Ants In Air Conditioner - How To Get Rid Of Them?

[WhiteCadillac]

The ants here seem to love the 2nd floors aircon¨s inside unit.

Since the pest controller who poisoned the grounds here the problem has become worse.

I know they are not dangerous, but rather annoying. I tried using RAID or similar aerosol can repellant to get them off the A/C, but to no avail. They are back again.

How to get rid of them?

[noise]

Has the aircon ever been power washed? There may be several kinds of gunk in there built up over time that is attractive to them. Yearly power washing is advised, anyway, just to get the mold and dirt build up out and improve their efficiency.

[eyecatcher]

I agree the internal unit may need to be cleaned. But "power washing";???

I have had a/c units cleaned and serviced at 2 places and they only power wash (hose pipe!) the external box for obvious reasons.

The internal box is cleaned manually with wet cloth, and small vacuum cleaner. charges are circa 300bt a unit or 1000bt for 4 doing together.

As for the ants, they are omnivores and eat absolutely anything but they need water to survive, so the aircon unit is the perfect home for them.

After you clean out the box, try and paste some of the ant repellent across their usual route towards the box.

What you don't want though is to evict them from the a/c only for them to make new home in your bed.

[hellodolly]

I agree the internal unit may need to be cleaned. But "power washing";???

I have had a/c units cleaned and serviced at 2 places and they only power wash (hose pipe!) the external box for obvious reasons.

The internal box is cleaned manually with wet cloth, and small vacuum cleaner. charges are circa 300bt a unit or 1000bt for 4 doing together.

As for the ants, they are omnivores and eat absolutely anything but they need water to survive, so the aircon unit is the perfect home for them.

After you clean out the box, try and paste some of the ant repellent across their usual route towards the box.

What you don't want though is to evict them from the a/c only for them to make new home in your bed.

Also at Tops you can buy little ant traps that have I have had a degree of success with.

[eyecatcher]

I agree the internal unit may need to be cleaned. But "power washing";???

I have had a/c units cleaned and serviced at 2 places and they only power wash (hose pipe!) the external box for obvious reasons.

The internal box is cleaned manually with wet cloth, and small vacuum cleaner. charges are circa 300bt a unit or 1000bt for 4 doing together.

As for the ants, they are omnivores and eat absolutely anything but they need water to survive, so the aircon unit is the perfect home for them.

After you clean out the box, try and paste some of the ant repellent across their usual route towards the box.

What you don't want though is to evict them from the a/c only for them to make new home in your bed.

Also at Tops you can buy little ant traps that have I have had a degree of success with.

I bet its a sod to pull back the spring afterwards to remove the dead ant

[noahvail]

Mix a teaspoonful of boric acid (available at some pharmacies) with a teaspoonful of caster sugar (icing sugar). Place it on an ant trail. Boric acid is poisonous to ants, but not to mammals and birds. The ants eat both the sugar and the boric acid, and bring some back to the nest. When they die, they are eaten by other ants, who then die, and so on. Eventually - in about a week - the entire nest is dead.

Found that on the interweb a couple of months ago after we had a couple of infestations - a week after placing the boric acid and caster sugar, no more ants. What was strange was to see all the dead ants around the white powder, come back a few hours later and they were gone - taken back to the nest for food. Yuck.

[hellodolly]

I agree the internal unit may need to be cleaned. But "power washing";???

I have had a/c units cleaned and serviced at 2 places and they only power wash (hose pipe!) the external box for obvious reasons.

The internal box is cleaned manually with wet cloth, and small vacuum cleaner. charges are circa 300bt a unit or 1000bt for 4 doing together.

As for the ants, they are omnivores and eat absolutely anything but they need water to survive, so the aircon unit is the perfect home for them.

After you clean out the box, try and paste some of the ant repellent across their usual route towards the box.

What you don't want though is to evict them from the a/c only for them to make new home in your bed.

Also at Tops you can buy little ant traps that have I have had a degree of success with.

I bet its a sod to pull back the spring afterwards to remove the dead ant

True it does take a lot of delicate handling. But it can be done.

Be patient and you to will get the hang of it.

[BlackArtemis]

I do believe that years ago when I had them invade a laptop, opened up my laptop and raised it up on blocks, underneath I had bottle caps of kerosene and the fumes drove them all away. You want something that can make them pack up and leave and take the eggs. If you just kill them their bodies can still create a bridge for something to short circuit.

I tried googling removing ants from laptops and kerosene but found nothing.