How to Get Rid of Ants in Car ( Detailed Instructions )

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Obsession – The main questions

1. What is the reason they appear and where do they hide?
2. How to get off of the ants in the car?
   • Aerosols
   • Insecticidal gels
   • Insecticidal crayons
3. Errors made while getting rid from the ants
4. Preventive measures

Fighting with ants in the car

It is known from the school textbook that ants are one of the few insects that are considered useful. Indeed, the name of forest orderlies is firmly entrenched for ants – their food is the larvae of other insect pests, they control populations of flies, spiders, fleas, bedbugs, loosen the soil and contribute to its enrichment with minerals. Nevertheless, some of their varieties are ready to settle wherever there are suitable conditions for this – primarily in food. And therefore, the ant colonies that populated the summer cottage can hardly be called a boon – destroying the harmful fauna, they simultaneously destroy the root system of cultivated plants, contributing to a decrease in yield.

No less a threat are ants that have bred in a living room – for them food, especially cereals, are a favorite delicacy. Often, cars also become their temporary refuge, which is also difficult to call a boon: who likes the fact that insects crawl along his legs, which can both painfully bite and distract the driver from driving, which is fraught with the occurrence of dangerous road situations. Therefore, crazy ants in a car are definitely a phenomenon that must be dealt with. But not everyone knows how to do this, and in this article we will try to outline all available and effective methods of dealing with these small ubiquitous insects.

Why do they appear and where do they hide?

Even in the temperate climatic zone, there are several hundred species of ants, for some of which the best habitat is any place where food is present. Roughly speaking, they do not need anthills. These are the pharaoh ants that form nests in apartments, utility rooms, offices, warehouses and shops. The car is no exception, in which there are many places where it is easy for the uterus and her retinue to hide. All that is needed for such a family is the slovenliness of the owner of the car (well, or members of his family). It is the non-observance of the basic rules of hygiene and the lack of the habit of performing regular cleaning in the cabin that are the root causes of the colonization of insects in the car.

Very often ants can hide in auto vents. Ants coming out of vents in your car might be unusual for you, but it is what happens, if you decide to park your auto somewhere near the river, forest, trees, grass in one word in nature. Having parked somewhere near the ants’ habitat (and this is not necessarily a forest edge – these insects feel good in the city, especially the species mentioned above), you risk that several scout insects through a slightly open window or engine compartment will penetrate into the cabin and consider that this is a good place to settle down.

What to do if ants start in the car, we will consider below. First, let’s describe where they can hide. In general, we can say that ants prefer hard-to-reach places.
We should also mention that ants always move around searching for tasty stuff, and the next spot that they may find their food is your brand new car. If you have problems with those sugar ants you will see them everywhere in your car – auto vents, dashboard, and even your seats.
Crumbs of food left after a snack, paper cups from coffee or tea, candy wrappers – all this is a necessary and sufficient condition for the life of an ant family.

Of course, insects choose them unconsciously, but somewhere at the level of instincts they understand that it is better for the nest to be in a secluded place. They can be various micronishes (for example, in car deflectors), there are a lot of them in the engine compartment. Ants can start in the glove compartment, under the rug, in door cards, even in the speakers from the car radio. In any case, be prepared that in order to get rid of the ants in the car, you will need to do a general cleaning. Careful observation of the routes of movement of insects can facilitate the search – they usually indicate the direction on which all further efforts should be focused. It is possible that you will have to disassemble something to find the uterus.

How to Get Rid of Ants in a Car?

It is unlikely that the neighborhood with small crawling insects can leave anyone indifferent. If the appearance of ants is episodic, it is quite possible that they are just looking at a possible habitat. In this case, you just need to change the parking lot of the car, and the problem will be solved. Recall that this is only a temporary measure – if you are used to eating while driving – crumbs on the floor, under the seats and in other places that are difficult to clean cannot be avoided. This means that your “iron horse” will remain a potential bait for insects. Moreover a big amount of those crazy ants – can for sure damage your vehicle.

Therefore, the vacuum cleaner should become your most faithful assistant in getting rid of the car interior from food debris and dirt. If the irreparable has already happened, and the search for the habitat of the ant family turned out to be unsuccessful, you can get rid of it using the following means:

• Ammonia has such an unpleasant pungent smell that it is with its help that people who are in a swoon are brought to life. Ants, like most other insects, also cannot stand the smell of ammonia solution. It is enough to abundantly wet the rags with ammonia and leave it for about a day in a tightly closed car (for example, on a rubber mat). This is usually enough for the insects to retreat. True, you have to come to terms with the fact that even with wide open doors an unpleasant smell will be felt in the car for at least another day;
• A vinegar solution has approximately the same effect as ammonia. In any case, the gentle ant receptors do not tolerate it. It is enough to dilute vinegar with water in a 1: 1 ratio to drive away annoying insects. In this case, the solution erodes much faster than ammonia;
• A good owner can always find a jar of turpentine in the closet. This solvent is also quite good at controlling small insects. Unlike conventional solvents, it takes much longer to weather, which provides the desired effect. True, it will take a long time to wait for the complete disappearance of the smell in the cabin;

Chemicals – that will definitely help you to get ants out of your brand new car

The indisputable advantage of aerosols is their ability to easily penetrate into places inaccessible with other methods of treatment. Microscopic particles of a substance poisonous for ants can be sprayed both in the passenger compartment and in the trunk, as well as in the engine compartment, treat the rims and the bottom of the car with the agent. With such ways you can really bomb your car from ants -and make sure that sugar ants appeared in your auto the last time.
When using an insecticidal spray, close all windows tightly and wait until the drug settles. After a few hours, you can open the doors to let the aerosol disappear, while the interior must be thoroughly wet cleaned. In other places, it is not necessary to wash off the remains of the spray – it will retain its protective properties for a long time, protecting your car from the invasion of crawling insects. In terms of efficiency and ease of use, sprays have no equal among chemical ant protection agents. Unsurprisingly, aerosols are the most common insect repellent.

Insecticidal gels

Despite the fact that the active ingredients of most insecticidal chemicals are approximately the same, the methods of application can vary significantly. That is why gels are less popular – it is more difficult to apply them, therefore they are recommended to be used with an average degree of damage (for example, if there is only one ant colony and is not numerous). The advantage of anticancer gels is that they contain substances that attract insects as a food additive. However, the poison acts rather slowly, although it is easily transferred on the legs of ants, which contributes to the rapid infection of the entire colony.
So, unlike aerosols, gels do not allow you to kill crawling insects quickly, but they are not so toxic either. By applying such a product at the end of the day, the next morning you can already get behind the wheel without any consequences for the driver / passengers. The gel, like the aerosol, is easy to apply on vertical surfaces, it holds well even when applied to the lower part of the horizontal surface.

Insecticidal crayons

For some time, such products have been extremely popular for killing insects at home. However, when it came to how to get ants out of the car, pencils or crayons are mentioned much less often – due to the fact that it is not so easy to draw stripes in a car, and this can not be done everywhere. Nevertheless, in terms of effectiveness, crayons are in no way inferior to the previous categories of chemical agents, and their action is based on getting on the paws of insects. Ants, clearing them of an incomprehensible substance, swallow poison and die. It is insecticidal pencils that can be recommended as the most effective prophylactic agent against insects – their duration of action, unlike gels and sprays, is practically unlimited.

Some types of mistakes when you’re getting rid of ants from the car:

The desire quickly to get rid of the community of insects that do not recognize the concept of personal space often leads to rash actions, the results of which are often directly opposite. Therefore, if there are ants in the car and you have not yet decided how to get rid of them, here are some tips that you definitely should not do:

• do not treat the vehicle, especially the interior, with potent chemicals (simply put, with poisons). It is possible that the ant colony will be damaged, but this is far from obvious. And that people can also suffer – there is no doubt about that. Therefore, try to use only specialized chemicals, and only adhere to the attached instructions;
• fighting ants with boiling water is only possible if you know the exact location of the family. Usually this method is used in suburban / garden plots. You cannot pour water anywhere in the car – not all components and assemblies undergo anti-corrosion treatment;
• at home, placing in different places of a house or apartment can give the desired effect, but in relation to a car, this method is of little use – except during long (from several days to weeks) downtime. But even in this case, increasing the humidity in the cabin is far from the best solution.

And in conclusion, you should just know the rules for the prevention of crazy insects and as you can see there are not so many of them, but it is not difficult to implement them.
Therefore, cleaning the car regularly, you can forget about insects forever.

You can find more information about ants here