Montgomery, AL
Let me address the nicer part of the post title first. Saturday was a beautiful weather day here in the Montgomery, AL area. We decided to go to the
Montgomery City Zoo and Mann Wildlife Learning Center. Karen and I hadn't been to a zoo together since we last saw the National Zoo in Washington, DC. The Montgomery Zoo isn't as large as DC's, but we still had a good time. It was not crowded and most of the crowd was comprised of younger families with smaller kids. The zoo is divided into continents with animals native to each area.
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| Lion- approx. 1 1/2 YOA |
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| White Tiger |
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| Sloth Bear |
Of course, we saw the lions, tigers, and bears, but also chimps, giraffes, and elephants as well.
You can never go wrong watching a chimp! (Unless, of course, you get a bit too close.)
Attached to the Montgomery Zoo is the Mann Wildlife Learning Center. This was a very interesting exhibit. Most of the exhibits were from North and South America and they were presented in such a way as to show the interaction between species and between animals and man.
We learned from the guide at the entrance that all of the specimens inside were contributed by Mr. Mann from his travels throughout the years.
Moving on to the "Ants" part of today's blog. Here at Gunter Hill COE park we've been invaded by ants, the small black "sugar ant" type. We would love to hear any blog reader suggestions for ways to prevent/eliminate these little buggers. To bring you up to date, we've already tried putting vaseline around our water hose where it enters the rig. NO GOOD! The ants march right thru it. Next I tried wrapping a dryer sheet around the water hose, but again the ants walked right over it.
The product which I've had the most success with thus far is Comet. I've sprinkled it liberally around our tires and jack pads where they contact the ground.
I placed some under the water hose, let it make contact with the ground, and sprinkled a bit on top of the hose for good measure. This seems to be the best deterrent to date. I haven't seen any ants attempt to walk thru the Comet.
Any suggestions on this subject would be greatly appreciated. I guess this is one of the few negatives associated with fulltiming. We've been camping in various styles of rigs for over 20 years now and never had this problem. I believe we are having the problem now because we are sitting parked in one place for more extended periods of time.
Thanks for taking a look!
Try getting some Terro at Home Depot or Lowes. You just just put a little dab on a post-it note or something like that and lay a few of them around inside the motorhome where you see the ants. The ants will eat it and bring it back to the queen and the colony dies. It will take a few days. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteThanks Karen and Al. I had read about Terro on another site and we went to Walmart to get some today. Will report back in a few days to let everyone know how it went.
DeleteDiatomaceous earth ....that's a mouthful! You can find it at Tractor Supply store. You can Google it to read up on it.
ReplyDeleteI know you want to get the ants taken care of soon. I did enjoy the zoo animals however. We had a bit of snow this morning, about 2 inches I think, but then it rained and most of it is gone.
ReplyDeleteThey can be quiet an enemy to battle. I can't keep them out either, but Green Works spray cleaner kills them fast and you don't have to worry about poisonous chemicals on your counter tops and cabinets.
ReplyDeleteDon't give up the ship!
We had a terrible ant problem. These small ants were climbing up our walls by the thousands! They just appeared one morning. It took only two days to get rid of them. We used TERRO liquid ant killer. We just put the liquid on paper towels and it immediately started drawing the ants. And for immediate cosmetic results, I just took some windex and started spraying them. Killed the ants and did my housekeeping too.
ReplyDeleteMy husband put this Terro http://www.victorpest.com/store/terro-insect-control/t100 by the ant hills we saw also. Scott (husband) too duct tape and put it inside out (sticky side out) around our hoses, etc. We were surprised that after seeing thousands of ants in the RV, that they were gone in two days!
Knock on wood ... no ant problems so far, so I have read your comet application and the comments from your readers with interest. Mui picked up some Spectracide Ant Shield (pellet-like stuff) from Home Depot when we started out. We sprinkle that on any mounds we see near the site ... not sure if that's what has kept us safe or just plain good luck (for now)
ReplyDeleteJust checking back to see how your ants are.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Tero is a pretty safe product, and you probably have more poisonous items under your kitchen sink.
"Terro can be used safely around pets and children. The inert ingredients are sweet food-based products similar to pancake syrup. The active ingredient is Borax. Borax is a natural mineral that is found in many consumer products and has been used safely by homeowners for years. "
good luck
The Terro seems to be working. We put the Terro self-contained traps down in a couple of places we had seen the ants parading and they have almost completely disappeared. My only concern is that I thought the solution in the Terro was supposed to be taken back to the nest to kill the larger group. We have found a bunch of dead ants both inside and around the Terro containers. The war wages on!
ReplyDelete