Of Mice and Motorhomes

As we head deeper into winter, a field mouse or two has invaded our motorhome as it sits in storage at a local farm. Leaving the mice in there risks them chewing through cable insulation, seating cushions or anything else soft, and leaving a unsanitary trail of droppings and mouse wee. The rodents had to go, but how?

This isn’t the first time we’ve had mice in our motorhomes. A fair few years back, before this blog came into being, we found ourselves sharing our Harmony Autosleeper camper with a mini-invasion of mice. We were off work for a couple of weeks and had nipped down into the Vosges Mountains in eastern France and over the border into Germany’s Black Forest. The mice entered the fray as we headed into Belgium, attracted by the cheap local monk beer (me, not the mice).

Ju hates mice. I don’t mind ’em, but even I don’t want the furry little mites eating my breakfast cereal or running over my face as I try to sleep. And that’s exactly what they were doing, hiding in the day and legging it around the van at night, too fast for Charlie (our spaniel) to catch. After a god-awful night where Ju tried (and failed) to sleep sat upright in the perceived safety the bathroom, we headed for a DIY store and got a couple of humane traps.

We hid all the food and down went the traps. The mice refused to go anywhere near ’em though and we gave up, instead grabbing a ferry home and parking up the van at home and emptying it of anything edible. We sold it some months later (not just due to the mice!). Whether the mice chose to leave or died in there, we dunno, but there was no nasty niff so we assume they hopped off at some point to seek out a better stocked moho.

The second time we had a mouse was besides the road on a mountain pass in France, where we were parked awaiting the Tour de France. Having arrived five days before the race was due to come through, all the best spaces at the top of the pass were gone. That left us on sloping gravel and we had to dig down a bit for the front wheels to get level, even with the back wheels right on the top of our ramps.

Unwittingly, we’d invited our Gallic friend inside by dropping the front of the van down closer to ground level. A small rip in a cover for the air vent pipe gave the wee chap the tiny amount of room (not much bigger than a pencil) he needed to gain entry. Cue another sleepless night with him scratching around behind the air vents, and us squirting anything we could get our hands on down ’em. Note to self: mice aren’t bothered by mosquito repellant, but it does leave an indelible white mark everywhere it goes! Eventually the mouse gave up and departed, never having gained entry to the habitation area.

The most recent mouse affray started two or three weeks ago. The van’s starter battery had given up the ghost and when I came to remove it, I found a mouse nest in the space behind it and van’s bulkhead. No mouse to be seen, I removed the nest, checked all the wiring and thought no more of it. A few days later Ju headed into the van to check on it and get some stuff, only to find lots of ripped up foam and plastic bag in one of the cupboards. It looks like I’d dislodged an engine-dweller and he’s taken to the habitation area instead. A hole chewed in a bag of rice, filled with foam and plastic indicated we were once again in a man versus mouse situation.

We weren’t massively surprised as the van’s parked in a storage area (with a hundred other caravans and motorhomes) at a farm set in a patchwork of fields. Temperatures were falling and the mice were no doubt after somewhere warm. Exactly how they got in, we don’t know. We needed rid of them though, to protect the inside of the van and for hygiene. While we’d like to catch and release the mice using humane traps, we didn’t want to have to keep travelling to the van every day all winter to release ’em, so opted for a pair of these kill-type traps (which work very well and are easier to use than the old wooden ones).

Baited with chocolate and peanut butter, we placed one trap along the edge of floor where we guessed the mice might run and one in the cupboard with the rice nest. The next morning both traps contained dead rodents. I emptied them alongside the field (they were gone a couple of days later, so have become food for something bigger it seems) and replaced the traps. Over the next two or three days we caught two more mice, and since then we’ve had nothing so hopefully we’ve seen off the latest batch. We’ve cleaned the van out and removed everything they might eat, leaving only tins in there. Fingers crossed that’s the end of it for this winter.

While all of this was going on a blog reader dropped us an email and in between replies we discovered they were an ex environmental health officer. They gave us a few hints and tips, which they were happy for me to repeat below with our thanks:

• Check around the van to make sure there’s no ‘ladder’ for them to climb up – grass, a trailing wire etc.
• Raising the van off the ground a little can help make it more difficult for the mice to get in.
• Sonic repellants don’t work (we’ve read peppermint oil doesn’t work either).
• The engine compartment and gas lockers are both potential routes into the van.
• Mice wee constantly, so leave a dotted-line trail which you can see with a UV light.
• You can also get rodent tracker dust which again shows up footprints under UV.
• Poison bait works, but might attract more mice, or lead to a rotting mouse somewhere you can’t easily get at.
• Remove all food, rice, pet food, pasta, sweets, oil, everything. Mice can get pretty much everywhere, even in high-up cupboards.
• If you can find the access point, seal it with wire wool. This still lets any gas from faulty equipment escape, but mice can’t chew through it.
• It’s worth placing a proper tamper proof bait box (safe for other species) with wax bait blocks under the van to give them a lethal dose before they get inside.

So, that’s it, hopefully we’ll be able to get away in the van later this winter/spring with no unwanted guests on board.

In other news we’re still trying to get our rented house back. It’s the 10th month of the saga now. The tenants stopped paying rent again a while back and ignore all communication from our agent. We’re currently waiting for the local court to decide what happens next.

Sadly the long-term retired tenant in our bungalow passed away over xmas, so we’ll get it back to renovate in February after his family have cleared it. He was there for 12 years, a lovely chap and we’re very sad to hear the news. We still plan to sell the house, but we’ll keep the bungalow and let it out after we’ve refurbished it, as we still have a mortgage on it. It’s looking like we’ll have a busy February/March after which we’ll get our spring marathon run and then hopefully get back on the road for a bit.

Hope you’re all well and are either enjoying your travels, or enjoying planning them for later in 2022.

Cheers, Jay