As full-timers, we constantly work to keep mice, bugs, scorpions and other creepy crawly creatures from entering our house on wheels. One of the easiest openings for these critters to ingress is your wet bay around the sewage discharge pipe. While wet bay configurations differ, in most RVs there remains as much as a .75” to 1” inch opening around the diameter of your dump hose. This hole is an open invitation for critters to migrate to other areas of your RV. So how can you prevent them from hitchhiking?
After hearing many suggestions, from twisting towels to steel wool around the pipe, what worked better for us was EDPM (ethylene propylene diene monomer) foam. This foam is typically used as a weather proofing sealant around doors or windows and in the automotive industry. It comes in many sizes and shapes. We chose to use square, non-self-sealing foam. The main reason is it is easy to press-fit around the pipe and we can soak it with insect repellent to keep insects out. The chemicals in insect repellent would eventually erode the self-stick adhesive.
Where can you obtain it? The usual, Homeless Depot or Woe-is-Me Lowes. Also, most reputable hardware stores will carry it. We purchased approximately three feet of 2” EDPM foam with no adhesive.
I simply cut it to the approximate length and manually stuff it around the pipe at every set-up. And from time-to-time, we refresh it with insect repellent to keep freeloaders you’re your pantry. When we pick up to travel once again, we merely set it to the side in the wet bay until we stop once again. You can read about our Gulliver’s Travel fight against the armies of ants in southern California, but the one place they didn’t penetrate was around the wet bay. Gee, I wonder why? That’s where we spray the foam rubber with Home Defense. The “sand” in our wet bay is from last month’s stay on the beach in Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico. It was a wonderful trip with no freeloaders aboard.
Read the edited article published on October 6, 2021 here: One very easy fix to keep mice and other freeloaders out of your RV – RV Travel
Kate Doherty has been writing for more than 30 years in technical and general media. In her previous business, she and her spouse dealt with special projects within the military/government sector. Recently she published “Masquerade: A Logan Scott Novel” under the pen name Bryan Alexander, a thriller now available in eBook and paperback on Amazon. It’s a page-turner!