I bought a 1990 IROC a week ago (awaiting an engine) and the car had been sitting for a few years before I purchased. Well, basically, what's the best way of getting rid of the better half of Earth's ant population currently located in my new project car?
Um... without destroying teh vehicle that is. It is a convertible if that matters. One last question, does RAID insecticide hurt paint or any other area's of the car.
Thanks

 

If there is a good sealer on the paint it should not hurt it. Test it on a spot inder the hood or the trunk lid. That should give you a good idea.

Also, try a shop vac to get up all of them you can. Once you have them in the bucket of the shop vac, just add the RAID.

 

Wow! Where was that thing sitting that it got all of those ants in it? And what kind of exhaust tips are those in the pic? They look like either the tips were closed off or they look like a Supertrap exhaust that I had on my 91 Honda CBR!

 

I've vacuumed for the past three nights in a row! I come home from work and there's 35,000 more! Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating just a little but serously I set out ant motels, attacked them with Raid and every night they're all over it again. I'm guessing there must be a few colonies like inside the doors and probably in between the carpet and the floor board. Guess I'm gonna have to get into those areas if I want it done right.

 

It was on the side of a driveway in the grass underneath a tarp. And yes Supertraps it is! And yes they will be going away in favor of something a little more current.

 

Maybe try one of those room foggers. Fumigate 'em. Don't know if that will work on ants, but worth a try.

 

I've thought about that but the only way I can see that working is to shut her up in the garage and do it. The thing that's got me worried is I have a gas hot water heater in the garage as well so I would need to make sure that stuff isn't combustible. Of course, I guess that would take care of my ant problem

 

I don't know if it is a viable answer but have you tried calling Terminix? Not sure if they can fix the problem or not. I would strip the interior down to metal door panels and all and see if you can find where they are colonizing at. My guess is inside the doors. If you are a little indimidated by taking all of the interior out maybe try shooting water down the outside of the window with it up so that it goes down into the door and see what all comes out of the drain holes. Ants are probably going to have dirt and stuff in there if they are living there. Problem is they might be living in the seats. In which case finding a fogger to get rid of them is going to be the only way to go.

 

....

 

I used some oats or something when I had ants in my car.
I can't remember what it was though. The ants would eat it and then die. I just sprinkled some on the floor boards and a few days later, no ants.

 

My bro had the same problem when he bought his 72 concours wagon, he went and bought a couple boxes of the raid ant motels or whatever and put them throughout the car and a few days later he was ant free!

 

Dude, I had the same problem but it was in a set of seats I bought. The rear fold down became an ant colony. When I bought the set of 93 camaro seats from a junk yard and the car had been sitting for a while.

I just pulled back my upholstry and vacuumed the little buggers out of there. Took be about 2 days to finally get them all. I also sprayed some raid in the seat but not much.

Good luck!

bill

 

I'm using the ant motels also but I guess I needed more than 6 because they just keep coming.
Back seats, luckily the back seats were in storage so they're fine (I think). What I afraid of is taking out the carpet and seeing the floorboard move... ick! Today they didn't seem to be as many so maybe they're thinning out... maybe.