VAN-COMPARATOR Guide
Mosquitoes and bugs in a campervan: the anti-invasion guide
Fly screens, spots to avoid, evening routines: how to travel by campervan without being eaten alive, from the Po delta to the Scandinavian lakes.
The worst enemy of a night in a van is neither noise nor heat: it's the mosquito that slipped in at 9 pm while you cooked with the door open. Good news — the problem is 90% solved by method, not products.
Check the van before you book
Recent campervans and motorhomes come with built-in fly screens: pleated on the sliding door, sliding on the windows, integrated into the roof vents. It's a major comfort criterion — check their presence and condition in the listing photos, and ask the owner on Yescapa or Goboony before booking. On professional fleets (Roadsurfer, Indie Campers) they're generally standard.
Choosing your spot: 80% of the result
- Avoid sleeping within 200 m of standing water: ponds, rice paddies (the Po plain…), marshes, irrigation ditches. A lake with windswept shores causes far less trouble than a pond.
- Prefer spots exposed to a breeze: mosquitoes fly poorly above 10 km/h of wind. A ridge, an open lakeshore or a windy coast beats a damp, sheltered hollow.
- In Scandinavia in June–July, the inland forests and bogs are far more infested than the coast.
The evening routine that changes everything
The golden rule: lights off, doors shut at nightfall. Cook and air the van before dusk, then switch to closed mode with the screens in place. A head torch on red attracts far less than the ceiling light. If intruders got in: five minutes of head-torch hunting before bed beats a night of guerrilla warfare.
The rest of the kit
Skin repellent (icaridin and DEET remain the references), a 12 V diffuser or coils for outside — never in an enclosed space — and soothing cream. Against ticks (tall grass, central European woodland): long trousers on walks and an evening check. Against lunchtime wasps: serve, cover, and keep away from the stopover's bins. None of this should keep you from the best spots — a van properly closed at dusk is a fortress.