Arrrrrrg ...Ants

[Edward Buker]

We have been inundated with small brown ants in our stay in VT this summer. We used a little Torro clear liquid bait with borate in it that they swarmed to and carry that bait away in our attempt to kill the colony. The original site where we had the ants is relatively inactive now. I had read that the use of bait may split the colony and we now we have three new locations where we are seeing them inside. The kitchen counter, bathroom countertop, and the stairway entry steps. These sources are quite a distance from each other and are more active then the original site.

So this thread is two fold, how to rid the RV of ants once you have them inside and secondly what have you done that has been effective at "ground zero level" outside to prevent or kill ants before they get in.

We have been spraying our water hose which has been the main path to the ground with a Torro ant spray but we still have the wheels on the ground.

Also if you have a favorite product that works let me know.

Thanks Ed

[Lee Welbanks]

Ed,

I know your pain, when we arrived here in Morro Bay, Ca all was well until I left some sweet rolls sitting on the counter just rapped in alum foil. Went to the local Ace Hdware and they recommended a spray called Orange Guard, you can spray it basically anywhere and the lil'buggers dye, smells like orange works great. For the outside I got a few boxes of Grant's Ant stakes and placed them in front and behind each tire and around the hoses and cord out of the utility area. After a few stragglers they are all gone. When we leave I will place the ant stakes in a plastic bag for the next time.

Good Luck.

[David T. Richelderfer]

Hopefully, the colony/s of ants have not resettled into your coach, which means they are coming into your coach from outside.  I have had ants in my residence off and on over the years.  I remember when I left out a wedge of pizza, they found it, and by morning the wedge was black with ants.  Sooo... first line of defense is do not leave any food outside sealed containers - especially sweets and proteins.  I had a cherry tree in my backyard.  Interestingly, when I took out the cherry tree - because it had a rotten core and was close to the house, my ant problem disappeared.  I have heard some potent essential oils, like peppermint, will drive them away.  For my problem over the several years of ants, and since I used to work in agriculture, I used Tempo Ultra - an insecticide with long residual value that kills insects within seconds when they walk on it.  Even now when I have too many spiders around and in the house, I spray the exterior of the house - about a foot-wide swath of ground and up the outside house wall a foot or so.  No more bugs for a few months.

1. Leave no food out and clean the counters last thing every night.
2. If your coach is parked near a fruit tree, then consider moving farther away from the tree, if you can.
3. If you are not friends with an insecticide applicator, then try some essential oil.  It will make your coach, inside and out, smell nice too.
4. Enlist advice from a local (to where you are parked) insecticide applicator - also perhaps try a local coop retail store or landscaping business.

[Karl Welhart]

Ed,

We had this problem years ago at in North Carolina.  Using a small vacuum worked very well at getting rid of them on the inside.  Be sure to empty the vac after each session.  On the outside, I use comet or laundry powder soap around each tire and around the hose, electric wire and TV cable.

Good luck,

Karl

[Edward Buker]

I see I am not alone, keep the remedies coming if you have one. Thanks for the product names that have worked so far. Kind of like the preventive soap idea also.

Later Ed

[Phil N Barb Rodriguez]

The Thousand Trails "campground" in Acton, Ca. has an awful ant issue. Over the years of going there we used "Comet" powder cleaner for controlling the ants. After many years we returned there this year. Same ant problem. We used Comet again. It takes an extra effort to sprinkle Comet behind the inside duals.

We use it where the tires, power cord, water and sewer hoses contact the ground.

Dunno where we heard about Comet. Dunno why it works, but it does.

[David T. Richelderfer]

Look up on the internet - sugar ants, Phoenix ants,....  there should be some advice there you can use.

http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Ants-Naturally

[LarryNCarolynShirk]

Ed,

You may want to use the wheels on your coach and move out of Dodge.

We used Ajax or Comet cleaner for years.  A stick with a hose clamp on the end is used to attach the Ajax container and reach the inside duals.

After moving or stopping the entrance points, there are a finite number of ants left.  After a few days of vacuuming the trails of ants you find in the MH, their numbers will dwindle.  Without a food or water source, they eventually die.  You will probably hasten that event with Torro.

Good luck.

Larry

[Roy Warren Co-Admin]

Ed,
We had a problem a few years ago.  Since then, I have sprayed an ant killer on the items which touch the ground.  I have never bothered with the wheels or with putting anything around the wheels.  Basically though, nothing except for a bucket which houses the water filters, a water softener, the electric pole, and the unit I use to keep my sewer hose off the ground.  I hook up my electric and drape the hose over the electric box and sometime suspend it with bungee cords.  I don't let my water hose touch the ground and as I stated before, my sewer hose sits on a unit which keeps it off the ground.  I spray the water softener, the sewer hose unit, the bucket for my water filters, the electric box, the water pipe and the sewer pipe with the ant spray.  Luckily since I started this, we have not had any ants.  Every other month or so, I spray the electric cable and the sewer hose also.
Roy

[Edward Buker]

Bought some Comet tonight, the outside cleansing will begin tomorrow. Lots of interesting ideas and Roy you bring up a good point, many times the water hose and power cable do not have to be on the ground, that is an open invitation....certainly have not been considering that option in our normal camping routine.

Later Ed

[Joel Ashley]

When Terro liquid was formulated with arsenic it was awesome.  But they switched it to borax and it works but not nearly as well.  Terro liquid requires just the right type of white paper to place droplets on or ants leave it alone.  Thin box material with glossy white on it works;  plain paper, cardboard, or flat white color won't work.  So the Borate Terro is tricky and often has no positive result.  20 years ago the arsenic version never failed on our old farm.   It's weird... sometimes the ants find the liquid borate bait and begin drinking it, but the next day I find they've piled sand grains in a mini-mountain on top of the white paper.  

After no luck with bait stations, etc. a few years ago I discovered Grant's granular in the small white jug.  It works pretty well around the house and yard to wipe out colonies by the same method as Terro;  once scouts discover the granules they haul them back to the nest.  One year the larger carpenter ants got in the house and they don't always take the bait, so eventually it took a combination of Terro liquid, interior and exterior perimeter spray, and Grant's to stop the invasion.

Ants can be bad in western dry-country campgrounds, and when I couldn't find Grant's one year on a long RV trip when we got overwhelmed by the critters, I got what looked similar, Amdro Ant Block I think it's called.  It was at a small town hardware store, probably True Value or Ace, and I've seen it since in many places.  I sprinkled it all around the tires and hose and cables that might provide means of entry and it did them in at least as good as Grant's.  Now when setting up camp at a new site, if I see a lot of ants on the ground, I sprinkle granules and no problem ever begins.

It's probably a good idea to run the idea past any RV park management first, as you are spreading a toxic substance on their property after all.

Joel

[Edward Buker]

Joel,

I'm actually having some pretty good luck with the Terro liquid borate formula, they were swarming all over it and have really slowed down taking the bait now after several days. I have the hose and the power feed suspended off the ground and some Comet around the tires. It is not all quiet on the Eastern Front yet but my latest barrage has them in retreat :-)

This has been a good thread,

Later Ed

[Joel Ashley]

Glad the Terro is working for you, Ed.  I use it once in a while around the house now, but my first choice is Grant's, and the Amdro jug fits perfectly along an entry step wall of the Beaver so it's very handy but not in the way anywhere.  The granules are what I use first because they are a step or two easier than liquid Terro, and in my experience they often attract the critters when Terro occasionally is ignored.  

Joel

[Bill Sprague]

I help manage a condo complex with ten units.  It is built on a slab.  One resident got some ants and went ballistic over it.   He was demanding that the entire complex be flooded with the variety of sprays provided by a commercial exterminator after he spent hundreds of dollars on baits only sold on the internet.  Of course, several in the complex went ballistic in the opposite quadrant due to worry about  impending damage or death to the dogs and cats that reside in the condos with their humans.

(Note that the active ingredients in the expensive stuff is the same as what you can get cheap at Wal-Mart or it higher scale clone, Lowe's)

Looking for answers I went to the internet.  Various PhD folks have devoted their lives to ants and written a lot.  I learned things that help.

First, ants are seasonal.  They were here before us.  There will be periods of time that they will be busy whether we like it or not.

Second, they live in the ground and only venture into our dwellings to find things to carry back home for eating and sharing with superiors.  Sugars are their favorite.   If you have an amazing abundance of ants, it means you've spilled things and not cleaned up well.  Except for the very few wood eaters, they don't make nests in our homes, even the ones on wheels.  

Third, they love coming through cracks in concrete more than crawling up our tires.   But, they are always on a mission to find food for the nest that is full of the ants with the better jobs revolving around having ant sex.  

Fourth, there are a bunch of varieties.  Thousands, I recall.  Only a very few eat wood.  If you have those, you do have a problem.  The others are only a nuisance.  

Fifth, and maybe the most important, is that all of the "approved safe baits" work, but not on all the ants.  If you don't know what ants you have, you need to get several baits that have different primary active ingredients.   They need a buffet.  And no, Raid and other sprays don't work.  They kill the workers you see, but not the ones staying in the nest having sex.  

Last, it takes time.  The worker ants have to carry enough bait back home to share before there are results.   Vacuuming dead ants is convenient, but vacuuming the workers carrying the bait back to the next slows down the process.   It takes a couple weeks for the sex workers and their offspring to consume the necessary bait down in the underground ant brothel.  

[Joel Ashley]

I've never had it take that long, Bill.  In fact once they begin taking the bait, they are more often than not gone the next day.  Only carpenter ants seem particularly hard to get rid of and regularly not attracted to baits.

Joel