Little bugs in our hybrid camper at night

Some caravans, camper trailers and hybrids are much better at keeping the bugs outside than others, and we’re always pretty careful not to leave lights on unnecessarily, or the door open for long when going in and out.

I’m confident that the more lighting you have on inside at night, the more bugs you’ll end up with in your setup, and that’s been proven over hundreds of nights camping. Orange lights are 100% more effective at reducing bugs, but sometimes there’s not much you can do to avoid it.

Amber light on our R2
The orange light is much nicer on the eyes, and the bugs are 100% less attracted to it

Before we go to bed, I shine a torch light from my phone around the camper in search of any mosquitoes, and make sure they are no longer moving by the time we’re all in bed. Nothing is worse than waking up to a child who’s been smashed by mosquitoes overnight, and we’ve had this happen at home as well as camping. We’re fortunate that our Reconn R2 is so small inside that you can fairly easily find the mosquitoes and put them to sleep once and for all.

However, on our recent 3 week trip through the Pilbara, we had a couple of nights where these little flying bugs would come in and wreak havoc, particularly for me sitting at a laptop typing these very posts. Generally we all head inside the camper once its dark, unless its nice outside and the mosquitos are gone.

There’s a period where we have some lights on for the kids to read books, to feed them supper and to put them to bed, and in the warmer parts of the West Pilbara, I was amazed at how many little bugs came into the camper. These are so small that they can comfortably fit through the window and door mesh, and asides from turning the lights off there really isn’t much else you can do.

On our LED lights on the roof, I could literally see hundreds of them, and I knew the moment all of the lights were turned off except my laptop screen I’d be in for fun. I was literally breathing them in through my nose, and having them fly into my eyes whilst working, which was really quite unpleasant.

The next night, I realised we had a secret weapon tucked away; a bug zapper light that we grabbed from Snowys many moons ago. Despite it being completely flat, I managed to get it charging and put it to work next to my laptop. For the first hour or so it was rather unpleasant with hundreds of the little bugs annoying my face and landing everywhere possible. However, after that I noticed it dropped off considerably, and there must have been hundreds of the little bugs zapped to another world.

The fly mesh is not good enough

It doesn’t really matter what camper or caravan you buy, the fly mesh is only good at keeping mosquitoes and flies out at best. Anything small goes right through, and that’s pretty average in my books. My folks van has more interior lights than a star ship, and no matter how well they keep the door shut, their van always ends up with a heap of little bugs flying around by the time its sleep time.

We’ve not really had too much of an issue in our Hybrid up until this point, but it does happen when the weather is warm, and you are far north. I don’t know what the bugs are, as they don’t bite, but they are a pain in the backside and I’m mighty glad for a zapper!

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