A Mouse in the House!!

[Angela3]

We went up to the storage site that we keep our caravan on to start loading it up with stuff ready for our 1st trip away this year and my husband opened up the front locker to find shredded bits of sacking, plastic bags and other such stuff!!!!

We had left the bird peanuts in there so it was our fault, the little mouse was there in it's nest that it had made inside the plastic bag that the nuts were in so it didn't have far to go for a snack!!!

Memo to selves- empty EVERYTHING edible from front locker!!! luckily no mice had got into the caravan living space/wiring etc......phew!!!

 

[machighlander]

hi angela, do you know anyone with a pole cat ?

 

[Angela3]

hi angela, do you know anyone with a pole cat ?

no not in this country!! but we do have a Jack Russell puppy (8 months old) she's lost her job as chief mouse catcher!! just not up to the job!

 

[ValA.]

We went up to our caravan one year after putting it away for the winter, and noticed a terrible smell - sort of fish and petrol mixed together - which we traced to the front locker. Inside a double wrapped plastic carrier, inside some bubble wrap, was the remains of the rather lovely Charentais melon that we'd been given to eat on the way home. At first we couldn't identify it, because it was just dark greeny-red mush inside a greenish wrinkled skin, and we first thought it was perhaps a large and very dead green lizard, then we remembered the melon. When we were given it, it smelled rather of 'acetone' as some very ripe fruit does, so we'd taken it out of the van and put it into the front locker - and there it had remained for about four months, getting more and more smelly, until we revisited!

Memo to selves - empty EVERYTHING edible from the front locker, even if you've forgotten that you put something edible in there!

 

[WiltshirePete]

Not caravans, but my sister-in-law forgot that that she had bought some fish and put it in the glove box of her Toyota MR2. She then put the car in the garage (in August!) and went on holiday for 3 weeks. It was a fun car not in regular use, so when she came back she didn't go in the garage until someone mentioned the smell.

To cut a long story short, the insurance company tried everything and eventually wrote the car off and paid out about

 

[Angela3]

update on the mouse in the house!!!

went back up to check the mouse traps we left in the front locker of the caravan after a thorough clean out and there was a mouse in the trap!!! I really don't like to hurt any animals but what a cheek coming back!!! It must have been too cosy in there!

 

[MikeJE]

A couple of saucers holding half a dozen moth balls when the 'van is in storage keep them away. Mice cannot stand the smell.

 

[RegandPat]

Last year we started looking at vans for the first time and found 2 we liked both the same price but one had a funny smell, we returned home and talked about the one we would get and returned the next day only to be told the one we liked was sold.

We had a cup of tea and decided to have the one with the smell, paid our deposit as we then did not have a good tow car, after about a month we returned with bigger car new tow hook and the rest of the money and took the van home,

The same day we started to look for this smell that now was on the scale of 10+, we found in the ice box/fridge fish fingers, green fury, I had to hold my breath when Pat got rid of it.

 

[Angela3]

thanks for that Mike, think we'll be leaving mouse traps in there permanently from now on!

We greased the steady legs as someone said thats how they get in by climbing up, but it still got back in there, anything else we can do to stop them?????

 

[CHESHIRECAT]

We had the same problem a couple of years ago Angela, Read a tip in a caravan magazine and it works not had any visitors since. Bounce tumble dryer sheets just spread a few about in the locker they must be like the moth balls mice wont go near them.

 

[MikeJE]

Angela. Problem with traps is you have to keep checking them and what if you get more visitors than you have traps. Cheshire cat. I will try the tumble dryer sheets. Far more convenient and easier to handle than containers of mothballs. Also some shops seem to have never heard of moth balls. Look at you as if you are antique.

 

[Parksy]

I used mothballs which I stored in the plastic lids of spray polish containers in the caravan but when I went to buy some for last winters storage the market stall who has always supplied mine told me that they are no longer sold here in the UK.

Apparently our EU overlords have decreed that the chemicals contained in mothballs are bad for us ( I wasn't going to eat them!)so it looks as if we will be trying Bounce tumble dryer sheets instead.

This will please Herself because she hates the smell of the mothballs which took some getting rid of when we resumed caravanning in the spring.

 

[MikeJE]

And the grease used to lubricate corner steadies can, in some people, cause eczema. As a precaution DO NOT LICK YOUR CORNER STEADIES. Or if you must don't tell the E.U.

 

[Parksy]

I don't use grease Mike.

I find that spray on bike chain lubricant does the job without leaving greasy residue for road grit to stick to.

 

[DianneT]

When mice got into the front locker last year my husband got small wire netting and fixed along the opening at the front. All other holes already were covered with this but not the long one that goes along the front of the locker. No mice could get in this year. The other holes to watch are the waste pipes need to make sure they are closed at the end.

 

[Angela3]

thank you all for your replies, shopping list will now be-

wire netting, bounce tumble dryer sheets and bike chain lubricant!!

can't begin to imagine what damage they could have inflicted if they'd got into the caravan.

We always leave the plugs in the plugholes when the van is in storage as someone said that ants can get in through them if not sealed.

 

[BigAl1]

Parksy

http://www.amazon.co.uk/quick-clean-200g-moth-balls/dp/B001TYPKYW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=kitchen&qid=1269463593&sr=8-1
Moth balls at Amazon 6 for 99p

Al

 

[ChrisUK]

I had a mouse in my 2008 van last year but it did very little damage fortunately. Blocking the entry points is the first step, there were several cable and drain pipes that were not sealed or fully sealed. I fixed them with expending foam ( which also ruined all the cloths I was wearing). I now check the van in storage every 2 weeks. I also put in the van a couple of Rentakil baits but I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not as what you are doing is putting food in the van. I have 2 in the van and 2 outside in the storeage barn.

If you look at some older threads you can see that mice can do very expensive damage.

I like the idea of chain lubricant on the steadies, must get some.

 

[Angela3]

further update for today- mouse number 2 caught!

I did say the same thing though, we are putting food into the caravan with the traps!

Have also gone mad with the Bounce sheets! will check again in 48 hours, hope there aren't any more as we're going away in it on Wednesday for a week! don't really want to take any hitch hikers with us!!

 

[MikeJE]

Hi Cheshire Cat. Rambling around on Google I see that Bounce tumble dryer sheets are available in two flavours, Spring Feeling and Summer Breeze. Which do you use?

 

[Angela3]

went to check caravan today, NO MICE!!!!! We used summer breeze flavour, good job I like the smell as there must be half a box in there!

will keep checking, fingers crossed for no more x

 

[CHESHIRECAT]

Hi mike your asking something there thats the wifes department so not sure what flavour, But Angela seems to have had a bit of luck with summer breeze flavour. We only use 4 or 5 in the front locker if thats any use no point going over board, But remember the weather is getting milder so our little friends will be heading back to the wild so we should be safe for a few months i'd say october time.

 

[MikeJE]

Summer Breeze it is then - expect a run on them in the shops - until the E.U. bans them too. (Will Bounce in the front locker ease any nose weight problems?) Thanks everybody for the info.

 

[Angela3]

oh dear!! it would appear that the mice where we store our caravan like the smell of Summer Breeze Bounce sheets as when we went up to collect the van to bring it home this morning there was another mouse in the trap!!!! not good eh???

Anyway 3 packs of moth balls arrived from Amazon this morning and yes they do smell AWFUL!! but hopefully if they're in the front locker it shouldn't be too bad????

blooming things, just hope as you say as the weather is getting milder now they'll head off somewhere else-like a hedge or field where they belong!!

 

[Trevor_374550694]

I have a picture of the wife in the front window, that keeps the little blighters away