Gearheads love their cars. Even average drivers share special connections with their automobiles. Seeing some dust, pollen, or bird poop on your car can ruin your mood. But, believe it or not, there's something way worse than bird poop when it comes to keeping your ride squeaky clean. Ants.
An ant infestation can be tough to deal with. Your ride can easily become an anthill if you aren't careful. Vacuuming or using pesticides may not even be enough to get rid of ants. Those critters are resilient.
Before you call pest control, check out this video on the best strategy to take your car back from the ant colony that wants to conquer it.
How to Get Rid of Ants Inside of Your Car
You have to understand that ants come in many different species. Hopefully, the mound of ants that found their way into the interior of your car and its crevices aren't fire ants. Black ants are slightly easier to endure. Ants don't just come from a poorly chosen parking spot, either.
Ants can get into your vehicle from the car wash, as well. When they are in search of food and you have food wrappers or crumbs on your floor mat or in your car doors, you just made your car the perfect target for an ant nest. These things can be just as nasty as termites or cockroaches once they find a source of food in your car.
Before you go about tackling your ant problem and buy ant traps, ant baits, or ant killers, first thing's first. It is important to identify the types of ants that you are dealing with, because they have some unique differences. There are black ants, fire ants, carpenter ants, worker ants, and even more. Lucky you, right? Once you are able to identify the species of ant, you can properly select the appropriate bait or gel to use.
If this all seems like way more work than just bombing your car with insecticide, it's because it is. However, if you don't handle this problem the right way, you may need ant control. Whether a vacuum cleaner or a phone call to pest control is your weapon of choice against these critters in your car, I'm sure you'll never make the mistake of leaving food crumbs on your seat covers ever again.
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This post was originally published on May 7, 2021.