form from the higher levels of condensation in the air.
I have never tried this myself, but someone once told me that mothballs put mice off entering a caravan and nibbling stuff, but tbh, i think the pong of them would put me off entering too!
Julia
------------- Just love to be out amoungst Nature and Wildlife
Celebrating 37 years of Caravanning in 2019, Recently Considered Retiring, but Totally Addicted for Life!
I have never been able to find any peer reviewed scientific evidence that says these ultrasound devices actually work. Most of what I read is advertising blurb with no solid evidence for the claims. I think if anyone has carried out good research and it was positive then the manufacturers would all be quoting it. As they are not regulated for purpose I think you might be better off chanting spells as it would be cheaper.
------------- 'A sure cure for sea-sickness is to sit under a tree'
This worries me - we are moving our caravan from indoor storage to outdoor storage for 6 months.
How do people deter the 'little blighters'? We get them in the garage but theres nothing in there for them to nibble or destroy. But the thought of them in our precious caravan - urghh!
I had mice in my garage and used a plug in ultrasonic device it worked really well, even better I brought it from Wilkinsons so it was cheap too.
The other thing to use if you are going into the caravan reguarly is a humane mouse trap, they work well and give you a better idea of what you are dealing with. Plus no stinky corpse in the van.
If you go into your caravan quite regular fill the holes and put an old fashioned mousetrap with half a rolo sweet attached and if there are any in there they will not be able to resist and then just get rid of the dead mouse I had them in my garage fortunately not in the camper set 3 traps in various locations killed a fair few now seem to have gone fingers crossed they seem to love chocolate reason I used rolo sweets is they are hard to get off the trap so mouse always seems to trigger the trap
dont know about mice in the caravan but we have had one thats got in with next doors bulding work and was in under the floor boards upstars. we bought every humain trap going and it did nothing we then got 10 of the old style wood traps and the little bugger would come and take the food of the traps we tryed everything i even tide cheese on them and coverd them with peanut butter and it still eat them my dauter sat one night as it came in her bedroom and watch it nibble the food of. it was driving us mad in the end yestrday i was in the local £1 and they had black plastic traps simaler to the wood ones we got 2 of them for a £1 set it in one of its favourit spots in our room. the light was on so was the tv and we were sat in bed and the trap got the bugger within 1/2 of being put in place so chhep and simple seams to be best. But dont think becoues theres nothing in your trap there no mice about some are clever buggers lol. I would just set a few traps in the van so if they do get in hopefull there coaught before they do too much damage
Do agree with using chocolate on the traps they can't resist it. Rolo's do sound like a good idea as they are nice and sticky. Although happily I'm hoping we won't be having this problem ever again. Humane traps worked brilliantly for me but you do have to make sure they are angled correctly.
Whatever you do to deter/get rid of the little visitors, DO NOT block up any holes in your caravan floor. The size and location of ventilation holes is calculated to make sure there's a fighting chance of fresh air replacing anything nasty before it can harm you - you really don't want to risk anything. Also, bear in mind that covering vents with fine mesh actually reduces the air-flow, so if you're going to do this to deter mice, uncover the vents before using the 'van.
(btw - the sonic devices do work, up to a point - there is a sub-species of mouse that has evolved a selective deafness to the frequency used, but they are only found in the London Underground!).
Never had any in the caravan but we once had a family under the floor boards when we moved into a house that had been empty for 6 months
We used the plug in sonic devices and within a week they had all gone. Since then we have left the sonic devices under the floorboards and have never had any visitors since
As mentioned above, i have never seen any scientific evidence to suggest the devices actually work, and it may just be a con-incidence, but who needs science if the little visitors have gone
We had them in our old van,they'd scratted all the material of the trim buttons and chewed randomly throught he cushions,fortunately we were able to get them repaired. I got underneath the van and sealed around every cable entry point and around the warm air pipes where the entered and exited the caravan. There was a half inch gap around some of them,that seemed to do the trick and we never had a problem again. It's the first job i do now when buying a new caravan.
If you go to a good car body shop you can buy zinc mesh that is so small mickey or minnie cant get through (A mouse can fit through a hole as small as a pencil ) , Its no good using a plastic mesh as they will just chew through it. touch wood we haven't had any in our van but we did have them in my shed and had a great time scoffing all our fishing baits . baits went in a sealed bin and put sticky type traps down, Never caught a one so we emptied all the shed sealed every gap we could find then put all my saved c**p back in but we had got rid of the visitors
atb Bill
------------- Bill n Kay
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when the going gets tough... get someone else to do it.....
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Topic: Mice (I think!!)
but we had got rid of the visitors 
