ANTS ON CAR

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Leafabout

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 10, 2015
Messages
46
Location
North Carolina
Has anyone had problem with ants crawling on the Nissan Leaf? I've had my Leaf for three years now and recently have had a problem with ants crawling over my car. I don't go through drive-thrus or eat any food in the car so I'm perplexed as to why I have an ant problem. I wash the car--not a lot-- but that doesn't seem to help.
 
Funny you should mention this ant issue.

I have never had any ants crawling on (or in) my car until this year. Whenever it gets hot in the summer we also seem to get more of the small black ants coming into the house - they are attracted to food, of course, but also smelly laundry or even dirty tissues.

This year we had some extra hot weeks early in the summer (hey, that Global Climate Change in action) and we have had extra ant attacks in the house.

I have been charging my EV in the garage since 2011. Now drive a 2017. One day when I plugged in to charge overnight my cord hung down and touched a gym bag sitting on top of a box. Well the scout ants climbed up on the box, found the gym bag, then followed my charge cable to my car. Must have found something interesting and called the ant army to follow.

When I went out to my white car in the morning I saw a stream of black ants crawling on the hood and onto the roof. Later I saw a bunch of ants streaming along my charge cable and inside the charging area, crawling through any small holes they could find.

It took several days before I could kill them all. You think you got them all only to find more come out of hiding later.

Now when I charge I make sure the cable does not touch on anything and even wrapped a paper towel around the cable and spray it with some soapy cleaner that they don’t like.

How do they climb onto your car?
 
No ant problem, but I make it a point to check the "engine bay" regularly. The warmth when charging apparently makes quite a cozy environment for rodents. Had to do an unpleasant cleanup once. Thankfully they hadn't gotten around to chewing any wires.
 
Ants use chemical trails to guide others from their colony to food. It's possible that whatever is being used to wash the car is being perceived as food. If not, you have to eliminate the trail; I seem to recall lemon juice as being effective, so maybe a lemon-scented dish detergent as a car wash would work.
 
I've had ant problems on cars a couple times. Usually it is during hot weather and I pulled too far forward in a parking spot and the front fender makes contact with the grass in front of the parking spot. Once I find the ants, I've paid more attention to the parking so as not to get more. Then a couple trips to the car wash eventually seems to get them off. But it is a pain for a couple days.
 
Mothballs- critters hate them. My Lexus is parked outside and I found a swarm of carpenter ants trying to get inside the car. I put some mothballs inside and problem solved. If your car is in a garage, sprinkle some under the car.
 
joeriv said:
Mothballs- critters hate them. My Lexus is parked outside and I found a swarm of carpenter ants trying to get inside the car. I put some mothballs inside and problem solved. If your car is in a garage, sprinkle some under the car.

IIRC, mothballs are toxic if you inhale more than tiny amounts of the vapor. I wouldn't put them in a car that gets hot.
 
If you see where they are coming into your garage just get some food grade Diatomaceous Earth and sprinkle it around, the ants will or should be gone in a couple of days. You can usually get Diatomaceous Earth at the local hardware store. They do have Diatomaceous Earth that has a pesticide in it also. I buy food grade because its safe to use.
 
Thank you everybody for responding. I would guess they climb onto the tires. I laid out ant bait near the windshield wipers and on the back bumper. I finally am able to say I don't see anymore ants roaming on the car. I park my car in parking space in from of a townhouse. I don't eat in the car or even allow food in the car other than the weekly transfer of groceries. I have to say I think the ant bait did the trick.
 
Back
Top