Mousetraps during winter storage

[StuartO]

I was a bit late setting mouse traps in my MH this year (late November) and when I checked them before Christmas there there had been no fatalities.  Mice start coming in to find shelter from October onwards, as the temperature starts to drop.  No matter where you store your MH, mice will explore it.

 

But on checking them this morning one mouse had come to grief.  Nice clean kill and obviously died instantly; the sprung bar had crushed its skull and it couldn't have felt anything really.  Its nose was on the bait but there were no bite marks so it had barely got a sniff at the chocolate before the trap was triggered.  Only one of four traps I had set in the MH was triggered.

 

I use chocolate-covered raisins as bait on the traps, which seem to work very well.  I once got half a dozen mice within a few days in the loft of our last home.

 

Chocolate raisins have the advantage of being less crumbly and messy than the traditional cheese - and you can treat yourself to one or two each time you re-open the packet to recharge a trap!

 

There are various "baitless" mouse traps available these days made of what I assume are supposed to be alluringly smelly plastic instead of a pin for conventional bait but I have never found anything so effective as traditional wooden ("little nipper") mouse traps, baited with chocolate raisins.  You can get them in multi-packs off EBay very cheaply and you should set several, spread around the edges of the floor of your MH.  Mice move around the edges when they explore a space - and that way you are less likely to triger them yourself when you go in to check! 

 

Ideally you would check the traps at least every fortnight to ensure they get re-baited promptly after a kill, to optimise your fire-power.  You don't tend to get any blood but if the trap is stained it's probably best to clean or replace it.  Mice don't necessarily seem to be put off being trapped by the precence of dead mice being left in the other traps but if you have to leave the MH for an extended period buy and set lots of traps to ensure continuing protection.

 

[Will86]

The wooden base Little Nipper are by far the best. I use peanut butter sometimes with cotton mixed in and around the metal holding spike..

 

Do not be sentimental with them, they can eat your wiring insulation and pee all over your food area and cushions.

[Steve928]

I prefer to exclude mice altogether rather than relying on trapping them, hopefully before they do any damage. One of the first jobs I do with a new van is to systematically go all under and over it and cab with a sealant gun to ensure that all possible access points are blocked. I wouldn't be happy allowing them into the van at all.

[StuartO]

My wife bought an ultrasonic gadget which plugs into a mains socket and is supposed to discourage vermin - and since I have now plugged the MH into the mains during storage, I suppose I could plug that in too, as an extra deterent.  But I was never convinced that it worked in our house so I'm certainly going to keep the traps baited too!

 

I once killed a rat using peanut butter as bait in a battery-powered tunnel-shaped device.  You smeared the peanut butter inside the end-plate so the rat would be encouraged to enter and as the rat's nose touched the end plate it would make a circuit and electrocute itself.

 

This was in my late mother's loft where I had placed this device after she became convinced she could hear a rat crawling around up there in the night. 

 

It was many months later, after she passed away (and had long since stopped complaining about rat noise) that I was clearing out the loft and found the mummified carcase still inside the tunnel!

 

Rats are much bigger (and noisier) than mice and I have set old-fashioned wooden rat traps baited with chocolatte raisins in the past but never caught anything.  Perhaps I should have used peanut butter as bait!

 

I think you would have to be very unlucky to get rats entering your MH in storage but it's certainly possible.  Perhaps I'll dig that battery-powered rat trap out of the garage and set it up in the MH; it couldn't do any harm and the more and more varied the traps you set the better rather than suffer damage to the wiring loom.

[pepe63xnotuse]

I used the old style wooden traps with our previous van.

Several inside and some *outside placed by the wheels, in the hope of catching 'em before they clambered in.

(* I sat the external traps in marg' tubs, with a small hole poked in the one end, the idea being, ground feeding birds wouldn't get at them). It wasn't unusual for these external traps to catch 3-4 mice a day, several days on the trot.

 

(I did also use one of the ultrasonic repellers but I later read that they require "line of sight" to work properly?, so wouldn't be of much use if the mice were buried behind cupboard backs?)

 

As mice can squeeze through gaps smaller than the size of the dia' of your little finger; and can/will chew their way in if they see fit, anyway..good luck with sealing every panel gap, cable and pipe entry/exit point. :-S

 

Don't be lulled into thinking that using the van regularly is a guarantee that you won't get "visited" by the little buggers either.

Our van rarely stood unused for more than a week or two (and even then, if not actually being used I/we would be in and out of it loading/unloading/"fettling"/checking etc)..and we still has one bout of "visitations", luckily with no damage(non that was visible, anyway :-S )

[Steve928]

pepe63 - 2016-12-30 1:32 PM

 

 

As mice can squeeze through gaps smaller than the size of the dia' of your little finger; and can/will chew their way in if they see fit, anyway..good luck with sealing every panel gap, cable and pipe entry/exit point. :-S

 

Thanks, but not necessary as the job is already done on the current van.

[StuartO]

Steve928 - 2016-12-30 1:37 PM

pepe63 - 2016-12-30 1:32 PMAs mice can squeeze through gaps smaller than the size of the dia' of your little finger; and can/will chew their way in if they see fit, anyway..good luck with sealing every panel gap, cable and pipe entry/exit point. :-S

Thanks, but not necessary as the job is already done on the current van.

 

Just don't kid yourself that you have prevented them getting in by doing this!

 

[Will86]

Steve928 - 2016-12-30 12:38 PM

 

I prefer to exclude mice altogether rather than relying on trapping them, hopefully before they do any damage. One of the first jobs I do with a new van is to systematically go all under and over it and cab with a sealant gun to ensure that all possible access points are blocked. I wouldn't be happy allowing them into the van at all.

 

Steve ... don't be fooled into thinking any sealant will keep out mice, they will eat it if they consider life is better on the other side. I've had them eat putty and the plastic handles of tools. which does of course make them easy to follow with putty coloured droppings mixed with yellow plastic ones.

[Steve928]

Clearly you're all much more knowledgeable than me about mice :-) However, we are overrun with the little blighters and catch about a dozen a week in the cellar and the loft. They even live in the dry stone wall that the van is parked alongside and I've often looked out of the window to see them scurrying across the gravel driveway parking area, running for cover. Yet none have breached my thorough and carefully applied anti-mouse measures after 7 or 8 years of parking various vans in the same spot, vans which are ready-to-roll and contain food etc. at all times.

 

It seems that I must just be lucky! :-)

 

P.S. Will, yes, I've known them eat a lot of things but never sillicone sealant ..yet. To be honest I could almost eat window putty myself it smells so nice.

[StuartO]

It's always possible that if your MH is parked, cold and empty of food, next to a warm house which is warm and contains food, the mice will favour the house and therefore spend little or no time in the MH.

 

But how can you possibly know that mice have never been in your MH?  The mere fact that you haven't seen any evidence of entry or occupation doesn't seem to me to prove very much.

 

[Steve928]

StuartO - 2016-12-30 3:44 PMIt's always possible that if your MH is parked, cold and empty of food, next to a warm house which is warm and contains food, the mice will favour the house and therefore spend little or no time in the MH.

 

But how can you possibly know that mice have never been in your MH?  The mere fact that you haven't seen any evidence of entry or occupation doesn't seem to me to prove very much.

As I said, the van contains food - plus it's heated as we don't drain down ever. It's probably warmer than the house at most times :-)I'm not really interested in proving anything to you, Stuart. If you're happy to have mice running around in your van then fill your boots. Me, I keep them out.

[Steve928]

Actually, as it's Christmas, I have a surplus of chocolate. I'll put a piece in the centre of the floor of the van tonight. How many days and nights of it remaining untouched would you consider as proof of lack of mice ingress?

[Steve928]

Here we go, now nobody can say that I'm not entering into the spirit of this. Actually I too would like to know that what I think is the case is indeed the case.

 

1. A Christmas chocolate penny.

2. Niederberger chocoloate-covered marzipan classic (who/what could possibly resist?).

3. 'Divine' 70% dark chocolate with raspberries.

4. White chocoloate with strawberries.

 

Heating on. Let the test begin.

[StuartO]

Since the objective is to keep mice out until Spring, I suggest you leave your bait in there until then!  (I would have used a baited mouse trap to do this test by the way, rather than just chocolate.)

 

Good luck.

 

[laimeduck]

Just a few quick suggestions - Put the tray of goodies up against the unit or wall. Mice move by touch using their vibrissae (whiskers) & guard hairs in their sides, so like to stay in contact with a wall. (They are nocturnal so eyesight is not important to them).

If you want to see where they are moving, put some paper down against the wall/unit and put a light sifting of flour on the paper. If they walk over you will see footprints and flour streaks.

(If you have a UV inspection light you can use this - the urea from the urine of mice fluoresces under UV light and mice constantly dribble urine so you can track their regular runs.)

Then you can use a treadle trap - one with a little platform on it - put the platform perpendicular to the wall (ie end on). You don't need to bait these traps - indeed you want the mouse to run over it, not stop.

It is also illegal to use traps outside unless they are in a box which only allows the target species entrance. Too many birds are killed in gardens by indiscriminate use of traps

I would not use bait as it is an attractant and will attract other mice in. You will also have a dead body somewhere under a cupboard to deal with. 

By law you should inspect any trap laid x 2 per day, and that includes the so called humane traps. It is illegal to cause suffering to any animal and that includes rats & mice. If a mouse gets caught by a leg or a tail ......... it will chew it off to escape. 

[Steve928]

StuartO - 2016-12-30 5:21 PMSince the objective is to keep mice out until Spring, I suggest you leave your bait in there until then! 

Will do, unless I get really hungry.

StuartO - 2016-12-30 5:21 PM (I would have used a baited mouse trap to do this test by the way, rather than just chocolate.)

 

Good luck.

That's because you let mice run around in your van. I don't.

[colin]

Dumped 'Little Nippers' several years ago, the new type plastic ones we use now are much better, when I get home will have to post link.

P.s. Nearest I can find at moment are on ebay search for stv148, ours are black but same principle, also use bigger version for rats on the farm.

[Archiesgrandad]

In the house we rely on an ultrasonic device and a large ginger tomcat called Archie. Archie also patrols the van area, and meets several of his feline friends there most days, when the weather is fine we also open the van door and he enjoys sunbathing in the van. So far so good.

AGD

[StuartO]

Steve928 - 2016-12-30 6:18 PM

StuartO - 2016-12-30 5:21 PMSince the objective is to keep mice out until Spring, I suggest you leave your bait in there until then! 

Will do, unless I get really hungry.

StuartO - 2016-12-30 5:21 PM (I would have used a baited mouse trap to do this test by the way, rather than just chocolate.)  Good luck.

That's because you let mice run around in your van. I don't.

 

You've obviously convinced yourself that you have made your MH vermin-proof and if that's true I congratulate you and wish you luck in the future.

 

But forgive me for doubting that you can have achieved genuine, lasting vermin-proofness because my experience tells me that's not really possible.  Motorhomes are designed to have air vents low down so that LPG cannot accumulate inside and these are usually plastic mesh which a mouse or rat could easily bite through to get in, especially if there is the small of food from inside to provide an incentive.  It would of course be inviting real trouble to block off all these vents.

 

I suppose you could replace those low level vents with metal grills but there are also lots of holes in the engine bulkhead, through which wiring and other cables pass.  Even if these appear to be sealed by grommets, vermin would be able to chew their way in easily if they want to.

 

So I suggest leaving big chunks of food inside the MH to try to prove your success in sealing every hole is not a good idea.  You might very be providing enough incentive to end up with vermin chewing their way in past your defences.

 

By all means set baited traps as a way of testing your success in blocking access (and adding another layer of defence) but putting out a feast of chocolate inside, with no traps, strikes me as very unwise.

 

[Will86]

laimeduck - 2016-12-30 5:43 PM

 

it will chew it off to escape. 

 

 

Not round here they don't. I caught one by a leg and it managed to demolish a large section of Polystyrene sheet into an equally large amount rice size grains leaving a snow covered floor.

[Will86]

Steve928 - 2016-12-30 4:29 PM

 

Here we go, now nobody can say that I'm not entering into the spirit of this. Actually I too would like to know that what I think is the case is indeed the case.

 

1. A Christmas chocolate penny.

2. Niederberger chocoloate-covered marzipan classic (who/what could possibly resist?).

3. 'Divine' 70% dark chocolate with raspberries.

4. White chocoloate with strawberries.

 

Heating on. Let the test begin.

 

Wow ... What a choice ... hope you added a New Year message. 10/10 for ingenuity. Will.

[Will86]

There was a young mouse called Tom Waite

Who's favourite food was sweet choco-late

He sniffed all around

And spied a wee mound

But alas all he tasted was BAIT !

 

 

[StuartO]

Checked my MH this morning: four traps, chocolate raisins still in place, so no more invasions, which is comforting.

 

Anyone else caught anything?

 

[spartan3956]

Mice invasion this year traps laid two fatalities job done i used peanuts.

Summer job find how they got in.

 

They started to nest in electrical fuse box fortunately no chewing done.

 

First year i have had a problem.

 

 

[Steve928]

Nothing further to report regarding my test. What is it now, 6 or 7 nights? This includes 3 frosty ones with the heating on at 5 degrees. The chocolate, like my confidence, remains untouched.