ANTS!!!

[Echo]

OK need some advice or help here.

We are being invaded by ants. Nasty creepy crawly and bitey things!! What the heck can I use to get rid of them? What can I use to keep them out? They are biting the heck right out of me!! And they are freaking everywhere!!!

Help!!!

[BarbaraRose]

RAID!!!!!!!

Are they fire ants? Hope not! Ouch!
Check around your trailer (outside) to see if you are parked near or over an ant mound.

[JudyJB]

It will depend on the kind of ants. Some eat wood--I used to listen to them chomping their way through our knotty pine cottage. Others eat sweet things. If you can catch a couple in a bottle and seal it up tight, you might try to take it into a garden center.

I used to use a garden watering can to soak the ground around my house's foundation and the cement slab of the patio because that is where they were coming from. Can you see where they are coming from?

In the meantime, can't the campground owner do something? Surely they must know about the ants.

Good luck. I hate ants!!!

[avalen]

I'm with Barbie and would grab the Raid. But.....don't ya know theres always a but.....when I did have to deal with a situation like that I had a spray
bottle of kennel spray, one that I could actually spray on the dogs for fleas and stuff, well it worked on the ants too and I sprayed the head out of all
of them and put some extra around the doorway and other entrances. That was a nightmare and they were actually fireants and killed my little dusky
conure. Two days later I couldn't find a one.

[Birdie]

I am with Judy and would talk with the campground folks. They will have dealt with them before and will know what to do. Matter of fact lots of the campgrounds do the chemical stuff themselves so they don't have 40 different types of sprays and powders to deal with.

[dpf]

TERRO It's a syrupy clear liquid that comes in a little bottle and it is not expensive and you don't have fumes. Almost looks like Karo syrup.You put it on little pieces of heavy paper that is included with the packaging. Put them around the camper and set a couple on your counters. Maybe in the compartment where the electrical cord comes in, that's always a good place for ants to enter. At first you're going to think that the stuff is attracting them...it does and the little suckers will gorge themselves. But then they take it make to the colony and it kills them all. I've had fantastic luck with it and always keep a bottle in the rig and one in the house.

http://www.terro.com/faq-ants.php

[BarbaraRose]

Of course, whatever you use, you need to be sure Shade will be safe from it, which I am sure you already know...

[Acadianmom]

We were all invaded at the Arkansas GTG. It was small black ants but not the tiny ones. I happened to have some Torro with me so put one of the bait trays on my counter overnight. They swarmed it and the next day most were dead. I put some of the white ant poison on the mounds I could find, on my electric cord and around the wheels. I have heard of some people using Comet around their wheels but I would think the poison would work better. If they are fire ants I don't know what to use inside. I put a bait type poison on the hills but sometimes I think it just encourages them. Be sure there aren't any bushes or tree limbs touching the trailer to give them a leg up.

Martha

[Liz]

We were all invaded at the Arkansas GTG. It was small black ants but not the tiny ones. I happened to have some Torro with me so put one of the bait trays on my counter overnight. They swarmed it and the next day most were dead. I put some of the white ant poison on the mounds I could find, on my electric cord and around the wheels. I have heard of some people using Comet around their wheels but I would think the poison would work better. If they are fire ants I don't know what to use inside. I put a bait type poison on the hills but sometimes I think it just encourages them. Be sure there aren't any bushes or tree limbs touching the trailer to give them a leg up.

Martha

Yep we tried everything in AR, but the Torro that Martha gave me worked best. The cg was no help, saying they weren't allowed to put out any poison. In the end, the ants won and I left a day early. They just kept coming. I believe they were "Crazy Ants." Google it.

At my site in FL last October I had a problem with fire ants, but they didn't get inside. I kept treating around the rv until I finally got rid of them....then retreated periodically whenever I saw a new mound in the vicinity.

[rvgrammy1953]

We are fans of the "sticky" stuff. and yes, let the folks at the CG know about it..

[Bethers]

Also, see if you can find where they are coming in. A common place is up your electric cord. I try to make sure mine doesn't lay on the ground - as that will bring them walking right up. If you can control where they are coming in, you can then get rid of them inside. I also keep a fabric softener sheet at the end of the electric cord in the box in the rig. Some say it doesn't work - I've had good success with it. (And, yes, I had ants come in that way - how I learned these tricks.) The only other place I had ants come in were through a roof vent from a tree branch overhead. It was raining ants - yuck - in my bathroom!

[Carolinagal]

Ants, Oh what a nasty word. Showering in my new r.v. in Ark. I look up and there they are. I still have the ant motels and some spray left. Think we all bought the hardware out there. Fl. GTG, we had another problem and someone, goodness forgot who, said to put dishes of water around our electric cords as it had been so dry down there and they would get in that way if given the chance. I did that and it worked for me, but others weren't so lucky, I understand. Those boogers will get in any way they can. I will pay close attention to this thread to see if someone has found a real cure to this problem !!!!!

Good luck, getting and keeping them out,
CArol

[Echo]

Thanks all. I think I will try the Tarro and the dryer sheets. I'll stuff those things in every nook and cranny I can find. Do ya think that Raid or whatever will work on the door and window sills???

[Excel]

You really should be looking for the areas they're coming in from and treat there first....otherwise they'll they'll just keep coming in. Be sure to treat around your tires, your water hose & electrical cord lines...get them off the ground if at all possible...Using Raid etc., keep in mind your pet as that insecticide is a hazard for them....Cayene pepper was suggested to me some time ago...sprinkle on the ground & on them if you find the lines of them on the ground....Good luck...you could also check on Google for infor....just a thought....

[jthistle]

I'm with the girls that say Torro too. You have to be willing to look at them for another day or two while they eat the syrup and take it back "home" with them, but then they disappear. I have never had the stuff not work. It is great!

Jessica