Help with mice...PLEASE

Repair help for the do-it-yourselfer.
For mobile home parts, click here.

Moderators: Greg, Mark, mhrAJ333, JD

Post Reply
db_in_maine
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 9:32 am

Hello, Sorry for the long post bu I am a newbie here and need some advice. We have a seasonal park model in Maine at a campground that is open from Mothers day to Columbus day. We have owned it for 4 years. This year when we opened up we found the mice had gotten in an nested in one of our kitchen drawers. We had left dish towels in the drawer. So we pulled the drawer out and dumped everything and sprayed it with a bleach solution. We are going to junk the drawer and get a new one. When we looked in the cabinet we saw there was an electrical wire on the bottom that was not sealed properly. So I thought that is how the mice were getting in. No big deal, just seal it and be done.

So we were gone for a few weeks. Went back up Friday night of Memorial day weekend. Turned on the AC, chilled out and went to bed. Got up Saturday and did a bunch of work around the camper. After showering I noticed something in the ductwork vent. Turns out it was acorns, etc. The little rodents had gotten into my ductwork. So not knowing how to clean the stuff up I opened up all of the grates on all the ducts and vacuumed them out, then sprayed it with a cleaning solution Only after I read that this is a big no-no and I should not have vacuumed it. So the hypochondriac in me is convinced I am going to die of the Hantavirus!! Plus we had the HVAC running all night Friday without knowing this was in there.

So the next day I crawled under the unit and noticed at least 10-15 rips in the polyethylene belly of the trailer. So I got some rubber gloves, a mask, gorilla tape, steel wool, and insulation and crawled under there. I know I should have used the flex mend tape to seal up the holes, but no place around had it. So I put insulation in the holes, steel wool, and taped them up.

Now we had to leave again and I set a bunch of traps with peanut butter in the duct work. My neighbors are checking for me and have found 2 dead ones in the ductwork so far. So if someone can help with these questions it would be greatly apperciated.

1. How do I clean out the ductwork now that the mice had pooped and pee'd in it? It is not tin ductwork, but rather some sort of insulted board. I can't get into the ductwork to spray it with a bleach solution. Even if I could wouldn't that wreck the ductwork by getting it all wet. I am completely paranoid about going back to this place and turning on the AC/Heat especially with my kids.

2. To check if they mice had put a hole in the ductwork I put the traps in the ductwork and sealed the grates. So since my neighbors caught two of them there is a hole somewhere in the ductwork. I have bought a camera on a small wire that I can snake through the ductwork to find the hole. But what do I use to patch it up since it is not tin?

3. What sort of spray foam adheres to the polyethylene belly? I tried to use the red can of spray foam in some spots, but it didn't stick that good. And the other problem is that you have to hold the can upside down for it to spray. That is pretty hard to do when laying under the trailer.

4. Should I have waited to tape up all of the holes underneath until I knew all the mice were out of the trailer. I didn't think that one through until I was driving the 1.5 hours home from the camp ground. I just assumed that they had left. Bad move on my part.
Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post