Happy campers everywhere are putting their RVs, 5th wheels, and travel trailers away for the winter. Part of the process is cleaning it out and using rodent-deterring measures to make sure your camper doesn't get damaged by mice. We did all that, but I went back to check recently and found that it only took a couple of weeks for mice to overtake it.

We cleaned out our travel trailer after our last camping trip at the end of September. We removed all of the food. We swept, vacuumed, and made sure there was no food anywhere. I bought some anti-mice scented packs that they aren't supposed to like. We parked the camper on our family property like we did last year. There were no issues last year, not one mouse.

mouse
Ivan Kmit
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I returned a month later and did a quick check and was very disappointed to see that several mice had already been in. They found a tissue that was tucked under the couch and had destroyed it with pieces everywhere. There were mice droppings in several places around the camper. It's a terrible feeling.

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So I doubled down, added more rodent packets, and then set up a bunch of mouse traps and have had family clearing them out periodically. My folks live up there, and they said they've never seen as many mice in their house either as they have this year. They've trapped dozens of mice this fall.

2022 is a bad year bor mice according to entomologists

Rodents are on the rise across the country. Their population boomed during the shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. Empty buildings and spaces have become safe havens for mice to reproduce and thrive.

Mice now have a longer breeding season in Minnesota.

We've been experiencing shorter winters in recent years. It's giving mice more time to breed which has increased the population. The shorter winters with less snow cover are also killing our maple trees, by the way.

How to keep mice out of your camper

Make sure your camper is clean. I made the rookie mistake of leaving toilet paper in the camper. It was shredded to bits and all around the camper. Also make sure there isn't a crumb of food, salt, pepper, or seasoning. Basically, anything that might appear tasty at all. If you can identify where the mice are getting in, shove some steel wool in the hole. There are a lot of great YouTube videos that address it. I particularly found this one from Long Long Honeymoon YouTube helpful.

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