Quote:
Originally Posted by patton
I have had my PF30CK for eight years and love it.
We have been plagued since June with mice (never before - just lucky I guess). I think I finally found their entrance holes around the rectangular recessed panel panel built into the left back side of the cargo area.
1. There is a 5 1/4" access hole and a plastic plug at the bottom that one has to remove to being in the city water hose. I never realized that this panel was not sealed off from the cargo area but it is NOT (a big gap even with the doors closed).
2. There is also a big gap between the right side where the three tank lever handles and cables feed to the underside and on to the tanks.
The holes in both places here are large enough for an army of mice to walk through. I never noticed these (fairly obvious) problems before - stupid me. Am I alone?
But more serious: Yesterday morning when I turned on the furnace, there was a nasty dead mice smell in the back section of the trailer. We can't sleep there until this is fixed.
I am going down tomorrow to try to pull the furnace and see if the mouse debris is visible in a way I can clean. What if it is in the vents under the floor? How can I get at these?
 Any suggestions would be appreciated. Carl P. 9/17/2017 |
Sorry about the total quote but I needed your post for reference. Our Seville had this problem where mice came up the water line. In our previous camper, the little pests came up the power cord. Mice can get via a 1/4" hole since their heads are flexible.
First, I suspect you have the same utility entrance the Seville used based on what you wrote. I acquired another plug, drilled a hole for a hose lead and cable. The fit has to be tight on anything passing through that substitute plug. That keeps the little buggers from coming up. Somewhere in a forum entry there is a picture of the plug. I think I got mine from eBay. Hopefully this will show what someone else did,
http://www.crossroadsowners.com/foru...-mod-4861.html
Now for the fun part (NOT!!). When you pull the furnace, don't be too surprised if the furnace is full of stuff. Our furnace was completely full of insulation and stunk to high heaven when I turned on the furnace. I'm not sure why mice gravitate to the furnace but it was the same on both campers.
Mice like to leave their "presents" everywhere. Not only will you need to clean the furnace, but look at the ducts, drawers, and everywhere else. I had to pull the vents and use lights, mirrors, and a camera to see what was in there. I wound up with a camera that I could run into the opening and look.
Once you get the stuff ("droppings") out, then the next step is sanitizing and deodorizing. There are 3 products you can use to sanitize, bleach, MicroBanII, and Quaternary Ammonia. All three of these will give you hospital grade disinfection. Bleach is corrosive, MicroBanII is really expensive (last time i checked, $170/gal). Quaternary ammonia (brand name I use is Quat10 from Wayne Products) does hospital grade disinfection without damaging anything. The really good thing is that is also deodorizes.
I've had to do this to both the Seville and a previous camper. Unfortunately, you will have to sanitize every surface in the living area, and probably in the basement.
You have to get every opening plugged where those things can get in. I used steel wool & RodentGuard foam. I should have used bronze or copper wool but it's harder to get but it doesn't rust.
PM me if I can answer any other questions.
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