Whether you are enjoying the camper and RV life or simply taking a vacation, you may come across pests such as mice that cause problems with how your camper or RV smells. Mice can leave an unpleasant and lingering ammonia smell on surfaces such as flooring, furniture, carpets, and in air ducts and heating vents. Their concentrated urine can build up to produce a strong smell in small spaces, which can ruin your experience. Not only does mice’s urine smell bad, but it is also difficult to remove and contain the smell.
It is important to have preventive measures in place so that you can eliminate mice from entering your camper or RV which lessens the chance of them using your space to urinate. Urine marking is more common in male mice because they use their urine to mark their territory, which happens to be your beloved camper or RV!
There are various tips and tricks to remove the smell of mice droppings and urine from your camper or RV by following a few methods that not only eliminate the stench but also ensure the mice do not urinate in the same area again.
The 6 Tips on How to Get Mouse Smell Out of a Camper or RV
1. White Vinegar For Urine Stains
You can effectively neutralize the smell of mice’s urine and their droppings by creating a mixture of white vinegar and water. This solution can be added to a spray bottle and sprayed on affected areas, such as flooring, upholstery, rugs, curtains, and the inside lining of heating or cooling vents. You will need a solution of 50% white vinegar and 50% water. Shake the mixture and let it saturate on affected areas for 20–30 minutes before soaking up the excess moisture with a paper towel.
2. Baking Soda for Urine Smells & Droppings
Baking soda is great at eliminating the smell of mice’s urine and it also breaks down the enzymes in the urine that cause the foul smell. You can sprinkle baking soda onto the area and even gently spritz the baking soda with water to further activate the enzymes.
You can also add baking soda to the wash with clothes and bedding that have been urinated on by the mice. This can be used on furniture and flooring as well where mice have left smelly urine patches or droppings.
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3. Air Freshener
Aside from opening the windows and doors for better airflow to help clear the RV or camper from the mice smell, you can also use air fresheners. This will help to remove the unpleasant smell of mice infestations. Air fresheners can be placed in air vents and other areas that start to smell of mice urine and droppings after the affected areas have been cleaned up and disinfected. You can also leave aerosol spray systems around your camper or RV that have a timer to release the fragranced air, as these automatic aerosol systems seem to last longer and work more efficiently at keeping the air smelling fresh.
4. Lysol Disinfectant Spray
It is important to keep the areas where the mice urinate and leave their droppings clean and Lysol (also known as Dettol) is a great antifungal and antibacterial agent that not only kills the germs left behind by mice but also helps to eliminate the smell.
If you notice that the mice are leaving urine trails behind, you can make a solution of 60% Lysol and 40% water in a spray bottle and spray it over affected areas. After you have left the Lysol to saturate on the area, you can wipe up the remaining mess with a paper towel or clean cloth.
5. Peppermint Oil Cotton Balls for Prevention
Finding a good preventative measure to keep the mice away from entering your camper or RV is just as important as reducing the odor. Mice seem to hate the smell of peppermint oils and other strong citrus essential oils. You can coat cotton balls in peppermint oil and leave it on windowsills, heating, and cooling vents, and near open windows and doors where the mice can easily enter the camper or RV.
Alternatively, you can replace cotton balls soaked in essential oils with mothballs, which are also good at keeping mice away. Mothballs may leave a slightly unpleasant smell in comparison to the cotton ball method, but you do not have to worry about the mothballs staining any surface.
Why Do Mice Smell So Bad?
The presence of mice can be easily detectable due to the strong ammonia smell mice give off when they urinate on different surfaces in your camper or RV. This urine smell is worse after it has soaked into surfaces such as wood, bedding, rugs, and upholstery items. Once the urine has soaked into these items, it can be difficult to rid your RV and camper of the smells. Not only does the mice’s urine smell, but the mice themselves carry a pungent and musky stale smell with them.
In the case of RV and campers, air vents can get infested with mice droppings and urine which means that when you turn the vents on, the smell gets carried through the air.
Dead mice release a strong smell of rotten eggs or sulfur dioxide which is bad for the environment and certainly unpleasant to smell. If you suspect that a dead mouse is the source of the strong smell you are dealing with, it is crucial to find and remove the mouse and disinfect the surroundings using the Lysol disinfectant method.
Conclusion
Aside from the maddening pitter-patter of mice feet roaming your RV or camper and the unhygienic conditions wild mice may bring, you might find that the smell is the worst part of all. Fortunately, there are various tips and ideas to help combat the nasty smell of dead mice, their droppings, and urine.
Even if you do ensure that the RV or camper is kept clean and that the different surfaces are kept sanitized, you should still put preventative measures in place to keep the mice away from your camper or RV. This will help to further eliminate the problem of pungent mice smells.
Featured Image Credit: Andrey Armyagov, Shutterstock
