For the last two months I would be in a store or in the house and find a red ant on my left arm, always on the left arm. I mused to exbf that I thought I had ants in my car. Well, today my fears were confirmed. As I was picking up trash on the floor of the car, I found dozens. Then, I looked at my new waste basket and ants were all over it.
Parking a car in the same place will lead to ants coming in. Having stuff for them to eat helps. However, sometimes ants just need a home and, food or not, they will live in a car.
I once bought a station wagon that had been parked in a field and never detailed or washed. The vehicle was mechanically perfect just cosmetically a disaster! The first time I drove it to a craft show, loaded with my wares, I was surprised on the drive home. When I stopped for gas on the drive home, I discovered I was covered with ants. So, was the interior of the car.
When I jumped out squealing and flopping about my long, full skirt and dusting them off my blouse, and turning my head over and fluffing and hitting my hair, the guys from the gas station and from other cars came running to see what was wrong. This was not a place that sold insect repellent, but they all searched and finally found a can of some sort of insect spray. In the meantime, men tried to knock ants out of the car and smashed ones they found in the car. It was a terrifying drive home since I could feel ants crawling all over me. There may or may not have been ants crawling on me.
That was when the guys explained how ants will just bring the whole colony into a dry place and make it home. GAH! Other people have confirmed this. True? Plus, fire ants will come inside houses to make nests. So, they will live in cars. I am getting the heebie jeebies. I can feel ants on me right now, maybe in my hair.
My car is parked on gravel and hard dirt with bits of weeds that survive until I kill them. It is parked in the same spot in the driveway for an inordinate amount of time since I don't move it often. When I worked, ants and wasps did not use my car as home. Wasps make nests behind the side mirrors!
Now, I must take some Terro out and apply it to my car. Actually, I will put a bit in a white paper bowl, several bowls, and attract ants. I dread this. Remember, I was stung by fire ants when I was ten-years-old. They were at the top of one leg and above the knee on the other leg. These look like fire ants. Whether they are or not, they scare me. ALL ants terrify me. I've mentioned this before.
I understand they will be in the bits of trim that run along the door, so enticing them is the plan. I will move my car to a new spot! Tomorrow, thank goodness, exbf is coming and I will have him drive me around after he drives me to free lunch.
I have tried the boric acid, sugar and water homemade solutions. Obviously, I have never used the right recipe since I never attract ants! Never mind suggesting that...lol.
Here I go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Your turn
Have you ever heard of or gotten an ant invasion in your car? Any suggestions? Cleaning food bits out at this point is pointless except for having a clean car! Anyone as terrified of ants as I am? What terrifies you?
I feel for you. Any ant bite brings me up in giant welts. Which can take weeks to go down.
ReplyDeleteWe haven't had them in the car. For which I am grateful.
EC,
DeleteAny kind of stinging insect brings out my EPI pen. Some of the fire ant bites were several years going away.
They don't like the smell of oranges. Do you have any orange peels? Or orange cleaner from the dollar store?
ReplyDeletecarol,
DeleteI cannot clean with citrus because I am allergic. But, I will see how bad it is for me. Thanks. Daddy always fussed if Mama used anything with a citrus scent.
I had ants on my desk at work last week. Little black, really fast ants. They don't bite thought.
ReplyDeleteWe have fire ants ALL over the place down in these parts. We learn to avoid them and they rarely take up home in the house or around some place with traffic. Usually it's the corner of a flowerbed or of course mounds in the middle of the yard. Be careful!!! Nasty little creatures.
I would abandon the desk immediately until someone promised me there were no more ants. Those little ants get in my house by traveling up greenery that touches the house. I have wood siding, so they just waltz right in EVERY year until I get things down that touch my house.
DeleteMy daughter said there were fire ants in her closet at her father's house in Texas.
In an apartment building, a poor woman reported fire ants inside several times. The management did not take care of it. One day, she came and found her infant covered with fire ants. The state took her nursing infant from her and it took her a year to get it back. The owner of the apt building suffered no consequences, just the baby ripped from his mother's breast.
In the South we look down every time we stop walking. That habit has saved me. Plus, a spongy place in the grass is always fire ant mound. That habit of looking down has saved me many a time.
TheHub's office relocated recently and I am thrilled. The old parking lot was in the middle of a stand of trees and a natural area. Lovely to look at and it housed deer, rabbits and a tone of fire ants. Nearly every time I got in his car during the spring his car attacked me. We bought ant baits and put them all over his floor board and after a couple of weeks they would be gone until the next spring. Since the big move I have not been attacked once.
ReplyDeleteAnne,
DeleteThat sound like the office complex on Alton Rd., beautiful buildings in the woods. I had to attend a class there for two semesters. If this Terro does not work, I will have to figure out something else. Thankfully, exbf will be here tomorrow, and I ride with him, giving me one more day to make sure they are gone. Now, I am lying here, thinking ants are attacking ME! Tomorrow, I will get a box and gingerly pick up each thing and toss into the box. Well, I will do it while holding onto the door and until my back forces me to stop. Wish exbf could do this for me.
we
Anne,
DeleteThat was a combination of Alford and Acton rd.
We also live in fire ant territory. Looking down certainly helps when walking and paying close attention when weeding or picking up anything on the ground.
ReplyDeleteWe've never had them in the car or house but under flower pots/containers that rest on the ground/cement. Bug guy said to make sure all pots are set up off the ground as they are looking for water/moisture during dry weather. Any liquid in your car? Maybe some water left in a bottle?
Since you've mentioned your back hurts when picking things up - have you tried a 'grabber stick'? My neighbor uses one all the time. I've tried but don't seem to be coordinated enough to pick the item up and then hold on to it long enough to do something with it.
Hope your ant problem goes away quickly as they are really nasty.
Bellen,
DeleteThere is always a Coke can with a dribble in it, crumbs, water cups, water bottles. If I littered my car would be so clean.
After finding a fireant mound about two feet across and a foot high under an overturned wheelbarrow, I am wary of anything on the ground. I used Amdro liberally and covered it back up so the rain would not wash away the poison and chickens would not get into it.
I have a reacher and cannot grip and hold onto things. Plus, holding onto a thing is hard. Besides, the thing I pick up is far from me when I finally get the thing picked up. I found it beside a dumpster when I dumpster dived.
Thanks.
I do not miss fire ants. We don't have them here in the PNW, thankfully. I had never seen them until we moved to the south for a time. Whenever I wax poetic about the weather, I need to remember things like fire ants. Poor you. I an typically against chemicals, but there are some cases, and fire ants are one, where I gladly call on the likes of Dow Chemicals!
ReplyDeleteMeg,
DeleteLife down here in the South is not all Magnolias and sunshine! Chemicals are the way to go unless you want to use gasoline and throw a match on it and the mound.
Yikes just put ant traps in moms bathroom.
ReplyDeleteEventually, ant poison in bathroom will be necessary for me. I hope they don't bite your mother.
Delete