Mouse Shields

When living in an RV, sooner or later you are going to have mice getting in and trying to take up residence.  One of the first things we did with our RV was to crawl everywhere we thought a mouse could access and if there was an opening, we squirted expanding foam in the void.  We are sure this helped a great deal, but then occasionally we would see signs of a mouse, but couldn't find an opening.  We finally decided that the water hose entrances were a primary access point for these uninvited visitors.  Initially we didn't think a mouse could get past the rubber fingers surrounding the hoses, but  we often observed mouse signs in the wet bay, right near the hose entrances.  We have two hose entrances into our wet bay, one for fresh water and the second for black tank back-flush influent.  This year we decided to take action and figure out an improved barrier over the rubber fingers.  We did a beta test with a small section of sheet metal that we obtained from a local Ace Hardware store.  With a couple of custom cuts we made 5 pieces that we thought would improve the situation.

This first picture below is a view inside of our wet bay.  The two hose entrances are at the bottom; fresh at frame left, and backflush at frame right

Below is the beta shape that we cut from the sheet metal.  I think we used a cashew can to mark the outside diameter, and a quarter to mark the center hose diameter.  We just drew two straight parallel lines from each side of the center hole to the edge of the cutout.

 First side placed on the fresh hose opening.

Second piece going on the fresh hose opening.

Fresh hose entrance protected with beta design.

Both hose entrances covered and weighted with spare combination wrenches.

This shot below is a sheet metal panel that will be used when in travel or dry camp mode and the hoses are not hooked up.  It lays over both hose entrances, and then we have a piece of custom cut foam that goes over top of that plate.  The plate is cut so that it is a close fit between the outer wet bay wall and the interior wall seen.  This will help to keep it in place.

Below is the custom cut foam.  We made this a few years ago.  We keep quick connects on the influent water ports, and cap them when we are disconnected.  The foam fits snug under the quick connects and between the walls.  We like the foam as an insulator when we are in cold situations, which we try to minimize!

Back view of the foam.  The back flush hose has a smaller cheaper quick connect fitting.

We store the metal plate and foam at the back wall of the wet bay, they just fit.

We keep a spray bottle with a bleach/water solution for hooking up hoses.... and the sponge is handy on bad days!