ANTS

[TOMMY47]

Got a conversion van a few days ago. Plan to turn it into a camper.
There are lots of ants on the exterior, crawling slowly around everywhere. Broomed them off and they were back 15 minutes later.
None on the inside and I've been crawling all through the interior.
No other vehicles affected.
There were a few on the exterior when I bought it but nothing too unusual.
Clearly, it's related to the vehicle. I've never seen this before and I'm 67.
Put some bait in many locations.
Any other ideas?

[NCWriter]

Another vote for Terro.

We used to live in the Virgin Islands, bug capital of the universe, and Terro was the local solution to ant problems.

Local knowledge also advised granules to spread around your house foundation, treatment of choice for ferocious biting centipedes, but I sincerely hope we never have any of them in our RV.

[Davydd]

[Fastpaddler]

Davydd

Good news re steel body. My son-in-law bought an expensive house and battled well-entrenched carpenters ants for two years. Ok now but they were everywhere.


al

[TOMMY47]

Haven't seen a single one the past 5 days. Appears they've been terminated.

[Davydd]

Fastpaddler,

The carpenter ants are suckers for Terro poisons as well. I battle them all the time in our house. It is kind of fascinating watching a lock step, steady to and from stream of carpenter ants devouring little puddles of Terro. It goes on for about a day and then they are gone. The problem with carpenter ants is they can nest in your house and not necessarily come from outside nests which are more common. To nest they are going to have to have a source from which to live, celluose and water. That would be hard to do in a Class B van made of a steel body.

[Fastpaddler]

TOMMY47 wrote:
Got a conversion van a few days ago. Plan to turn it into a camper.
There are lots of ants on the exterior, crawling slowly around everywhere. Broomed them off and they were back 15 minutes later.
None on the inside and I've been crawling all through the interior.
No other vehicles affected.
There were a few on the exterior when I bought it but nothing too unusual.
Clearly, it's related to the vehicle. I've never seen this before and I'm 67.
Put some bait in many locations.
Any other ideas?

Have one of the ants inspected by a reputable extermination company because if they are CARPENTER ants they can eat your wood interior in no time flat. Had them once in my previous C Class.
Sugar ants or others can be dealt with by placing Ants-b-gone or a similar product like Davydd suggested and they take the stuff back to their nests and all die from over-eating. Hope they dont suffer.

[lfloom]

another vote for Terro - the liquid stuff that comes in a little bottle. That stuff is magic, and I have wiped out large colonies. Use it liberally where there are ants. They slurp it up and take it back to their colony.

[TOMMY47]

Used bait and they were all over it this morning. I thoroughly washed the roof and hood with soap and water. They were dirty and a little sticky. Ants seem to have disappeared. Also used a small amount of Raid in a couple of spots.
I believe this van was parked under some maple trees and the ants were hiding out when I drove it home. I found no nest. I took off the cover of the rooftop AC, expecting a nest and found nothing. Good chance there were only 100-200 ants total.
Just checked it and none in sight.

[jjrai]

Go to Home Depot and put some Amdro ant treatment around the nooks and crannies. I have had good luck with this product - poor ants!. Good luck with the van.

[Davydd]

We use Terro in our house which is a form of borax. The ants will collect the Terro and take it back to its nest for the other ants and they will all die from it. It usually only takes a day to wipe out a nest wherever it is.

To determine if the ants are coming from within your B could you not park it in another place?

[WyoTraveler]

Once these ants have taken up residents in the vehicle you will have continued problems unless you get rid of them. Once they get in to a nice comfy place they make a home. I know you mention you don't want to bomb the vehicle but if you don't and turn it into a camper you will never get rid of the problem. Especially once you have any food in the camper.

[omjones]

I've found Ajax or Comet sprinkled all around the ground around the tires works well. Also a product called Combat, a gel in a tube works really well. You put a few dabs where you see the ants and they love it. They carry it back to the nest and it destroys the whole colony.
john 'I am Canadian'

[senf]

We had ants in our town house crawl space. The floor was dirt covered with a thin skim of concrete which eventually developed cracks. Ants galore - but I filled the cracks with Borax (powder) and no more ants!!

Have also used Borax outside on flagstone pathways - same result.

Later in our 5th wheel we had ants enter via the power cable access so Borax was put all over the floor of the access area - no more ants!!!

[charles]

Don't use an aerosol spray if you have decals. Use a tank spray or just bait them.