That time of year is almost upon us again. The time when everyone goes on vacation. How many people, who enjoy vacations in this country, enjoy using a recreational vehicle? Yes RVs are going to be going all over the country this year, now that the pandemic is almost behind us. But with RV vacations, comes responsibilities and things that need to be taken care of. You’ll need to get your RV ready, maintenance done on it and any prep work you’ll need to do for the trip itself. One issue that you can have with RVs, is ants in your RV. Let’s take a closer look at this issue.
CLASSIFYING ANTS
Ants predominantly, for the sake of this subject, fall into two distinct categories. The two categories are indoor and outdoor ants. Outdoor ants are ants that prefer to build their colonies outside. These ants will find their way into your homes and your RV because of foraging. They’re looking for food. Indoor ants are ants that will live either indoors or outdoors. These ants will set up shop in your RV or home, building a colony that they will maintain and continue to pester you with. By far, indoor ants are so much more of a threat to your RV enjoyment. Once they get inside and set up their colony, they will continue to crawl around searching for food and water at any time and in any place. You won’t be able to drive away and leave them behind like you can an outdoor colony.
Outdoor ants are problematic because they are foraging for food. They’re going to find your RV, and enter it looking for something to eat. If you have food out, or unclean dishes, or a pantry with open food, then they will be attracted to your RV and the food inside. It’s important to keep the kitchen area of your RV clean and sanitized. Keeping dishes washed and food put away is important in keeping a sanitary living condition. There are exterior sprays that can be applied to the outside of your vehicle to keep outdoor pests from getting inside. It’s important to contact your Tulsa exterminator for more information about these kinds of pesticides.
TREATING THE OUTSIDE FOR ANTS
Exterior pesticide can be a repellent extra pesticide. Many over-the-counter pesticides are repellent by nature. But again, in most cases, it is better to get a professional to come in to make sure that you have the right pest control applied to the right locations. Tires are difficult to treat with pesticide. They are the only part that the vehicle is in contact with the ground, so ants and other pests much travel on them. But tires, due to friction, get very hot during driving and are constantly being spun with centrifugal force. This centrifugal force is forcing the pesticide out to the edge where the tire is the hottest. Pesticides do not do well under extreme heat conditions. Spraying the interior of your wheel wells and on the side of the truck is much more effective.
Indoor ants produce their own issues. The most common indoor ant species is the odorous house ants. This ant gets its name because, if you crush the ant and smell it, it will have a distinct smell. Most people describe the smell as a rotten coconut smell. These ants are small and black and are usually very numerous. They are an ant type that can splinter. The act of splintering is basically making one colony of ants turn into two colonies. What happens is, if a number of worker ants are separated from the colony, and cannot return to the colony, then they will create their own colony.
SPLINTERING
The queen emits a pheromone that keeps the female workers sterile. When the workers can no longer get to the queen, they are no more no longer in contact with that pheromone. At that point the workers become reproductive. One of those workers will become the queen, and together they will begin the process of building a new colony. The new queen will, of course, emit her own pheromones causing the workers that are with her to go back to being sterile females. All worker ants are female.
If you attempt to deal with odorous house ants with over-the-counter pesticides, it can be a disaster. Over-the-counter pesticides are almost always repellent pesticides. Repellent pesticides can be detected by insects such as ants and they repel these insects. By spraying a can of your favorite pesticide all over your RV, you are likely to separate a group of workers from the original colony. You may even separate multiple groups of ants, causing multiple new colonies to spring up. This means now you have more than one queen laying more eggs with more workers. This obviously will compound your problem.
ELIMINATING ANTS FROM YOUR RV FOR GOOD
The best solution for indoor ants inside your RV is to contact Broken Arrow exterminator. They will be able to help you and use the correct pesticide for the job. Ant issues can be difficult if you don’t know how to treat them. But if you have the knowledge, and the pesticide that you need, they can actually be very easy. Usually one treatment to an RV can do the trick. It’s a great idea to get your RV treated for pest before the season starts. This kind of preparation can keep ants from getting in your RV to begin with. Of course this leads to much less headache down the road, and fewer calls to your local Tulsa pest control company.
If you’re having issues with ants or any other pests in your RV, home or business then it’s time to call in a professional Broken Arrow pest control company. TermMax Pest Control is the best in the business. We service the greater Tulsa area including Owasso, Sand Springs, Sapulpa, Prattville, Jenks, Bixby, Broken Arrow, Coweta, Claremore, Turley, Catoosa and much more. Call today for a free estimate. We’re here to help!