Invaded by ants!

[Jay Petzold]

Got to the boat today, ants everywhere any help for keeping them away? I'm sure my kids crumbs didn't help

 

[buckbuck]

Hence one of the rules that we have on our boat...NO FOOD except on the back swim platform. Letting a wave wash over the platform gets it mostly clean again.
We once had carpenter ants move in. They climbed up the trailer tires. I poisoned the ground around the tires and bought little ant poison cans and put them in a few places under the seats. Took about a week to get the creatures.

 

[0627Devildog]

BORAX. . . . .keeps ants away without using any harsh chemicals.

If you park your trailer in the same general vicinity you could treat the ground directly creating an invisible ant barrier in the future.

If you move it from place to place you could treat the trailer directly but will have to do it after each launch.

Also, if you're parked directly under tree cover they can come from above.

 

[Jay Petzold]

Boat is in a wet slip, I'm going to pull all the carpet out and give it a good cleaning and put some ant traps in when I put the cover back on

 

[0627Devildog]

Boat is in a wet slip, I'm going to pull all the carpet out and give it a good cleaning and put some ant traps in when I put the cover back on

Sorry didnt realize if was a wet slip. You can put the borax in under the seats, it washes away with water once they're gone.

 

[Jay Petzold]

Going to look into that

 

[zelone]

If its little black ants, get the traps called "Terro". Home Depot and Lowes have them, but they can be hard to find, compared to the other brands. They work as advertised, when nothing else I tried did.

 

[Bill D]

Terro brand traps and sprays have always worked best for me. But BORAX works really well as a deterrent.

 

[bronze_10]

BORAX... lol. I just wanted to get it in this thread one more time!

 

[Jay Petzold]

Is Borax safe for lake water I'm guessing not, reasoning is if I can find something to treat my dock lines, ants are coming from the docks

 

[Bennie]

....ants are coming from the docks

Btw - Windex kills the pheromone trail that ants use to "follow the leader". Saturate your lines in some Windex...should help.

 

[Julian]

Is your boat not very far out on the dock? If it's your dock...then I'd be nuking the connection point of the dock to land with ant powder of some sort...often. Ants got into my SX230 once when I parked with a branch from a tree touching the back....now I keep an eye out for that!

 

[Jay Petzold]

4 ant traps did the trick