Where are the actual entry points for rodents?

[AG_Ltd]

Hello!

I've crawled underneath with a flashlight and stuck my hand into spaces searching for entries (kinda scary!) but I still cannot see where rodents are getting into my rig.

If you know where they're getting in (I have a Cedar Creek 5th Wheel 34RLSA), I sure would appreciate your help. I'm supposing not all rigs are the same underneath.

The plan is to stuff steel wool or insulating foam.

Any suggestions welcome! Thank you

[Flybob]

Use bronze wool. Steel wool will rust. Might be a little harder to find.

[AG_Ltd]

Thanks Bob, yes, meant to say bronze wool.

Do you know where the entries are by any chance? Thanks!

[Mr. Dan]

I don’t know the details of your unit... but if you can stick the spoon end of a tablespoon in an opening, I mouse can easily enter.

[AG_Ltd]

What I'd like to know is, ideally from other owners of my rig, is.... where are those openings? They are very hard to find.

Thank you

[Wiscampsin]

I use stainless steel wool available from WalMart by the kitchen sponges. Take a good look at your slide rams where they slide into your camper.

[dsiegler]

They're everywhere! They're everywhere!

[Leatherman]

Sorry, I do not know the entry points on your unit but if you can insert a standard pencil into a hole or opening, they can get in.

[sundancer87]

As has been said, a pencil size opening will let them in. As to where they are getting in is a mystery but for keeping them out I use Fresh Cab in my RV. One mouse cost me an A/C unit because it ate a communication wire between the units and the thermostat. I had to install a unit with manual controls in the bedroom.
In total mice have cost me 1700 dollars from eating stuff in the RV and my truck that pulls it.
Fresh cab all over, under motorcycle seats, engine compartments on truck and car, inside of both as well. Every drawer in the RV has a bag of it and every storage area has a bag.
I find it works well for me, better than dryer sheets that they use for blankets and better than Irish Spring because they eat that.

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by AG_Ltd

Hello!

I've crawled underneath with a flashlight and stuck my hand into spaces searching for entries (kinda scary!) but I still cannot see where rodents are getting into my rig.

If you know where they're getting in (I have a Cedar Creek 5th Wheel 34RLSA), I sure would appreciate your help. I'm supposing not all rigs are the same underneath.

The plan is to stuff steel wool or insulating foam.

Any suggestions welcome! Thank you

Having actually successfully mouseproofed a trailer that was previously overrun (one or two in traps every time we visited) by mice, I might be qualified to explain entry points.

Entry points are simple. They are every single point where a cable or pipe goes through the floor. Plan to spend a day under the trailer on your back. I wore an old mechanic's coverall. There was coarse crushed rock under the trailer. I found it more comfortable and easier to move around by opening up a huge cardboard box into a sheet.

Mice are very mobile. Like squirrels, they can climb anything. Our trailer has insulation beneath the floor, held up by 10 mil vinyl. The first spot I found was where they had breached the vinyl where some structure (can't remember what) penetrated it. They had crawled about 18" through the insulation batting, and then entered alongside the propane copper tubing feeding the range. On the bottom side I unrolled a pad of #3 (coarse) steel wool, wrapped it around the structure, and secured it with two cable ties. I taped the tear the rodents had made in the vinyl with Gorilla Tape. On the top side I opened the access beneath the range (water heater is there), and using a big screwdriver, packed steel wool into the gap all the way around where the copper tubing penetrated until I could not get any more in.

Because our trailer is permanently sited, the bottom never gets wet. I don't expect the steel wool to rust away quickly.

Then I went back under the trailer and wrapped steel wool around every other penetration in a similar fashion. Unroll the pad, wrap it around the pipe/cable, and tie with cable ties. For any where there was a gap in the floor, I packed wool from the top as above. This included the heavy cables between the converter and batteries, several electrical cables (including the umbilicals for the slideouts), and another propane pipe or two. There may have been some more items that penetrated the floor but not the insulation.

I did this job 3-4 years ago and we have not seen evidence of a single mouse since then.

[Jim34RL]

I have a 2016 34RL Cedar Creek. In my humble opinion you can' t close off the openings around the hydraulic rams. Especially around the front legs these openings are large!

What I have done in the front basement is use the mice repellent called Fresh Cab and Downy dryer sheets that are not odor free, I repeat not order free. I then use Fresh Cab and dryer sheets in the other basement compartments also, these are replaced every two months. Now all the openings in the underside into the living area have been plugged with copper mesh in the basement area.

In the living area I have stuffed Downy dryer sheets in all of the heater vents and the heater return vent. I also use a couple of bags of Fresh Cab in the walking area with the slides in that I can get to.

I have done this in all three of my 5er's with great results.

You also need to make sure that there is no food stuff or a cooking grill left in the trailer when in storage.

[Jim in Halifax]

Originally Posted by Flybob

Use bronze wool. Steel wool will rust. Might be a little harder to find.

Use Brillo copper scrub pads and then anti rodent foam in a can thru pads

[AG_Ltd]

Jim, what do you mean "foam in a can thru pads..." thx

[hankpac]

As if it wasn't bad enough that they can slide or slip through any single opening, such as wire entry, hose or pipe entry, and main power cable entry, they will also eat though the decking by slipping under the belly pan, or up into the wheel well, and eat the particle board right into the rig. You won't even know they are there. Look at your belly pan, it is a plastic corrugated sheet, with gaps, they crawl in between the screws, and have the run of the entire trailer. They gnaw through the wood, and pop up nuder the carpet, run to a corner, and eat through that. Behind couches, inside cabinets, in the furnace, behind the stove, behind the fridge.
In addition to tall the smelly remedies that others have espoused, I use full on chemical warfare. Mouse-pruf is no longer blood thinner (warfaren), but if you go to the feed store, you can buy rat sized cakes of the old stuff. I wear cloves and a mask, and cut it into usable chunks. I put it at each contact point, (behind tires, under the hitch, next to each stabilizer, and where the power line leaves the ground to enter the RV. Also the sewer drains. We boondock a lot, in the Sierra, and the Cascades, so there are also pack-rats, which are about half the size of a cat. They will eat your engine insulation, and wires, so I put the same stuff around the tires. We used to have a cat that traveled with us, but he never made much difference. the bait does the trick.
I also wrap duct tape with the sticky side showing for about two feet just above where it leaves the ground. Catches ants and smaller mice and bugs.
By the way. If you are a mouse hugger and don't want to actually kill them, consider this: In desert areas of the southwest, and even further north, Hanta virus is carried by mice, they pass it on in their urine. And they piddle everywhere, since they use that to track their way to food, and for their families to follow. Keep them out, since the clean up is a major factor: Bleach on all surfaces. Seriously.

[Larry-NC]

Originally Posted by Jim34RL

In the living area I have stuffed Downy dryer sheets in all of the heater vents and the heater return vent.

I'm not sure I understand the purpose of this. The furnace--Suburban furnaces, anyway--consist of two separate closed systems.

• Combustion air is drawn into the steel firebox from one of the two furnace vents on the trailer exterior. In the firebox it mixes with propane and burns, heating the exterior surface of the firebox. The exhaust then exits the firebox through the other exterior furnace vent. (The vents are the two holes, about 1-1/2" in diameter, in the chrome plate on the side of the trailer.)
• Interior heating air is drawn through the big grille on the front of the furnace, into the plenum. It is drawn across the steel outer surface of the firebox which heats it. It is then pumped through ducts to the registers (you called them vents) in the floors of the various rooms.

There is NO air exchange between the vents on the outside and the grille, ducts, and registers on the inside. A mouse could not enter the exterior vents and get into the living space.

Are you thinking that a mouse could get into the trailer ductwork from beneath? I hadn't seen that on ours. The old trailer has aluminum ductwork. Ductwork in the new trailer is above the insulation--not sure what it is.

[RJKerr83301]

Maybe luck I don't know but I take Irish Spring bar soap slice it thin and literally put it everywhere in the trailer, under the storage area in every corner, couch, bed, tub, sink behind everything under everything and they seem to stay out. I had issues years ago with my crawl space in my house this was the fix so I carried it over to my trailer, boat, jet ski, heck even behind the seat and in the ducts if the truck we don't drive much in the winter. Went through a 6 pack of bars a few weeks ago.

[AG_Ltd]

I have rodent-gnawed bars of Irish Spring soap, sure looks like they enjoyed it LOL!

[copanocruisin]

Originally Posted by AG_Ltd

I have rodent-gnawed bars of Irish Spring soap, sure looks like they enjoyed it LOL!

One spot that I found on our Rockwood Sig Ultra Light 8329SS was on the front corner of the kitchen slide when closed. I hadn’t seen any signs of where but when putting out numerous guillotine slam traps that has been the successful catch spot while in storage on a limestone pad next to my shop.

[Ford1]

Originally Posted by AG_Ltd

I have rodent-gnawed bars of Irish Spring soap, sure looks like they enjoyed it LOL!

They weren't really eating it, they were cutting of small bars to take baths!

How many mice have you extricated? They almost always enter in pairs. I had an infestation about 10 years ago in a previously owned coach. I looked everywhere for their entry point until I remembered that I had left the steps open (although the door was closed) when I was charging the battery. It never occurred to me that rodents were around.

[Jim in Halifax]

Originally Posted by AG_Ltd

Jim, what do you mean "foam in a can thru pads..." thx

Here in Canada we can buy insulating foam in a spray pressurized can. We also have a product the same as BUT has some other ingrediant that keeps rodents away...they will not chew thru it like the normal insulation foam......HD may have it..they do in Canada