Mice do not just invade homes and garages and backyard sheds. They also absolutely love a camper in the winter. The camper is a summer device, used for enjoying the great outdoors with the family in a comfortable motor home with beds, a kitchen and even a dining room table with chairs. This is the all-in-one camping vessel at least it was until the winter brought some unwanted invaders. Mice are more than capable of finding any sort of opening to get into the camper and they will stay there long term, permanently as far as they are concerned. They will defecate all over the place, access your garbage and bring food into the camper. They will urinate all over the beds and sleep in the sheets likely causing fleas to infest the camper as well. This can be a nightmare when your family is all packed and ready to go on a planned vacation only to open the door of the camper and see it filled with mouse feces. This is not how your family saw the big vacation and no one wants to ride around with mice as car passengers.
The first step in dealing with mice in your camper is preventing them from entering it in the first place. You will need to inspect the whole camper, top and bottom and all around for any possible entryways the mice could use to get in. Is there a sunroof you left open? A space in the door that a mouse could squeeze through. Maybe there is damage from last summer that made a hole mice could access to get inside. There are all kinds of entryways the mice could use to get in so impact everywhere. Whenever you find an entrance seal it with something strong. Foam and duct tape is not enough. You will need weather stripping and possibly steel mesh to exclude areas of the camper that could be entryways.
When you have finished with the camper for the summer make sure to clear everything out, food of any kind, dishes and cutlery and whatever is in the camper. Then clean it like mad. Mop, sweep, scrub every countertop and inside every cupboard. You will need to make sure there is not even one piece of food in the camper. Now that it has been excluded from entryways and cleaned out completely it’s very unlikely a mouse will be able to get inside. But why rely on just exclusion and cleaning.
You should also prepare for a mouse infestation anyway, even if you think the camper is clean and sealed you should prepare the camper for a mouse infestation anyway. Make sure to use a homemade or domestically purchased mouse repellent. This can be anything from clove oil to mothballs. Anything that would make space hard for the mice to live in. You can also set up a bait station or two with domestic grade rodenticide pellets. The mice will not find any other food in the camper except for this and will likely eat it right away. There may be dead mice and feces but at least you can clean it out and use your camper the same day.
You can also set mouse snap traps around areas they frequent. Make sure to be very careful when setting them as you do not want to lose a finger. Make sure to bait it properly. Mice do not actually like cheese. They like peanut butter mostly and are also fond of the shells of shrimp. This one attracts them.
