How to keep mosquitoes out of your teardrop camper

Nothing can ruin a good nights sleep in your teardrop camper like a mosquito buzzing around your head, especially if you live in a climate like Minnesota like I do. Here are some tips to help keep the mosquitos away.

How to keep mosquitoes out of your teardrop camper:

1. Make sure there are no gaps around the window screens
2. Keep lights off inside trailer
3. Keep doors closed or add screens
4. Use Thermocell Products
5. Choose your campsite carefully

1. Make sure there are no gaps around the window screens.

Many teardrop campers have a pull down or pull up screen to help keep bugs out of the camper. However the flexible design of these screens can leave gaps around the sides that can be an easy entrance for mosquitoes. A “fuzzy” weatherstripping installed around the window frame on the sides of the screen can help block the bugs. If you have a T@G or T@B Teardrop Camper, NuCamp has the “rail brush” kit that can be ordered through your dealer.

Search all windows, fans and vents for any openings large enough for mosquitos to get in.

2. Keep lights off inside the camper.

One of the most common issues with keeping mosquitoes out of your teardrop camper is that campers tend to open up the windows, put up the screens, turn the camper interior lights on and then go out to hang around the campfire, just to come back to a camper full of mosquitoes and other bugs! Bugs in general are attracted to bright white or bluish lights – which happen to be the two colors that are most common in teardrop campers. Yellow lights attract bugs the least, so if you need to leave lights on at night, it is a good idea to have yellow bulbs or put yellow film over the light source. Many newer teardrops come with yellow exterior lights for this reason.

The best practice is to keep the lights off inside the camper if you are away, and the overhead fan blowing into the camper may also help to discourage them from entering the camper.

3. Keep doors closed or add screens.

Many of the smaller teardrop campers do not have screens on the doors. While it may be nice to have the doors open, this is an easy way for mosquitoes to enter the camper.

When I had my T@B, I was able to make a screen door using the magnetic screen kit sold for patio doors. While it was not fancy, it did the trick to let me keep the door open and the mosquitoes out. The same concept could be used in a smaller teardrop camper.

Having a side tent attached to your door can also help keep the mosquitoes out of the camper. Check out our reviews on tents for teardrop trailers.

4. Use Thermacell Products

When I first got my teardrop, many campers recommended Thermacell products. These are truly the only products that I have found to actually repel mosquitoes and other insects. Thermacell products should only be used outside of the camper, they make a 15′ zone around your campsite that the bugs actually stay out of, using a butane cartridge and strips soaked in repellant.

I have the Thermacell Lantern, and also two of the smaller units that I can take with me on a hike in the woods. You can easily buy refills of the cartridge and strips. I have used my lantern for 3 seasons now and it still works great.

5. Choose your campsite carefully.

Mosquitoes need water to breed, so choose campsites that are high and dry, away from a swampy area or heavy brush. And make that campfire! You will enjoy the ambiance of a crackling fire and the smoke will help keep the mosquitoes away!