The Best Way to Keep Ants Out of your Campsite and RV

Who doesn’t love aunts ants at a good-old family campout? Nobody?  After all, they do have their role in the environment – aerating the soil, allowing water and oxygen to reach plant roots. They also help with decomposition by gobbling up a variety of organic waste, insects or even dead animals.

Keep Ants Out of Your Campsite and RV

Then again, ants have put a damper on many a campout. And people have been coming up with all kinds of ways to rid ants since campouts were invented.

Here’s some ideas you can try to keep the ants out of your next camping adventure.

Ants are Wise to Home Remedies

It’s a good idea to avoid chemicals, especially if you have pets and children. Home remedies also don’t work too well. These include club soda, vinegar and cinnamon. They are also particularly ineffective at reaching the ant Queenie.

Various brands of dish soap and orange oil usually do a good job. Mix your ingredient with hot water (50/50 solution) and spray around the area you want to keep ant-free. You can even give a squirt or three directly on the ant mounds. Pouring BOILING hot water into the mound hole will also knock out (fire) ant parties. For an added defense, coffee grounds will also deter the ants because they are repelled by the scent.

Best Non-Toxic Way

The best (non-toxic) way to keep ants out of your campsite and RV is to sprinkle Diatomaceous Earth (DE) around anything that touches the ground – tires, jacks, cables, power cords, hoses, etc. You can also sprinkle it around the areas the ants like to visit in your trailer or RV – like cabinets. Make sure not to wet the DE or it will not work.  The ants will die once they take a stroll through the fine power.

Keep Vegetation Off Your Stuff

Also remember to keep all vegetation away from your tent, trailer or RV. Those little devils will use the branches and leaves as a highway to invade your camping space. And if they can’t quite reach your tent from the branch, they’ll even form an ant-bridge to cross the divide! There’s no “I” in ants. It’s all about team work.

Feel free to leave a comment and let us know if you have other ideas that have worked to keep ants away from your campsite.