Plug in pest controllers

Not sure where to post this one but we were looking into one of these pest control devices that plug in...are they safe to use in an RV? Does anyone have experience in using them or any other info that may be important. Thanks so much.

Sandie,

My brother uses them and according to him, they seem to be safe. Bottom line, I'm not sure how well they work.


I haven't used them because regardless of what the claims say, I don't want it to annoy my pets.
In other words, it says it will deter rodents, but it "won't harm any pets".
What if you had a pet hamster, or guinea pig? Not that much different than a target pest. How do they differentiate?

We have two dogs and a parrot and I feel animals may be sensitive to any noise and vibration put out by the transmitters. Not certain about that. JMHO.

Trace

In my opinion if they really work, they would bother your pets also. I think they fall into the Deer Whistle category. If you want to believe in them...well if nothing else it's good for the economy. We had a seasonal site for 16 years with 2 different trailers on it. We put De-Con poison pellets in them in the Fall. Never had any indication anything ate the stuff and we never had any rodent problems. Lucky? Maybe..Don

Victor Ultrasonic Sound Rodent Repellers have proven results and as a result they are still being sold in the United States in large numbers. Most suppliers dropped out after the US government required all rodent repeller claims to be backed up by proven results. Victor and the others still in the market no longer claim that they will eliminate rodents only that they will make an area less atractive to rodents. Rodents will prefer to be somewhere else where this sound these emitters make is not present, but if there is a food source in the area and no easy food elsewhere then the Sound based rodent repeller will not be enough. They are best used as a tool to drive rodents away from the immediate area where the sound is emitted to other areas where the ultra sonic sound is not, which is where traps and the bait stations should be located. They should never be used as the sole means of pest control. The high frequency sound does not pass thru walls, it also is mostly absorbed by furniture. An emitter plugged into an outlet behind a sofa will only have effect in the area behind the sofa, for example.

The Victor product does not produce frequencies that will cause any discomfort for cats, dogs, or fish or that they can even hear. Same is true for all ages of humans. Of course the units will disturb rodent pets and the sound emitters should not be located in the same rooms with rodent pets.

Personally I use these in my garage with emitters on the house side wall and bait stations on the oppisite side of the garage by the overhead door. I wanted to repel any rodents before they decided to chew on anything on my vehicles in the garage after hearing $$$ horror stories about rodents that damaged vehicles.

http://www.victorpest.com/advice/all-about/victor-repellents/repellents-faq#top-tab

I currently have the mini in the basement of my rig and seems to work, I haven't had any mice since I installed it a couple years ago. I also put cotton swabs of peppermint oil in the basement also, I've heard that works also.

Bobby A said:

I currently have the mini in the basement of my rig and seems to work, I haven't had any mice since I installed it a couple years ago. I also put cotton swabs of peppermint oil in the basement also, I've heard that works also.

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Do you have pets with you in your rig?

I have two in our rig. One in the basement and the other under the kitchen counter overhang, directly above the cat bowls. Neither cat looks undernourished. I also have two in our attached garage at home. One near the outside doors and the other in the attic. USED to have mice in there, but haven't seen evidence of any since putting them in.

In addition to the Victor devices in the rig, I also sealed every hole I could find our first season and applied a coating of Mouse-Free to the frame and undercarriage this spring. Have not seen any rodents or new droppings this summer.

Put three in our old trailer after we found mouse droppings. Didnt seem to get rid of the meese so some baited traps in the storage compartment did the job.

I keep a box of De-Con in the basement.

It's a fine line, because I don't want to attract rodents, but if they are present they'll have a gift.

I can also tell if I should be on the lookout for activity , when the De-Con has been tampered with. Trace

My method for determining success is to look for droppings. I do this because I cleaned up all of the old ones in the areas they used to occur, like under the kitchen cabinet or the bedroom dresser drawers. Also in the basement. So far, I haven't found any more.

My reluctance in using poison bait stems from when I worked in the lab, which was part of the manufacturing building. They put those traps out and the dying rodents (rats) would crawl under the massive A/C unit or tensile testers to die and then stink like h**l. Getting the Millwrights in to clean it out took several days and requests.

Most rat bait is designed to make the rodents very thirsty after they have eaten the bait, and the intent is that they will leave the area where they ate the bait to a location where they can get water. So, if you don't have any water source available they "should" leave the trailer the same way they came in to get water and die somewhere else. At least, that is the theory. It seems to work in my garage at home, at least. I have seen evidence of the bait being eaten but have never had the dead rodents and associated stink in my garage. But making them leave after they eat the bait is another reason I have the sound emitters plugged into the house side garage wall outlets.

I understand those of you with pets are concerned about pets getting into the bait, but there are pet proof bait stations available. They just cost more.

This spring we were camping in southern WA, near Olympia, and had mice...lots of mice. They got into the basement, the battery compartment, and even into the ceiling. On the advice of someone at "the orange and white" store (as our oldest son used to call it), we purchased a 3-pack of the Victor plug-in ultrasonic repellent devices. I installed one in the battery compartment, one in the basement, and one in the trailer. I was skeptical, and saved my receipt fully expecting to return the devices. From the moment I plugged the devices in, we didn't see another mouse.

We have a dog, and she didn't seem bothered by them at all.

My $0.05 worth (inflation, and exchange).

Chris

We had mice in our garage one year so I bought a rodent repeller and it has worked really well. I now have one in our TT too. One of my 2 dogs is extremely sensitive to noise (hates bug zappers and even the microwave button noise) and isn't bothered by them at all. In the winter when the electricity is off in our TT we use Gain original scent fabric softener sheets everywhere. Not only seems to keep the mice away but also keeps everything smelling fresh. Our neighbor uses D-con in her large park model and has a trailer full of dead mice every spring. Not an easy smell to get rid of!

AnnR said:

We had mice in our garage one year so I bought a rodent repeller and it has worked really well. I now have one in our TT too. One of my 2 dogs is extremely sensitive to noise (hates bug zappers and even the microwave button noise) and isn't bothered by them at all. In the winter when the electricity is off in our TT we use Gain original scent fabric softener sheets everywhere. Not only seems to keep the mice away but also keeps everything smelling fresh. Our neighbor uses D-con in her large park model and has a trailer full of dead mice every spring. Not an easy smell to get rid of!

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I tried putting the fabric softener sheets all over our rig in storage and found the mice used them for toilet paper. The ultrasonic devices do seem to work and we'll see if applying the Mouse-free coating keeps them out over the coming winter storage. Let y'all know next spring.

It's been very interesting reading all of these suggestions. The Mouse Free and Fresh Cab sound promising - it's nice to see new products that aren't poisons. I googled the topic out of curiosity and found even more suggestions, including Renuzit air fresheners, bleach, dog or cat hair, whole cloves, Vick's VapoRub, used cat litter, dried blood fertilizer, and Irish Spring soap. Couldn't help imagining what my TT would smell like if I tried them ALL this winter!

Not sure what we are going to do this year. In the past we have stored our popup in my father-in-law's barn (potato house really) on the upper level. All he uses it for is storage. We clean well and have spread bounce dryer sheets throughout. Never saw any evidence of mice but we also kept all our food in plastic bins when we camped and left no food inside once we got home. All our cooking was done outside.

Our new camper will not fit in the barn. We have not discussed storage options yet but one will be leaving it in the yard. We've had mice in our garage. We've had mice in our attic. I dont want mice in our camper. I may try the plug-in ultrasonic devices...but I havent looked at whether things operate on 110v if I pull the battery. I have no problem leaving a cord running to the camper all winter but I'd prefer not leaving the battery out there (although, if its plugged in to 110, maybe the battery would be fine?).