How To Get Rid of Ants From Your Car

This page is an expert guide on how to get rid of ants from your car using the products and methods suggested by our experienced pest control specialists. Follow this guide and use the recommended products and we guarantee you will be successful in removing ants from your car.

Ants can be an annoying issue to deal with on a property. They like to build mounds in your yard, and they even may march their way into your home in search of food. Ants can be found in the most peculiar of places but still, it may surprise you if you find an army of them in your car.

Ants are active foragers and will go wherever there is food and moisture, even your car. You may not notice their presence in your vehicle until you go for a drive and find them crawling on you and delivering itchy bites during your commute. Trust us when we say that you don't want that type of distraction when you're on the freeway.

In this guide, we’ll explore the unique situation of ants infesting cars and how you can get rid of ants from your car using our expert techniques and professional-grade ant control products.

Identification

When you discover ants in your car, you may not care what type of ant they are, you just want them gone. However, it may be important to properly identify the ants you found in your car to help you in your treatment approach.

Some ant species carry a greater sense of urgency in addressing the infestation than others. For example, fire ants are not just known for their painful bites but also the damage they can do to things like wiring and the electrical components of your vehicle. 

Some ants are more attracted to sweet foods (like Little Black Ants and Pavement Ants etc.) while others enjoy protein (like Carpenter Ants and Pharaoh ants) and you can easily find this out by observing the food source they start flocking to. This bit of information can help in determining what ant you have and, in turn, what treatment products you should use to eliminate them.

Closely observe the ant's physical characteristics and then check out our Ant control section to find images and information on various common ant species to help you correctly identify the ant.

Inspection

Ants don't just invade vehicles because they want to make your life miserable; they invade because they are constantly on the hunt for their next meal and your vehicle offered them an easily accessible option.

While ants in your car can cause concern and even panic, rest assured knowing that it's highly unlikely that ants will stick around. They merely have found food and the worker ants are just taking that food item back to their nearby colony to feast upon.

Where to Inspect

Ant infestations are mainly found on the floor of your car but they will be anywhere that there is dropped food. This can be the foot area of the driver or passenger seat, the back seat (especially if you have child seats) and even the trunk if you may have had a food item fall out of a grocery bag. Crumbs and food bits can fall even in the deep crevices of seating which ants can easily crawl their way down into.

What To Look For

You should be looking for ants themselves and the food sources they may be targeting. Unfortunately, due to people's habits of eating in cars, our vehicles become essentially a holding place for all of our food droppings.

Children snacking in the back seat, having a meal on the go, food particles will accumulate if you don't regularly get your car cleaned and vacuumed out.

You should also observe if there is an ant mound nearby because it is likely that ants are coming from a nearby nest, infiltrating your car for food and returning back to the nest with their scraps.

Where you park your car and what is around the parking spot can make it difficult or easy for worker ants to scavenge for food and seek out your car as a foraging place.

Treatment

Once you have identified the ants in your car and located the areas where there were food sources the ants were flocking to, you can then proceed with treating the infestation. The best way to do this is to thoroughly clean the interior of your car and then follow up with an application of Novacide Aerosol. You should also address any nearby ant mounds or active ant colonies by treating your yard with Supreme IT Insecticide. 

Step 1: Clean Out Your Car Interior

If there is any sign that you need to give your car a detailed vacuuming, its when ants have infested it. Gather any crumbs, food wrappers, dropped food items and other garbage in your car and toss them out. After than, pull off the cars carpeting and seat covers and hang them outside for cleaning.

You should then take a hand vacuum or go to a car wash station and vacuum your car's interior, making sure to get into all the cracks and crevices the best you can. When ants don't have food to consume in your car, this alone should eliminate the problem as they will have nothing to forage for in your car and will scavenge elsewhere.

Step 2: Apply Novacide Aerosol

As an extra added measure to kill any lingering ants in your car, apply Novacide Aerosol. Novacide Aerosol is a combination insecticide that kills various ant species (except Carpenter Ants, Fire Ants, and Harvester Ants) but also contains an IGR (insect growth regulator) that disrupts the reproductive cycle of insects.

The best thing about Novacide is that it can remain effective for up to 7 months after application. Spraying Novacide on your car's floors and seats will do a great job in wiping out the infestation and making sure ants don't come back into your car. It is important to note, however, that Novacide cannot be used on leather or synthetic leather interior surfaces and seating. It is meant for carpets and upholstery

With all your car doors open and windows down, spray the Novacide in a downward sweeping motion onto the seats and the car flooring. Afterward, you will need to let the car ventilate and do not drive it until the product has totally dried and the fumes have dissipated.

Step 3: Apply Supreme IT on Your Property

Does their happen to be an ant mound near your driveway or somewhere in your yard? That may be where the ants have been coming fro. The final blow to the ant intruders is an application of Supreme IT Insecticide around the yard. 

Supreme IT Insecticide is ideal for treating ant mounds directly and broadcasting on your lawn because the active ingredient (Bifenthrin) is effective against many ant species and carries a long residual effect of up to 90 days. 

If you find an ant mound, dilute 1 teaspoon of Supreme IT per gallon of water and use 1 to 2 gallons of the finished product in a sprayer then apply the solution over the top of the mound and allow the dilution to flood the entire anthill.

Drenching is key because it allows for the insecticide to reach the ant queen and kills her and puts an end to reproduction. You are going to want to treat roughly a 4-foot diameter area around the mound for best results.

You should then apply Supreme IT over your entire yard at a rate of 1 oz. per gallon of water per 1,000 sq. ft. You could use either a pump sprayer or a hose-end sprayer if your yard is very big. 

Prevention

The best way that you can keep ants out of your car is if you change your eating habits inside your car or at least do a routine cleaning and vacuuming of your car's interior.

Aside from this, you can choose to reapply Supreme IT in your yard every 90 days for continued control of ants on your property. With no ants in your yard, the chances are highly unlikely that your car gets infested again. 

Key Takeaways

How Do Ants Get In Your Car?

• Though uncommon, ants can infest cars when there is easy nearby access to a vehicle and food sources available for consumption.

How to Get Rid of Ants From Your Car

• Vacuuming your car and applying a combination of Novacide Aerosol and Supreme IT outdoors in your yard (as well as directly to ant mounds) can eliminate an infestation.

Prevent Reinfestations of Ants in Your Car

• When ants have been killed, prevent reinfestations with preventative treatments of Supreme IT in your yard and keep up with a regular vacuuming schedule for your car.