After filling our stomachs with a huge Christmas dinner with family, we were relaxing and playing the Present Dice game when our camera motion alert went off. Nothing unusual with that, it goes off when cars go past and when people walk past when we’re not there.

However on Christmas afternoon, this was something different.

Toby looked at the video footage and saw a pair of small, beady eyes moving inside Beatrix. 

Our suspicions were that the beady eyes belonged to a mouse. Eek ! 

It was one of those times where we couldn’t do anything about it. We had a few drinks and so couldn’t drive back to Beatrix immediately and even if we could, we didn’t have any ‘mouse catching equipment’.

We took Merlin for a walk and talked through some of the scenarios we might find when we returned to Beatrix. Anyone with a motorhome knows having mice stowaways are not ideal. Mice are only looking for food and shelter and to get these they have very small sharp teeth that can chew through most things – linen, wires, packets all sorts of things – a lot of damage can be done! 

We didn’t know what we’d have to deal – was it one mouse or more?

On Christmas evening the only real action we could take was to find where we could get hold of some mouse traps on Boxing Day so we could catch it/them. The usual DIY stores weren’t open – however Argos had some traps, I ordered them and we could collect them from 10am on Boxing Day. With that sorted we went to sleep. I have to say it was not my most restful sleep. I was nervous of the what ifs, what would we find? Lots of self talk – could we have prevented it? How long had it/they been in Beatrix? – what would we need to do to get rid of it/them? What cleaning up would be needed? 

We woke on Boxing Day, had breakfast and scooted to Argos. With mouse traps, bin bags, kitchen roll and disposable gloves we were ready to find out what we were dealing with. 

We returned to Beatrix and discussed our approach. We needed to know where it/they had been and where it/they might have nested. A methodical look through Beatrix started. We started in the kitchen area as food was always going to be a reason for a mouse taking up residence. 

We found mouse chewed biscuits in the bottom kitchen drawer under the sink and nibbled Malteser and crisp packets in the storage under the floor.

Now we knew where they’d been and looking at the evidence so far it didn’t seem like a family had moved in, it was more like a lone mouse. 

We binned and cleaned what we needed to. Then the hunt was on for the nest or where it/they were hanging out. We took everything out from the storage areas under the floor and saw some areas where a mouse had been. We cleaned and put down the traps. It was a long day and we then returned to my parents. Now it was about waiting to catch it/them. 

The traps we put down on Boxing Day weren’t ideal – they were live mouse traps – and it seemed like a Crypton Factor challenge for the mouse to actually get inside and be caught. On Tuesday, with more shops open, we headed out to find a more lethal solution. Toby revisited Beatrix to see if we’d caught anything, find what else had been eaten overnight and to lay a series of cunning new ambushes with the new traps.

Unsurprisingly, the mouse had been back. Hindsight’s a wonderful thing but we hadn’t moved all the food to higher locations and the mouse found and helped itself to the mince pies and some of Merlin’s treats overnight. 

New traps were put down and the cameras set. One more night of waiting.

We checked the traps on the Wednesday and found one had gone off and the mouse – still alive with its back leg caught in the trap was hiding behind the Alde heating unit. With some innovative use of metal poles – we removed the mouse and trap – and then cleaned and disinfected some more. Hindsight again – I had checked some areas where I thought the mouse might have nested, but hadn’t checked the linen drawer. More evidence of nibbling was found and the start of a nest!

We removed all the linen, including our new collection of ‘holey’ bedsheets, binned the ruined things and washed everything else. I’d read that mice don’t like the smell of apple cider vinegar and so we sprayed around the edges and possible entry points to prevent further mouse invasions.

Thankfully, we now appear to have been mouse free for the last two days and, fingers crossed, now we’re back in residence we won’t have any more mouse activity.

What we have learnt: food should always be cleared away and placed in mouse proof containers or placed in cupboards above head height as they seem less keen to get to these through the cabin. We’ll keep some mouse traps in Beatrix, without bait in, as if you need them, you really need them and don’t want to have to wait for shops to open. We need to review mouse entry points. We will also be a bit wiser when parking in rural locations next to fields – there are risks of mice so we will spray entry point with apple cider vinegar to deter them and use mice traps.

Thanks as always for reading.
Sally, Toby and Merlin