Imagine driving on the highway and suddenly noticing something small crawling rapidly on your car’s dashboard. Oh no, your car might be infested with ants! If left unchecked, you might need to say goodbye to tapao-ing food or going to the drive-through in your car lest the pests get to it first. Before the situation worsens, it’s better to find out how to get rid of the ants in your car.
You can take several preventive steps to eliminate ants and other pests such as cockroaches in your car. From using natural ingredients to heavy-duty ant poisons, here are some car pest control tips you can practice.
How to Get Rid of Ants in Your Car
1. Clean Your Car’s Interior Regularly
Cleaning your car regularly is the best way to counter ant and pest infestations. Food and drink residues are the primary causes of your car being invaded by insects, so keeping your car clean makes it unattractive to pests.
Use a vacuum cleaner to clean the nooks and crannies in your car, focusing on usually overlooked areas, such as seat crevices, baby seats, and carpets.
Want an even cleaner result? Spray the interior of your car with a fragrant surface cleaner such as a lemongrass spray from Kleenso or Afy Haniff and wipe it down with a clean cloth. Besides providing a fresh scent, it will eliminate the pheromone trails typically used by ants to find their way home. This will confuse the ants, and they will wander off elsewhere.
2. Use Natural Ant or Pest Repellent
You can also use natural insect repellent to keep ants away from your car. Some natural ingredients you can use include cotton balls soaked in vinegar, cinnamon powder, coffee grounds, and citrus fruit peels such as lime or lemon.
All of these ingredients have strong aromas that will disrupt the scent trails ants use to find food. However, this doesn’t mean you can simply place these ingredients anywhere in your car to repel ants. They need to be placed near their nests or along ant trails for them to be effective.
If you have a cockroach problem in your car, you can dilute one part vinegar in four parts water with a few drops of tea tree oil and spray the mixture on the surfaces in your car to repel cockroaches. You can also keep pandan leaves, cinnamon powder, and citrus fruit peels in your car.
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3. Use Ant Poison
If natural ingredients can’t solve the ant infestation in your car, try using ant poison like Ant-X. Choose ant baits or ant poison specifically designed for indoor or car use, and place them at areas with high ant traffic, or just follow the directions on the packaging.
Ants will perceive this poison as food and carry it back to their nest. This makes the poison more effective as it is designed to get rid of the source of the ant infestation in your car. If you have other pests such as cockroaches, it’s best to use pest control products specifically designed for them.
4. Get Help from a Pest Control Specialist
If ant poison fails to eliminate ants in your car, it may be time for you to seek professional pest control services to assist you.
They have been trained to handle pest infestations and have the expertise and necessary tools to effectively eradicate ants and other pests from your car. Additionally, they can provide guidance on long-term car pest control methods to avoid ants from re-infesting your car in the future.
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Tips for Preventing Ants & Cockroaches from Settling in Your Car
Just getting rid of the pests isn’t enough if you don’t practice the necessary preventive measures. Here’s how you can prevent ants and cockroaches from reinfesting your car.
- Don’t leave food or drink scraps in your car: If you spilled any food or drink in your car, clean them up immediately. It’s a good idea to have a bin in the car so you can easily throw food wrappers, scraps, or tissues without dirtying your vehicle.
- Cover up possible ant entry holes: Check for any gaps or open holes in the doors and body of your car. They should be sealed with suitable insulation or rubber seals to prevent ants or cockroaches from entering the car.
- Don’t park underneath trees: Avoid parking your car near areas that usually have ants, such as under trees, near trash bins, beside drains, and damp areas. This can greatly reduce the chances of pests entering your car.
There are many ways you can repel ants that have nested in your car. By maintaining a clean interior with regular cleaning, properly disposing of your trash, and using natural insect repellents, you can effectively protect your car from being overrun by these six-legged creatures.
We hope these tips on how to get rid of ants in your car can help you keep your car pest-free and make it a pleasant space to be in, be it on your daily commute or long road trips.
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