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Markiemark32's avatar
Markiemark32
Explorer
Oct 17, 2014

Invasion ~~

Invasion of the BLACK ants!!!!!
This past weekend at Petersburg Campground on Lake Thurmon, Augusta, GA, SC bouder, had an interesting experience.

Arrived Friday evening right at dusk, setup camper (Class C Driveable), lake side site, nice and tree filled site.

1st Red Flag, that I ignored: was when I let pup, do his number two, right close to our camper, I went back in to grab the bag for clean-up, within that minute, his poop was being taken over by black ants, I was like wow that was fast & never knew they like number 2.

Evening was nice, with temps mild, so decided to sleep with windows open and enjoy the fall weather.

Early, early morning, I’m awaken by my pup, acting erratic, up on our pillows, frantically looking into the dark, not wanting to lay down (not his normal self). I settled him down, dose off a little, but start feeling bugs, at first think nats or something flying, but they keep coming. I finally turn on a light from phone to discover black ants, traveling the side of the coach, into our bed, and on us!

Get up, go outside, looking for how they are traveling in, don’t see them coming in the window near the bed, don’t’s see them traveling up tires, electric cord, or water line. Further inspection, from of cab, is COVER’ed in ants, traveling into seams of doors.

I climb up on the roof (fortunate camper has ladder), and top seams of roof, COVER’ed with lines of ants. There is ONE little branch (less pinky finger sized branch) sloping down to the roof of the camper, this is where there is a continuous line of ants, coming from the tree, invading our camper. I snap it off, to stop the madness.
Have to spray all the seams of doors up front, and front of cab, trying to kill the invasion. Inside found some, but not too bad, did not get to food, just certain areas, including working their way to back of coach, where bed is.

That Saturday, repositioned coach and sprayed ground and touching items with bug spray. Rest of weekend no issue!

Just a heads up, travel with bug spray and always be prepared.

Later,
MArkiemark:C
  • pompomgirl wrote:
    OH NO, getting ready to move from the NW to Georgia, I knew we needed to protect against some new things, but this sounds like a real nightmare. We're buying some Home Defense TOMORROW! So you use it every time you stop for an overnight? Seems like you would go through a lot of it.


    It is not issue all the time of the year and not every park.

    Just a heads up, there are some heavily wooded parks with Black Ants infestation, knowing and being prepared makes camping go smoothly.


    Markiemark:C
  • Markiemark32 wrote:
    pompomgirl wrote:
    OH NO, getting ready to move from the NW to Georgia, I knew we needed to protect against some new things, but this sounds like a real nightmare. We're buying some Home Defense TOMORROW! So you use it every time you stop for an overnight? Seems like you would go through a lot of it.


    It is not issue all the time of the year and not every park.

    Just a heads up, there are some heavily wooded parks with Black Ants infestation, knowing and being prepared makes camping go smoothly.


    Markiemark:C


    Also when setting up site, look for any limbs touching sides/top of RV that would become a path for them. We've made habit for both camping and at home to store food items that would attract them sealed up. Just rolling over the top on an open bag of chips, cookies, cereal, etc. does not provide enough seal. We either put them in large zip lock bags or use the chip clips that lock tight (I think DW gets from Pampered Chef).

    They can be aggravating but they don't bite. Do beware of fire ants that make large, usually red in the middle GA area, mounds.
  • We had a similar invasion a few years ago in Florida. They had climbed up the power cord into the storage compartment and worked their way into the MH. I found their source, destroyed it and sprayed the MH thoroughly. Fortunately it only took a short time to get rid of them.

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