Thread: Ants!

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Thanks Don. I am going to pick some of this stuff up tomorrow at Lowes! I still have a TON of work to do on this car, it is very stressful. I bought this car thinking that I would be able to tune it up, replace the carpet, headliner and seat cover and a few unexpected things and then start driving it. That isn't the case I guess and now I need all new insulation, sound deadener, seal sealer, POR-15 on the floors and everywhere I can apply it with a brush, windshield and rear glass pulled and resealed since they leak and I have to pay someone to come do this now.
Oh well, hopefully tomorrow I can get quite a bit done and throw the dash back in, pull it outside and start checking for more water leaks. I know the front windshield and back window leak as well as the heater and A/C box. I need to find exactly where and take care of that or else I will have a wet floor again. Do you think if I pull the car out of the garage and set it outside in the 20 something degree weather it will help kill these things?

go with the tenting. 100% affective and immediate. I would contact some companies and see if they are tenting any homes in the area and maybe you can get them to let you just put it in the garage and leave it there while they hit the house. maybe save you a bit o' money.

interesting story, much smaller scale. I had an employee bring in a laptop that they had left in an ant infested closet, it was full of ants as well. I stuck it in a freezer overnight and next day just had to blow out dead ants. I was very pleased with my ingenuity.

Red

I emailed a local company. I am going to see what they recommend or what they can do about it and how much they will charge. I am running out of money on getting this car back on the road. It still needs about $1000 until it is barely road worthy. I still need to pay a guy to come out and remove my glass and then come back again once I clean up around the glass and put it back in so it doesn't leak anymore in rain storms.

Are you keeping the car in your garage? Is it attached to your house??? If you are trying to get rid of the ants, where do you think they'll go?
I wouldn't be keeping it in any of your buildings, you might get them everywhere inside them!

Pat

Originally Posted by FMXhellraiser

Thanks Crazyrat, I will try that out. How far are you from Charlotte btw?

I am about 45 minutes away. Right off Hwy 150, just south of Lexington.

[QUOTE=Crazyrat;373047]
And be careful, those lil'devils will sting/bite the pee out of you and the bite/sting feels like fire hence the name fireant.

That's pretty much what I was going to say, Shawn. My first experience with fire ants sent me to an emergency room in New Orleans (I have a big allergy bees, wasps,fire ants, and other stinging critters).

In this area they are bad about getting into outside air conditioning equipment as well as cars. When they infested our a/c I called an exterminator guy and he solved the problem but I don't know how he did it.

I'm famous for dumb ideas, but since the interior is out of the car, do you have (or have access to) a steam cleaner? Personally, I would take great pleasure in cooking those bleepin' things.


Jim

When I was in TX doing landscaping, we had the same problem and we would put some type of granular stuff down as well and it worked well. Can't remember the name but is probably the same or similar stuff that Don is talking about.

Thanks for the info guys. I am going to buy that stuff Don talked about right now and also I do have a steamer! Good idea, I am going to steam clean the entire interior to kill any bacteria and ants. I think that I have wiped out a good 85-90% of their colony though. The only thing I have not checked yet is the door panels but once I put everything back together I will do them separate that way I do not have even more stuff out that I have to remember how it goes back in.

The source is the Queen.If you are still seeing workers she is still around in some well secured area.They have no reason to live if the queens are dead.

It took me 2 years to rid my overhead door area.I tried the Amdro they love it, around here they have become immuned to it. I finally got them by using ammonia over a period of days.I drilled holes from ceiling to floor and pumped it in daily for a week.

I think Mustangs idea is the way to go on a small scale,but a house that is very expensive.

On the mounds we have started to use Carbonated Water,about 3 mounds per liter.The carbon dioxide replaces the oxygen and bingo no more ants,to they can't move to another location.

Texas is the buggiest place I have ever lived,as we don't get much cold weather here.

Don Dalton,
I think I may have stopped the ants... I pulled the heater and A/C box, looked in there and there are tons of dead ants. I have pulled other panels and still no ants. I see one or two here and there that are barely walking. I do not know how big the queen ant is for fire ants but I did see one that looked copper and a bit bigger than all the others. That one was in the small little vacuum valve that opens a blend door in the heat and A/C system. Inside that valve were hundreds of ants packed in there. I didn't see any eggs but that bigger one I did see. It was barely any bigger than the rest but the color was a very shiny copper.
I think after Christmas is over and I can buy a few seals and RTV or dum dum (dont know the correct name of this but I use it to seal things) then I can start putting this car back together. I am going to try and push the car outside tomorrow that way they do not get into the house in case there is still a nest somewhere in the chassis or anything. I think overall there are no more on the interior of the car besides a few lingering ones here and there that I should have gone by tomorrow since I am going to finish my POR15 job in there and have the entire thing POR15'd.
I may throw a bomb under the car, inside of it and one in the engine compartment and call it done, wash the thing down inside and out and then throw the seats in it and drive it around for a few weeks and see if I notice any ants.

Call this guy!

I would need about 50 of those things for the amount of ants that were in this car! I am hoping there are no ants in my rocker panels because they were in the sill plates and holes from the screws that hold the sill plates down.