Southwest Desert...carry mouse or rat traps?

[AntiGroundhogDay]

I'm considering carrying some traps to the Southwest to put at the base of my two front tires while parked to deter rodents from messing up anything in my engine bay.  The problem is I've never been to the Southwest and I don't know what types of rodents are prevalent, thus don't know what type of traps to bring.  Please let me know what type of rodents I should be prepared for. I worry if I bring the wrong type of trap and bait for it, I'm only increasing the likelihood of another type of rodent visiting me with the scent.   Thanks!

 

[bullfrog]

You will need to make sure your method of controlling the pests is legal and allowed in the areas you camp. Deterring pests with light, removing scent trails or creating scents that discourage their visiting is a much better way to deal with them as baits tend to attract them in larger numbers in my opinion. Depending on where you go you will find many animals will seek refuge in a warm engine compartment. We have seen examples of mice, ground squirrels, pack rats and of course the snakes, bobcats and etc. that follow their scents as well. Using a solar rope light and opening the hood seem to help. Any True Value Hardware store in the Southwest will sell deterrent products or you can make your own. Moving often and avoiding areas where food sources like trash cans or liter is left out or someone has put out bird seed is a good idea. If you do set traps and catch something spraying to destroy the scent trail is very important. Be aware of how to deal with animals that might carry plague using disposable gloves, freezer bags and bleach water as in certain areas there is a risk.

 

[maki2]

Do realize that rats and mice have their place in the eco system too. No need to trap and kill them unless they have already set up housekeeping inside of your vehicle. Do not ever set out poison bait for them in wildlife areas as other animal in the eco system will eat the dead rodents and the poison will also kill that animal. We need our night birds such as the owls and also coyotes both of whom are vigilant hunters of rodents.

I just advised a camp host at a state park how to solve her problem of mice living inside her RV. She tried all kinds of traps with bait but never caught even one of the mice. I told her to go and purchase sticky glue traps. That did the trick, she started catching those creature right away, got one or more every night that week. Hopefully by now she has won that war.

 

[LERCA]

Edit: hope I don’t sound rude because I’d probably be dead in a cold climate and they’d find my pipes frozen and me a block of ice. There’s always a learning curve. 

Sorry, no offense meant because other than a year in DC and summers in WNY I know  zero about cold climates in winter. I’m afraid to drive on ice. But your post cracked me up. First of all where I live we are inundated, absolutely inundated with rats, coyotes and peacocks (sadly they occasionally trap the peacocks) and there is nothing you can do except try and keep them out of your home. The ubiquitous rattlesnakes seem to have moved out of the canyons to the trails.

Any method you use (other than blocking off entrances which they chew through anyway), even traps, can harm other animals, pets and kids (if any are around) Then in the desert they are food for coyotes who will otherwise eat other more important animals. Not that they don’t. This is an ecosystem.

We have lost hundreds of pets to coyotes-no exaggeration it is posted daily on our local newsgroup. (So off-topic don’t let your pets wander)
But anyway I’ve spent a lot of time in the desert in the past 54 years (the first time I went as a pre-schooler LOL) camping and living and I’d say rats and mice are not your biggest issue. And what you’d have to do to trap them won’t fix the problem and will cause other more serious problems. I’d follow advice already given of staying away from trash cans and any food sources.

I would keep food inside tightly sealed and NO food and drink left outside. Clean your campsite throughly each night.
We are having a huge fight locally about the fact we have encroached on their territory not the other way around.

 

[ridgeway]

Before you kill stuff you should know about it. Be careful.

One aspect is laws. If a ranger rolls up in California and you have an endangered kangaroo jumping mouse dead in your trap you could be in some trouble.

Traps kill indiscriminately and you don't know what you will get unless you are honed in on the situation. If you just go setting up traps you might end up with birds, chipmunks, lizards,etc. It is better to figure out what you want to kill and the best way to kill it. Or better yet make it so that creature doesn't bother you or your stuff.

A clean camp gives rodents nothing to seek. If you pick clean spots and keep them clean you won't need traps 99% of the time.

 

[user 423]

I told her to go and purchase sticky glue traps. That did the trick, she started catching those creature right away, got one or more every night that week.

x2. That's what I've used with good results. They are pre-baited, so no need to mess with peanut butter,etc.

 

[Camper]

Where do you put the sticky traps?

 

[user 423]

^
Inside the van on the floor at a couple of places.

You want to be careful not to step on them though.

BTW: (to OP)....light of some sort in the engine bay should keep them away from your wiring.

I use a strobe light powered off my starting battery.

 

[hugemoth]

There is a mousetrap expert on YouTube Shawn Woods. He collects and reviews mousetraps of all kinds including antiques. Live and dead. I find it interesting.

 

[tx2sturgis]

There are a variety of live mouse traps you can buy, also called 'humane' mouse traps. Catch and release! 

Once caught, you can let the occupants out some distance away from your camp...maybe near the camp full of those noisy and very rude ATVers?

Just sayin....



Here are some examples:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2047675.m570.l1313&_nkw=live+mouse+trap&_sacat=0

 

[MrNoodly]

I guess I'm lucky. Or maybe I smell like a predator. Or I don't have anything they like to eat. Or I have a pet snake I don't know about. I've had only two mice in seven years. One I found was so dead and dried up it might have been there before I bought the van.

 

[Dingfelder]

Watch out with catch and release. Not legal in all areas. Check your local Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW). I know some people who do that who thereby turn themselves into the neighbors from hell, but that may not apply here.

 

[Cammalu]

Got this one out of the storage bays under the RV last year. Quartzsite.

I might mention we didn’t put out a trap until there were the usual invasion signs. That’s a big rat trap not one of those small mouse traps. It was a very large and healthy beast. Could have been preggers.

I don’t like to kill anything at all so I wasn’t happy about it but you do have to protect your rig.

We have a few mice in YARC Camp that are kinda like mascots. If you go to the fire at night you’ll see a cute one wandering around eating crumbs.

 

[hugemoth]

Put a few ounces of peanut oil in a mixing bowl with a ramp of some sort from the ground to the lip. Mice go in to eat the oil but can't jump out because their feet are slippery. Mice are oiled but unharmed. If set free they lick the oil off their fur and are fine.

 

[bullfrog]

Make sure to take precautions when around a recently dead or live animal as fleas carry diseases and are always looking for a new home. Wear rubber gloves, use a sealable freezer bag turned inside out to grab the animal then fold the bag over them and seal it. Spray everything and the area with bleach water. Dispose of bag and gloves in an outdoor dumpster. You probably should wear gloves when setting the trap to keep human scent off of it anyway.

 

[AntiGroundhogDay]

So lots of good advice here. I did not consider local laws differ depending on where I am camped. I'm aware of the humane traps, but I was worried putting out bait (peanut butter or like) might attract unwanted attention before I posted.... looks like there is agreement there. I also was wondering if sticky traps were pre-baited, TY for clarifying.

I can understand waiting to address the problem until I am presented with a rodent problem, but my RAV4 has soy-based wiring, and rodents are known to enjoy that stuff. I'd really like to avoid a costly repair and/or getting stranded alone in the middle of no-where kind of thing if I can help it.

The reason I went straightaway to traps in my initial post, is that the advice in Bob's recent stream on prevention seemed mixed at best:


Here were my notes:

Poison - Takes time for it to take effect, would have already chewed wires, and then may die in your rig. Yuck!
Instant Mashed Potatoes - Expands in their stomach, harmless to larger animals.
Motion Detector light - Bob doesn't think it works
Ultrasonic Pest Repellant
Dryer Sheets - Not advised, some say rodents use them for nests.
Put traps around wheels
Sticky traps - Near the motor, by floor pedals entry, and under glove box (all along dash panel, firewall). More effective because animal not always looking for food
Wintergreen Oil
Eucalyptus Oil
Peppermint Oil
Stainless Steel wire wool in crevasses
Capsaicin
Honda tape w/ capsaicin


It's good to know some of you don't really experience problems. I'd like the option to stay in a spot for a week at a time. I wonder for those of you having / not having trouble, how long are you staying at a given location?

 

[ridgeway]

It's good to know some of you don't really experience problems.  I'd like the option to stay in a spot for a week at a time.  I wonder for those of you having / not having trouble, how long are you staying at a given location?

I have stayed places months and never had problems. If you keep stuff clean and stay away from unclean camps you won't have much problem.

Mice and rats need a food source and shelter. Out in the woods where no people have been I almost never see mice or signs of them. Once I get around trashy camps mice and rats are plentiful. Be careful with camping around dog owners, many times they will feed dogs outside and mice can make a living off of the pet food. If you see camper setting kitchen trash bags outside of their campers=Mice.

Pack Rats are not as common they can survive off of the wild and they will invade stuff in the middle of nowhere once in a while. They usually get into stuff when I gets left for long periods of time(months) unattended.

 

[user 423]

Last year I stored a VW Jetta for 6 months from May to Nov. I filled a small Tupperware container with mothballs and drilled about six 1/4" holes in the lid. This was done because I thought that if I left it uncovered, the mothballs would dissolve away too quickly. The container was placed in the engine bay and the car was covered with a canvas car cover.

No problems and this area in S.E. AZ there are packrats and mice. The cat catches mice all the time and we've seen packrat remains that were owl victims.

A couple of thoughts:

-It could be that the mothballs were more effective because the cover held in the fumes more...?

-It was stored over the warm/hot months and critters don't seek shelter from the elements like they do in wintertime...?

 

[MrNoodly]

The thing about various remedies that worked for us is that we don't know whether we drove rodents away or whether we weren't going to have a problem to begin with.

 

[LERCA]

Re: dryer sheets. We are also having yards destroyed by gophers. No more outdoor dogs and cats due to coyotes so the wildlife population has exploded. For a while my county was on Wikipedia as the worst in the country for coyotes.

Anyway I read about the dryer sheet thing and decided to stuff all the gopher holes with them. I was so proud of my vegetarian self. Well those sheets seemed to enrage the gopher and before moving on to make new holes the way they do, he’d go find every single dryer sheet and toss it out of the hole. I could feel his rage. I’ve never found any home remedies to work. As others have said, in general stay away from camps and clean up around your camp (it shouldn’t be dirty anyway but no dropped food)