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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Great and amazing post. Thanks for posting.
You’re welcome – thanks Nisha!
I loved it when you said that remember to keep all vegetation away from your tent, trailer, or RV. We are planning to have a camping vacation with my wife and kids. And the first thing that comes to my mind is resort camping. You give me all the information that I need for this adventure. I will find the best RV camping park to make this bonding with my family memorable.