Battle of the Ants

The popular children's song, The Ants Go Marching, begins a progression of a single ant marching through ten rather tedious verses, finally ending with the ants marching 10 by 10, and the little one proclaiming this is, "The End!"

Sadly, ants in the RV never go marching singly, and rarely by the 10s. We woke up one fine morning with an upset cat, doing her best imitation of a bird dog 'at point.' Her hissing target? A large, black, moving column of ants, working its way across the RV from a crack near the entry door, across the flooring, up the wall cabinet, and into the kitchen sink. Hundreds of the little boogers, all intent on carrying away whatever it is that struck their fancy.

Ants in the RV, like the proverbial ants in the pants, are nothing to laugh about. How do you get rid of them, and keep them gone? In our case, the first response to the attack (after cat and distaff set cleared the area) was a trip to the local hardware store. A high powered spray specifically designed for invading ants made fairly quick work of the invading forces. But how to keep them gone? Friends who were serving as Katrina relief volunteers in New Orleans quickly filled us in on the 'magic circle of Comet' trick used down there.

Ants are clever creatures--they send out scouts who scurry about the territory, looking for suitable food and water sources. If one crawls up your RV tire, water hose, power cable, et al, and eventually finds something inside your rig, he or she leaves a little smell trail of pheromones. Your proboscis won't pick up on it, but to the ants, it's an irresistible essence that must be followed--by hundreds of the scout's fellows. Why are these ants marching in a circle? Clever researchers took a dilute form of their pheromone and painted on the paper, then turned the ants loose. It's strong stuff--it's said that as little as .33 of a milligram of straight pheromone could leave a discernable trail around the entire circle of the earth!

For whatever reason, ants won't cross a line of bleach-containing scouring powder. Maybe it kills the pheromone trail, maybe it burns their little feet, we don't know. In any event, get out the Comet and shake a good border around everything of your rig that touches the ground: Tires, landing gear, stabilizers, cords, and hoses. This is better than spraying insecticide on these utilities, because the powdered cleanser will simply shake off, not stick to your hands, nor cause grief for pets and kids. Of course, if the rains fall you may need to renew your magic circle, but while the powder's out, the ants are gone.

Photos courtesy US Department of Agriculture