When storing your RV over the winter months, keeping mice out is not only desirable but it may be necessary. I did a ton of research last year before storing our bus before winter and came up with a few solutions.
Why was this so important? Well the mice made our RV home their home over the previous winter, and did a bit of damage. We were luck in that the damage was superficial but I was amazed at what the mice will get into and eat to survive. I thought that we had cleaned it out pretty good, but to my surprise, the mice made a meal of crumbs left over plus things like a spare dish towel left behind on the couch and such.
The rat droppings were pretty gross as well. in the spring it took a good day to clean it all out and convince my wife that it was mouse free. From hearing horror stores where mice actually did costly damage convinced me that we had to get the mouse problem in our RV under control!
Now to my solutions. I looked at several plausible solutions but the main problem I ran across was that most needed supplies that I could only find in the USA. Being in Canada made it harder. One thing that we did have was Health Food stores that would stock something called Peppermint Oil. Now, apparently mice do not like the smell of peppermint.
With little to loose beyond 10 bucks for the peppermint oil, I thought it would be worth a try. My son and I took plastic cups and put cotton wool into them. Then I dripped the oil into the wool. It was very pepperminty to be sure. But it did smell nice. But the real acid test was yet to come.
it’s been four months since I put the peppermint oil into the RV. The scent of the oil did wear off quite a bit but to my amazement-no mice! No mouse droppings or anything. The only thing that I did do was drip more of the oil in late January.
I was in the RV a couple of days back and I could find no traces of any rodents trying to make a home in the RV like last year. I even pulled drawers where I saw clear evidence of mice last year. Nothing at all.
Seems like putting little cups with gauze and the peppermint oil all over the rV worked like a dream. And the added bonus is that the smell is very pleasant to my wife who has a sensitive nose.