A new camper’s perspective to the ant problem.

Just consider just how small an ant is, then it isn’t surprising that they manage to sneak into your caravan, tent or campervan from tiny nooks and crannies; but when we noticed long trails of ants running along the inside of the caravan or tent, we know that they are getting in from somewhere specific. We discovered that we had unknowingly paved the way for them. On arrival on the site, we let down the steadies of the caravan, and when we plugged our electrical cable into the campsites power socket we left the excess cord lying on the ground.

The steadies and extension cord ultimately gave them an upwards suspension bridge and invited them into the van where they then entered via chinks and breaches in the chassis, windows and door frames and proceeded to eat all our food. When I say “eat our food” I mean they either ate or contaminated all our food! Being new “campers” we had not properly stored all our food in plastic containers and so the ants managed to chew their way through the packaging!

Here are my ant prevention tips:

1.     Store ALL food (apart from canned goods) in plastic containers.
2.     Do not leave unsealed food lying around in your caravan, tent or campervan.
3.     Ensure that you have not parked your caravan, tent or campervan on or close to an ant hole or nest.
4.     When plugging your extension cable for the caravan, tent or campervan into power, try to keep all of the cable   off the ground.
5.     I like to sprinkle either baby powder or “Blue Death” around the steadies of the van, the wheels and the extension cord where it enters the vans power inlet socket.
6.     It also helps to sprinkle either baby powder or “Blue Death” around the bases of the tent poles and next to the outside of the tent exterior.

These are my suggestions on how to avoid ants in your caravan, tent or campervan. So, unless you like your interior decoration to be ant-covered walls be sure you properly store your food and take care when choosing a spot to set up camp. These tips should save you from going to war with these persistent buggers and prevent them from enjoying your food before you do.

Try it, it works for me.