ANTS!!!

[BluebirdHazel]

Help! We have ants!!! Our rig is stationary for 6 months and we seem to be sitting on an ant hill. So far they're just in the bathroom; I've tracked them to the electrical cord which enters the RV underneath there. 

So far I've tried vinegar and cinnamon. I have an autoimmune disease and can't use any chemicals. What now.......besides move?! 

 

[rvpopeye]

Depends on what type of ants.
Try Borax+sugar+water , "ant Koolaid"

 

[Cammalu]

Can you use the chemicals outside your rig? A bait center down by where they are getting in?


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[lenny flank]

Borax is good--it has almost no chemical action on humans.

 

[Lj Unlimited]

I use peppermint oil, water, and dish soap mixture to keep them out. Spray the areas where they can come in. It works well for a few weeks. Then I need to reapply. I have also read that tea tree oil keeps bugs away.

 

[Lj Unlimited]

Or this....

https://richsoil.com/diatomaceous-earth.jsp

 

[djkeev]

Warm water, dissolve sugar in it, niw dussolve exualmamount of Borax in the Sugar water.

Throw in cotton balls, let them soak then set them out to dry.

Once dry, set them around, ants LOVE sugar...... Borax KILLS ants..... they die happy.
Humans are fine with both items.

Dave

 

[Mizmozy]

Gain dishwashing liquid.  Don't know if all scents work, but lavender does.  Feeding stray cats is an invitation for ant invasions at my house.  I draw a barrier around the feeder with the dishwashing liquid. Mix it with water in a spray bottle and spray the area as well.  If you can stand the smell, it's very effective.

 

[CautionToTheWind]

Cornmeal with boric acid mixed in a paste. Worker ants will carry the paste to the nest (workers give food to larvae and they convert it to liquid for worker ants). Paste mixture will ensure it gets to the nest as the workers only drink/eat liquid. If it's in a liquid, they might not make back to nest; paste is the important step.

 

[Ella1]

Feed 'em quaker instant grits! I take a pinch between thumb and forefinger, and sprinkle it around, not right at the entrance to the nest or on an anthill, but in the area. When I see them taking it home, I'll lightly sprinkle another pinch. Getting food to the nest will help kill the colony.

I think all the other suggestions will work, also. Another is baking soda.
You might want to check the MSDS sheets re lavender. Here's one:
https://www.essentialoilsdirect.co.uk/lavender-fragrance_oil.html
and another and you might want to google the MSDS sheets for the main constituents, too. https://www.naturalsourcing.com/downloads/msds/MSDS_Essential_Oil_Lavender_Bulgaria.pdf

 

[TrainChaser]

If it's dry where you are, encircle the tires and any other place that provides a path from the ground to the rig with the Diatomaceous Earth (DE). You can also put it anywhere the ants are moving inside the rig. Looking at it under a microscope, it looks like shards of glass -- if an ant or cockroach or any other insect with a carapace (shell) tries to wade through it, it will pierce their body, dehydrate them and they will die. It costs about $25 for a 50-lb bag, but the price goes up quickly in smaller amounts. Call your local farm/feed stores to see who carries it.

FOOD GRADE DE is totally non-toxic, a natural substance of ground fossilized diatoms. If a toddler grabs a handful of it and eats it, it won't hurt them. Some people mix a spoonful of it in juice as a source of silica and a few minor nutrients. DO NOT use any other form of it (like for swimming pool filters) because chemicals have been added.

 

[djkeev]

While DE won't kill you if ingested, breathimg the dust is a "whole nother" story.

Do NOT suck the dust into your lungs!

Dave

 

[caretaker]

there is this stuff i use called terro, you can get it at home depo, its borax(you know like 20 mule team borax) in a glycerine solution, the ants drink it and take it back to the nest and it kills the queen and the colony dies. it takes about 36 hrs to eliminate the ants, this stuff works,,you can get it 2 diff. ways, 1 a squeeze bottle, or a pre made trap, i keep both around. i mostly use the traps now, now that i got em under control. how i started was i put drops everywhere i saw a bunch of ants, i watched where they went after drinking the stuff that showed me there entry point, then theres where i put the trap, so what it does is they go to the trap drink their fill go back to the nest and they die. if you get this stuff, just put a trap by your ext. cord wait a day and they will be gone. I DO NOT have ANY ties to that company, except for using their product.

 

[BluebirdHazel]

Thank you all so much!!! Because our rig is small, the ants are now EVERYWHERE! It all happened in 2 days.

I think I'll try the Borax......Terro. Sounds effective! I really don't want to leave sugar down because it might just lure them all inside.

We may have to move the RV away from the grassy berm that we're sitting beside. The owner is really good about adding more gravel wherever it's needed so we'll tell him our problem too.

Thanks again. Fingers crossed!

 

[BluebirdHazel]

I use peppermint oil, water, and dish soap mixture to keep them out. Spray the areas where they can come in. It works well for a few weeks. Then I need to reapply. I have also read that tea tree oil keeps bugs away.

I like this idea. I have both peppermint and tea tree oils. Thanks.

 

[eDJ_]

If you can get to a Grocery Store that sells fresh Herbs,  look and see if you can get some fresh Mint.   I was reading in Dr. Bader's Pest Cures: Natural Solutions for things that BUG you.  He indicates that there are many kinds of ants, but overall they don't like Mint.

Bader also cautions about having water melon or cantaloupe left in your garbage can during ant season. Honey is another favorite of ants.

He gives a formula of having 3 1/2 TB of Strawberry Jam, 1 1/2 TB of wet canned cat food (cheap stuff) and 1 tsp of boric acid. Make small balls of this and put around where you've seen workers tracking. Keep away from kids and pest. You could put some boric acid on a slice of cantaloupe or on the rinds and leave them around outside.

https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Baders-Pest-Cures-Solutions/dp/B00B4G7CVO

He has this Youtube commercial for a 2 volume set of books for small and large pest and a special
calendar that sets a time line for preventing pest before they appear.  Quite a system for dealing with pest.

Youtube:



I'll carry mine with me on the road as part of my traveling/camping kit.

 

[TrainChaser]

djkeev: "While DE won't kill you if ingested, breathimg the dust is a "whole nother" story. Do NOT suck the dust into your lungs!"

PLEASE -- get a grip on reality! Just how is someone going to breathe the dust putting some DE around their tires? Or in their RV? To breathe the dust, you have to violently stir it up and toss it into the air.

Too much of ANYTHING is dangerous, including oxygen, nitrogen, food and water.

 

[XFILE36]

I'm a little confused. Some of you are saying Borax like in 20 Mule Team, and then others say Boric acid, as in roach powder. Are these both different chemistry compositions or the same?

 

[caretaker]

when i read the terro box for ingredients it says Sodium Tetraborate Decahydrate (Borax) 5.40% other ingredients 94.60%. the reason i used the term 20 mule team Borax was because when i read the ingredients i remembered when i was little 5or6 or so i remembered the TV show western, (i still love to watch the reruns). but i don't know which kind. but the only warning is don't give it to kids to drink,,,,i jest,,,it says put it in a place inaccessible to children and pets.

 

[MrNoodly]

First of all, except for fire ants, ants aren't harmful to humans. And they aren't dirty, like flies. They're mostly just annoying. They are harmful to wood, though. They gnaw through it to get to food and water and to make nests. So unless your rig has wood in its structure, they're not a danger to it. They get into food and water, so keep those things very tightly sealed. We had a chronic ant problem in our place in California. We'd come home from work to find trails of them, usually in the kitchen. One day the trail went into the freezer. I didn't tell my wife because she would've totally freaked out and insisted on getting rid of the ridge. I just smashed and cleaned out the ants, threw out what they'd gotten into (peas), rinsed off the other items in the freezer, cleaned the path of their trail and went on with life. You know, there are cultures that eat ants. I tried them and they're not bad.