Ants ants and more ants

jdurnwald · 07-10-2020, 12:54 PM

Hi all -
Looking for some best practices for keeping these pesky critters out of our cozy coach. We woke up yesterday to ants inside and when I walked outside to see where they were coming in, I was shocked to see the whole coach was swarming with ant superhighways. They were coming up both stabilizers in the thousands. We spent a couple hours spraying the outside and inside but we are still dealing with them. We left that campsite to go to another and we are still finding them. They had actually regrouped in a corner of the storage compartment planning their next assault. We took out that squad but we are still finding stragglers here and there.

Seriously looking for your best setup approaches to keeping these guys away.

Thanks!

**16ACE27** · 07-10-2020, 01:03 PM

When you first set up at camp spray all ground contact points:
Tires
Jacks
Power cable
Water Hose
Etc

Bob Denman · 07-10-2020, 02:32 PM

I agree: you have to make your campsite less palatable; than the ones around you!

The_Breeze · 07-10-2020, 04:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdurnwald

cut...

Seriously looking for your best setup approaches to keeping these guys away.

Thanks!

You sprayed and no mention of pets so assuming there are none. A colony may have set up shop in a place you can't see. The loners you see are scouts - the one that leave the trail for the foragers. Pick up some Terro at a HD and place it in there path. They'll alarm the foragers and the foragers take it back tot the queen. The colony dies. Ask me how I know. The only problem is dead ants amassed somewhere in the coach.

Bob Denman · 07-10-2020, 04:13 PM

Chasing them with a ball-peen hammer is pretty good exercise...

ducksface · 07-10-2020, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 16ACE27

When you first set up at camp spray all ground contact points:
Tires
Jacks
Power cable
Water Hose
Etc

I've never thought about ants.
Thanks.

jdurnwald · 07-10-2020, 06:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Breeze

You sprayed and no mention of pets so assuming there are none. A colony may have set up shop in a place you can't see. The loners you see are scouts - the one that leave the trail for the foragers. Pick up some Terro at a HD and place it in there path. They'll alarm the foragers and the foragers take it back tot the queen. The colony dies. Ask me how I know. The only problem is dead ants amassed somewhere in the coach.

This is multiple times I’ve heard about Terro so I will have to try it. I do have pets so I’m thinking I can put it under one of the beds where the dogs can’t get to it. I would also like to make a barrier at the contact points outside the coach to discourage them from coming in. I don’t know about spray because while it is good for killing the buggers immediately, I don’t think it does much to stop them an hour later.

Bob Denman · 07-10-2020, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdurnwald

This is multiple times I’ve heard about Terro so I will have to try it.

I hope that it does a bang-up job of Terro-rizing them for you...

Hugh.vines@att.net · 07-10-2020, 08:53 PM

Put a piece of watermelon outside they’ll go there and you can step on them

Bob Denman · 07-10-2020, 11:13 PM

Now that sounds like my kind of sport!

saddlesore · 07-10-2020, 11:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hugh.vines@att.net

Put a piece of watermelon outside they’ll go there and you can step on them

Be more fun using Bob's Ball Peen Hammer.......

The_Breeze · 07-10-2020, 11:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdurnwald

This is multiple times I’ve heard about Terro so I will have to try it. I do have pets so I’m thinking I can put it under one of the beds where the dogs can’t get to it. I would also like to make a barrier at the contact points outside the coach to discourage them from coming in. I don’t know about spray because while it is good for killing the buggers immediately, I don’t think it does much to stop them an hour later.

If you're talking about aerosol, that's correct. Think Spectrum or any other 'barrier' spray. I get Spectrum at Lowe's. It's cheaper and works as good as anything else until it rains. Then non of them work anymore. It's the other price to be paid. Same goes for borax or that earth stuff.

The_Breeze · 07-10-2020, 11:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Denman

Now that sounds like my kind of sport!

No No No. You have to follow the ant trail back to the nest, dig a small hole next to it, then next whip out that M-80 you have and light the 80.

One and done. Now that's sportsmanship

ducksface · 07-10-2020, 11:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Breeze

No No No. You have to follow the ant trail back to the nest, dig a small hole next to it, then next whip out that M-80 you have and light the 80.

One and done. Now that's sportsmanship

That's pretty old school.
It's all about propane or acetylene now.
A nice satisfying 'whooouuuummmmmoooosssshhh! Sound.
No digging.

If you use a water cracker the hydrogen and oxygen makes it all organic.
Gophers like it too.
There's even a franchise available.
It just pisses off a badger. Don't try on a badger.

Bob Denman · 07-11-2020, 12:03 AM

We use propane on wasp's nests...
You crack open a canister, and stick the business end into the hive.
After about three or four minutes: replace it with a tooled-up newspaper that is burning nicely...
It rains flaming wasps for a really long time!

The_Breeze · 07-11-2020, 03:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Denman

We use propane on wasp's nests...
You crack open a canister, and stick the business end into the hive.
After about three or four minutes: replace it with a tooled-up newspaper that is burning nicely...
It rains flaming wasps for a really long time!

Call me curious but, how'd we go from things that crawl to things that fly? Guessing you made the connection somewhere. So let's hear it...

Hope all is well

rynosback · 07-11-2020, 07:33 AM

I had some in wanted visitors once and this stuff worked great.

mcr1010 · 07-11-2020, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ducksface

I've never thought about ants.
Thanks.

Yo Duck,
Come on over to the east coast and we can supply you with just about every type of ant in the US.

Must be to hot there in AZ for the little devils.

Bob Denman · 07-11-2020, 02:33 PM

They probably realized how vulnerable they are to kids with magnifying glasses...

Big-Foot · 07-11-2020, 05:38 PM

We had the same thing happen when we stayed in the State Park in Cedar Hill (now known as Ant Hill) Texas not long after the floods a couple years back.
We now bring Diatomaceous Earth with us and put a nice barrier around the tires, jacks and anything else touching the ground.
It took us WEEKS to get rid of them from the inside of our RPod camper. They got into a LOT of our food that we thought was sealed up. I killed easily a thousand of them just with my thumb and forefinger as they marched along their trails... Lessons learned - Tupperware for almost everything. Don’t count on unopened boxes of cereal, flour, cookies etc. to be impervious to these buggers... Bring Terro Ant Baits with you... Be really careful if you have children or pets...

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