Writer: Helena Bergström
It was in Sardinia that we first noticed it. We took a packet of salted biscuits down from the top cupboards, and it was very clear that someone had been sitting there munching away for quite some time... A mouse in your motorhome while you're living in it? Is that reasonable, and how do you get rid of it?
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A mouse in the motorhome!
When we saw the chewed biscuits, we immediately realised that we had had a mouse in the motorhome, but we thought it would perhaps go away. When it comes to mice in motorhomes, we have mostly heard about the problem during winter storage, i.e. when you are not living in the vehicle yourself. But do mice really dare to run around when you are living there?
We were in Sardinia when we saw the gnawed biscuits and thought that we might have a temporary visitor. Surely he (she?) wouldn't follow us onto the ferry to the Italian mainland?
The mouse made itself at home
We didn't pay too much attention to the mouse at first, because we actually thought it would go away. But gradually, new evidence emerged. Several times, we saw small gnawed holes on the side of the bin bag. The second time, it had gnawed on the biscuits again... Other times, we came back to the motorhome... to find small poo sausages on the carpet!
One day, the LED lighting in the kitchen went out. Why? Because the mouse had chewed through it, of course! Peter managed to fix it, but our concern about more serious damage grew. We began to worry: Why doesn't the mouse leave...?
A long-time companion
So the mouse came with us in the motorhome on the ferry from Sardinia to Naples, and then up through Italy. All the way around Lake Garda was with us! But how would we get rid of it?
We realised that we had a ”sound repeller” in the motorhome, which is designed to scare away rats and mice with its high-frequency sound. ”Mice flee in seconds,” says the advertisement. Good idea, we thought! After all, it's nice to just scare the mouse away without killing it.
Every time we were connected to electricity, we plugged the sound repeller into the socket. We can't say with 100% certainty that it doesn't work. We can only say this: either it doesn't work, or the mouse in our motorhome was completely deaf... We ran the sound repellent again and again, but the mouse remained! It happily nibbled on our biscuits and made itself comfortable among our cushions.
Back home in Stockholm... the mouse is still there!
A month and a half after leaving Sardinia, we were back home in Stockholm. We started unpacking in the car park, and the motorhome became emptier and emptier. But the Sardinian mouse was still there!
How we got rid of the mouse
We didn't have many options. We went to Biltema and initially thought that there might be a trap to catch the mouse alive, but there wasn't. We purchased a completely ordinary traditional mouse trap.
We set the trap by the rubbish chute, where we had seen the mouse, and baited it with some delicious Italian cheese. No luck! Then we remembered that the salty biscuits had been a favourite throughout the trip. Peter baited the trap with salty biscuits, which he secured with silicone. Bam! The trap snapped shut and our little companion died instantly...
Have you had problems with mice in your motorhome?
Have you had problems with mice in your motorhome? If so, was it while you were driving around or when you had the motorhome in winter storage? How did you solve the problem?
English (UK) 
Svenska
Anette och Stefan says:
Yes, we have had problems here at home. We caught five mice in our motorhome one winter. But we also brought a mouse back with us from Italy, specifically Sicily. At first, we didn't understand why there was a little dirt on our table every morning. There was one of those mini pots with a flower in it. Then we saw mouse droppings in a box, and after that we started to hear it. One night, Stefan felt something run over his hand and we saw it looking at us in a cupboard. Stefan named it Musolini. So we bought mouse traps in several places in Sicily. I wrote about it on the blog too. So annoying! They can cause so much damage. You can read about our mouse here. https://www.enturitaget.se/tropea/
26 November 2025 - 7:25
Helena says:
5 mice... wow!!! And ran across my hand... I must say, that was brave of the mouse! I also love the name Musolini, so good! 🙂
29 November 2025 - 17:14
Eval8 says:
Mice are not afraid of anything, that much is clear. They can really destroy things.
In recent years, with newer caravans, we've only had them in the awning. We have a mouse repellent there. Completely useless. The only thing that seems to help is traps. Lucky you caught it in the end.
26 November 2025 - 8:14
Helena says:
No, it's surprising that they aren't more afraid... I like mice and other animals in general, but you definitely don't want them in your motorhome! And yes, unfortunately, the trap was the only thing that helped; we had no choice in the end.
29 November 2025 - 17:15
Orsakulla mamma vid 20 - Dalaliv, finporslin & pudelliv says:
That doesn't sound fun at all :-o. Plus, they can cause a lot of damage, like they did in your case. We had problems with mice at a school I used to work at. They pooped on our stuff, and one of them ate my colleague's corn cakes.
26 November 2025 - 14:41
Helena says:
Yes, mice can really cause damage, unfortunately...
29 November 2025 - 17:15
Frido says:
Good thing you didn't release it. You never know what diseases it could have brought to our fauna. Mice may look cute in pictures, but they are pests. Musolini (mentioned in a comment) was a clever name!!!
26 November 2025 - 15:27
Helena says:
Yes, they are cute, and I don't like killing animals. But we didn't have much choice here; it was probably the best option for several reasons.
29 November 2025 - 17:17
Channal says:
Hi Helena! Haha!! Wow, what an unexpected companion you had on your motorhome trip🐭 Lucky it ended happily. And at the same time, it must be both a little crazy and memorable to have travelled 3000 km with a mouse in the car!
HUGS to YOU! Anna
26 November 2025 - 18:24
Helena says:
Yes, it was a bit unexpected for a long time... We thought it would give up sooner, but it simply enjoyed being in our motorhome... 😉
29 November 2025 - 17:18
Sara i Barcelona says:
Oh... okay, at first I was so happy that I was trying to avoid killing it, but then I read the ending :/
Just as a tip, we've had mice in our house twice and made a homemade mouse trap that worked great without killing them, using a plastic jar and a nut... easy peasy!
Both times, we took it to the park where it lived happily ever after <3
26 November 2025 - 19:59
Helena says:
I don't like killing animals at all, so I understand your comment! However, I don't really understand how you managed to catch the mouse in the plastic jar ...?
29 November 2025 - 17:19
Sara i Barcelona says:
We had a plastic jar that we turned upside down, so the lid was on the floor, so to speak, then we placed the jar with the bottom facing upwards on the lid, with a walnut in between to create a small opening, but very balanced on the nut, so to speak. The mouse goes in and starts eating the nut and the jar goes down, poof, and catches the mouse. Then all you have to do is take the jar and release the mouse back into the wild. We did this both times and caught the mouse almost immediately, then in the evening... that's when they're usually out looking for food 🙂
We got the tip on YouTube, as it was impossible to buy a humane mouse trap here (they just looked at us strangely when we asked about it, haha).
30 November 2025 - 10:17
BP says:
Hahaha! It was probably the first (and only) Italian mouse that was as long-lived as that rascal. I shudder at the thought of taking the dead mouse out of the trap and throwing it in the rubbish – in the food waste bin, I suppose ;-)
So next time you travel with your motorhome, I guess you'll be taking the mousetrap with you ;-)
26 November 2025 - 20:19
Helena says:
Well, I can't really handle this, so I handed this task over to Peter ...
29 November 2025 - 17:20
Leif says:
I drove a Swedish mouse from Uppsala to Verona about 10 years ago. It jumped out outside my mother's house in the Uppsala area. That's where I used to sleep in my motorhome. I never saw it, but I heard it at night and saw the tracks in the cupboards. But once we arrived at the car park in Verona, where you also parked your car, it jumped off voluntarily one night. It was 15 degrees warmer there than when I left cold and snowy Uppsala three days earlier. My contribution to the mouse gene pool in Italy... nice to see that you are still on the road.
1 December 2025 - 7:43