How do you keep mice out of your RV? If you have tips, share them with a comment below. I’ll share another way we discovered to keep mice out of the RV this summer while workamping at Vickers Ranch. One of the few downsides of ranch workamping is dealing with pests. Of all our various workamping sites over the years, our favorite is behind the horse barn at Vickers Ranch. Living with horses, however, means learning to live with pests.

We love it at Vickers Ranch. But we hate the flies. (It wasn’t always this bad.) We took care of those this year with our trusty Zapper Racket [sic] – the electric fly swatter we picked up on that long strange trip to Alaska.

The pests that bugged us the most this year, were the mice.

Keep Mice Out of Your RV with Seal Underbelly Repair Tape

I’ll save you from any photos of the mice. They’re cute. Until they poop on your kitchen counter, that is. We’ve had to deal with rodents in the truck and rig before. I hate using traps. And I won’t use poison. The mice will only eat it, and then die somewhere in your walls where you get to smell it decomposing for a few weeks. Or, they’ll run outside and kill the next hawk that decides to eat them. So, what is the best way to keep mice out of the RV? For starters, keep mice from entering your RV in the first place.

After hearing our traditional mouse traps go off each night, every night, we upped our game. The Vickers had an electronic mouse trap, so we plugged that in. And, we only continued to kill mice every night. They were still investigating our shelves and linens on their way to the traps. With names like Rat Zapper and PestZilla, these things do get the job done. But, as I mentioned, the mouse must already be inside for it to meet its demise. Oh, peanut butter makes the best bait if you do decide to go that route.

Workamping on a ranch, the mice come with the job. They were here first. We’re on their turf. I get all that. The best thing we could do to keep from killing mice every night – and cleaning the mess every morning – was to keep miceout of our RV in the first place. This seems simple enough. But it is often impossible. Slide-outs and plumbing connections under your RV make it difficult to seal up every possible entrance. But that is the goal.

Simple Solution: Stop Mice from Getting Into RV!

You’d be surprised how tiny an opening those little bastards critters can use to get inside your RV. So how do you find and seal all openings to keep mice out of the RV? Well, I discovered another use for Flex Mend Belly Bottom Repair Tape. I first wrote about this sticky stuff the Arctic Fox rep referred to as “Darko” in 2019. That’s when I posted about my Squeaky RV Floor Repair Reconnaissance. But I digress. That roll of leftover rip-proof repair tape has been sitting in our tool box ever since. Until, that is, I used it to keep mice out of the RV once and for all.

I quickly got sick of cleaning out the mouse traps every day. Even quicker, I sickened of hearing Rene scream when cleaning out the utensil drawer. That’s when I investigated under our trailer and sealed every possible entry point to keep mice out of the RV.

Wherever the underbelly lining buckled enough to fit tiny whiskers, I sealed it up. Where the sewer pipe plumbing popped out of the underbelly liner, I sealed it up. So, it only made sense to use the RV underbelly repair tape I had on hand. I also used some course steel wool.

Tear off a bit of the steel wool and pull it apart to loosen the threads. Stuff this in the crack you want to seal. This provides another line of defense to keep mice out of your RV. If the rodent chews through the tape, it will stop when it bites into the steel wool. But don’t just use any tape.

Flex-Mend is a polyester rip-stop material available in various widths. I used the 6″ width to repair where I cut our lining for my squeaky floor investigation. This worked well for sealing the sides where our underbelly Coroplast attached to the trailer frame.

So…Did it Work?

I sealed up a half dozen or so spots with the steel wool and Flex-Mend tape solution I describe here. The wide tape is extremely sticky. Handle with care as it likes to stick to itself – and everything else. It’s woven polyster design keeps it from tearing and the width provides a secure seal around most rodent entry points with one strip

A little steel wool and some Flex-mend tape was a sure-fire way for us to keep mice out of the RV. I’m happy to report that we had no more uninvited guests during our stay at the ranch. Except for those pesky pesty flies!