Ants in the Camper!

On our trip this past summer, we experienced our worst issue so far with ants. They were everywhere and got all in our camper. I woke up in the middle of the night with them biting me. That's not a pleasant way to wake up. In all my years of camping in tents and hammocks, I'd never had problems with ants. I ended up spraying the camper and every point that touched the ground with Deep Woods OFF that I happened to have. That eventually afforded us some relief.

When we got back home, it was time to research how to deal with ants with RV's. I researched a few RV forums and searched via Google. Most folks talked about the various ways to get rid of ants. There's two types of folks I discovered from reading: the type that don't want to KILL anything; and the type that don't mind a few dead ants. I happen to belong in the second group. The good news is, whatever group you belong to, there are solutions

To Dissuade

 One non-lethal is to put petroleum jelly on the electrical, water, sewer lines. Apparently it annoys them; it would annoy me too if I was going to unhook and grabbed a nice slimy water hose/electrical cord. The other method I've read is using black pepper.

To Kill or Be Bitten

So if you don't mind a few dead ants, there are several options available. They range from baits you'd setup outside the camper to kill the colonies, to using borax or defense barrier sprays around any part of the camper that touches the ground. Home Defense or similar sprays tend to be common from what I read and work pretty good. The key is to block any area they can climb on the camper. So that means: leveling jacks, tongue jack, electrical cord, water/sewer hoses, wheels, awning poles, anything leaning against the camper, etc. I ended up buying Spectracide Ant Shield at our local Walmart. It seemed to do the job on the last trip. Not an ant in sight. I guess to test it fully I should go back to the campground/site that I had all the problems at. I'll keep you updated as we do warm weather camping next year on how it continues to work.

Do you have a any recommendations for keeping the ants at bay? What's your favorite lethal/non-lethal method for keeping the ants from ruining your trip? Feel free to leave a note below to share with others!