Gee.  I wonder where that topic came from?

In reading Howard's Journal entry for June 1, I discovered that rodents can be a probelm in RVs as well as in a stick house.

What do you full-timers do to keep out them critters? 

Living in a stick house I can testify that when one of those little buggers dies, it smell like h e c k.

We had an interesting discussion in my RVing Rider forum:
http://forums.delphiforums.com/rvriders/messages?msg=276.1

I heard moth balls work to keep rodents away. Keep some in a plastic container with a vacuum seal type lid. Open the lid when you plan to store the rig. Or punch holes in a plastic butter bowl lid and keep a bowl full in the storage compartments. But who can stand the smell of the moth balls. I found a great bait at the home center, green cakes or pellets (can't remember the name) it kills the rodents fast, unfortunately not safe around pets or animals that eat rodents. I went around under the 5th wheel and used Chaulking and expanding foam to seal every little crack and gap I could see. I still had pack rats get in. I found out from a longtime RV'er, one of the ways rodents get into RV's is around the slide out tubes. He said to try to secure stainless steel pan scrubbers around the openings of the tubes. It's hard to do because the tubes need to slide in and out with the room. Mine had a lip around the outside tube where it went through the frame of the 5th wheel so I wire tied the scrubber around the lip. So far no more pack rats. I also put a piece of expanded metal shaped and cut to fit around the sewer hose, fresh water hose and tv/telephone cables where they enter the RV. This keeps rodents from coming up into the utility compartment.

One of the things we have found helpful is to use dryer sheets (like bounce). We had rodents the first 3 years we had our former rig and no matter what we did it didn't help. After findin evidence of nests in our pillows we had to do something. Someone told us about using dryer sheets and they worked. We haven't had problems with rodents for over 7 years now. Just make sure to place several of them around the furniture and pillows. We've used the generic brands with the same success as the name brand.  Hope this helps and you have rodent free days ahead.

-- Edited by 2 4 d hwy at 15:52, 2008-06-03

Maybe we should try the dryer sheets.
We have had mice twice.  The first time was two years ago and we figured it out when our cat, Evita, killed the first one and it crawled under a throw rug and died.  Finding the first one we found a live one and it turned out there were two more, both killed by mouse traps though Evita wanted to kill them.
A week ago Evita started taking a strong interest in the area around the dash of the motorhome and then moved her attention to under the fridge.  A trap got the mouse and we no longer have loose wrapped candy in our drawers.  Evita is showing no special interest anywhere and the traps are untouched so we think there are no more. 
All of these were the larger sized mice, probably the little ones were scared off by the smell of a cat.
Now to figure out where to put the dryer sheets.

Have used the poison in the generator compartment and basement, but we haven't needed or tried the bounce sheets in the rig yet.  I would think they would tend to come in around the drain and other utility joints.  Those critters can squeeze under a closed door.

Larry

We also had success with the dryer sheets.  We use the store brand, no name brands and scatter them around in the bottom of all the cabinets under the sink, in the bathroom, under the bed, etc.  Just replace them when the odor fades.  Never had a problem and we live in Florida where there are lots of little critters running around! 

I would also try to plug up any obvious exterior openings where they could get in like around openings for hoses, wires, etc.  Use steel wool or something similar to keep them out.

-- Edited by wmalefyt at 08:14, 2008-06-04

Gee, Rodents on the Road? It seems like everybody wants to get in on this fulltiming gig! We use Snuggles dryer sheets to repel the little squatters.

Good to know!

I just added fabric softener sheets to my shopping list.  I'm very thankful for this forum.
-Colleen