Just over a year ago when we started our epic road trip we were given some advice at one of the camp ground. “Put a flea collar in your external compartments (water heater vent, fridge vent, etc…) to keep out the mud dauber wasps.” We did and we’ve not had any wasp issues at all.
Apparently some wasps really like the odors and taste of propane gas – who knew? These fuel, and warmth, loving pests will turn the pilot light areas in the exterior fridge, water heater, and other propane vent compartments into a luxury condo complex if given the chance. If they do take up home, the can cause the systems to fail to ignite or worse, their paper-like nest material could go up in flames and take the whole camper with it, meaning everyone is now homeless…
Here is where the flea collar comes into play. The wasps don’t like the smell of the chemicals in flea collars and will move to the next best thing.
But what do you do in the event that you already have wasps in your compartments and want to evict them? Well, two campfire stories for getting rid of them.
- Method the first: Douse the wasps with a cup of soapy water (dish soap was used by this group). While this sounds like a good idea, what about the wasps not in the nest who will come back to find their home gone? This exposes you to stings. While the couple who did this were not hurt, this wouldn’t be my first go to.
- Method the second: According to these campers, wasps like beer. They place a half-empty can of beer in the compartment, wasps fly in, get stuck, drown in the beer. I like this better as it doesn’t have the added requirement of cleaning out the compartment of soapy water and you get to drink half a beer!
- You could also use a household bug spray, but be very careful if the gas is or if the pilot is lit or tries to ignite…you will explode your rig and cause seriously bodily harm or death. Don’t use bug spray near exposed flames, ignition sources, or the like.
That’s all I have for today!