Ants crawling on car body

In the past two or three days, I've noticed more and more ants crawling on the rear bumper, the trunk and even the roof. This morning I opened the trunk lid and saw streams of ants running along the trunk drip channels outside the weather molding. THIS WAS REALLY FREAKY!!

Home Depot had some stuff called Spectracide that claims to be odorless, will not stain, and can be used indoors or outdoors. I bought some and went to work dripping the poison stuff full strength (with an eye dropper) into the top of the rear window seal, where it trickled down under the weather strips and ran out the trunk drip channels. This really "did in" this little bastards. Flushing under the rear bumper with the garden hose, I hit a large cluster of ants that had congregated, and a bunch flushed out. Then I sprayed the bug juice underneath in back, inside the rear bumper, and inside the rear fenders. Half an hour later I flushed it all out and the ants were gone (for the time being.) Was convinced they had been eradicated, but those little buggers were back crawling on the rear bumper and fenders again this evening.

What to do about this? -- luckily they're not inside the vehicle or in the engine compartment.

I've NEVER had ants crawl on any of my cars in 40 years!!!


-Ed

You've got some type of food source or they wouldn't come. Terro sold at Lowes, ants take it back to the mound and kills off the colony.

You've got some type of food source or they wouldn't come. Terro sold at Lowes, ants take it back to the mound and kills off the colony.

Thanks, that's a good point. It looks like some of them are carrying little white morsels in their pinchers, or are those eggs? :yikes:

Could it be a new spray-wax that I applied to the car? Turtlewax Ice Synthetic? There's NO food inside, and if there were food it would be splattered underneath. Hope all those little buggers can be flushed out and this clears up soon!!

Another note to make. I don't see ants on the floor in our garage in any numbers. It's not like they're making a trail for the rear tires. In California a spider took up residence in the left rear panel under the trunk lid, and it took several weeks to flush [him] out.

Tomorrow I'll put the driver side up on jack stands and crawl under to have a look with a drop light, and with bug spray nearby.


-Ed

White morsels=eggs No idea about the wax. The food source is not always visible. I battle ants every spring/summer here in Tn. Terro is the only stuff that seems to work. I have treated, sprayed etc.

White morsels=eggs No idea about the wax. The food source is not always visible. I battle ants every spring/summer here in Tn. Terro is the only stuff that seems to work. I have treated, sprayed etc.

What form is Terro? powder or liquid? granular? You think spraying that juice underneath and squirting it in with an eyedropper wont work? I'm doubting it too because one year, I sprayed a whole gallon of `stuff´ around the the house over several weeks. It stopped the ants in their tracks but they'd be back the next day in force. The ants kept coming and I was getting sick from the chemicals.

Here's the outward appearance..

http://home.comcast.net/~edwinn/Ants_March_23_4pm.jpg


There are worse photos (more ants) but let's not go there... yet.


-Ed

Wow!! what a battle!!

I pretty much knocked them out on Friday with an insecticide marked as indoor-outdoor, odorless and non-staining called Spectracide. There was a LARGE concentration under the rear bumper and up into the tail light area on the driver side. After zapping them with many shots of juice, I flushed the rear end with a garden hose, and a couple CLUMPS of ants fell out... the description is too gross (there was a shit-load of em' though)... that was their base or nest all right!

The active chemical is called lambda-Cyhalothrin. That stuff was dripping down on my forearms and chest while laying on back, under the rear of the vehicle (sticking out of the garage) and streaming it up inside the fender wells, tail lights, etc. Those suckers died by the 100's and the NEST was wiped out. The chemical wasn't very dangerous and didn't bother me much. I called the 800 number on the product and told them the story, TWO reps of theirs including a medical guy to discuss toxicity and use. It was a good choice of product, me thinks.

Yesterday, Saturday there were many stragglers still crawling up to the roof through the drip channels on either side of the trunk. I poured some liquid 'juice' from the spray-bottle into a 80 ml beaker, and using an eye-dropper, squeezed shot after shot of stuff into gaps in the rear window molding/weather seals (at the top) and it ran out the rear drip channels and onto the ground. Same for the forward roof molding gaps. Then shot some inside the front fenders by the forward door hinges,and under the hood, into the fenders near the hood hinges. This chemical didn't harm any finishes on the vehicle.

Not a single ant in the truck. :) Apparently the body was well sealed, but they were definitely inside the car on Saturday morning!!

http://home.comcast.net/~edwinn/trunk_apart.jpg


Also, I poured some 'juice' in a peanut butter jar cover and cut a sink sponge to ~1-3/8" square, and dabbed / swiped it across areas like a fire stop. That was also effective.

Around noon, went over to Lowe's as aleekat suggested and got a six-pack of Terro traps. To make a long story short, the traps are drawing any remaining stragglers out to positions on the rear floorboards behind the center console on each side of the 'hump'. There were no ants to speak of under the REAR seat where the battery and relays are. They were however coming up somewhere under the center console between the seatbelt buckles to get at the traps. Popping the lower access cover off the bottom of the center console compartment, there wasn't a single ant to be seen, yet they were coming out onto the carpet just outside the console directly adjacent to the hatch. Go figure!

Traps on either side of the hump, and peanut butter jar cover w/sponge hear relay boxes.

http://home.comcast.net/~edwinn/IMG_3813.jpg


So.. as of last night around 10 PM, there were very few ants in the car and around the traps. BTW it took ~3 hours before the little buggers found the traps.

MANY photos of the process were taken but no time to process them right now. This crisis sure got me in touch with the Riviera on an intimate level. It should be just fine in a few more days, and now I have more detailing projects lined up. :smile:

The Riv was on external power for 10 hours yesterday.

http://home.comcast.net/~edwinn/ext_power.jpg


And yes, I've spent well over 20 hours battling these little bastards.


-Ed

This is war!

Find two local ant empires and exchange some sand between both of them.
Both colonies will blame each other for the damage and both should parish.

If you don't want to start any wars, wash your car and find another place to park it.