# Queen ant somewwhere in my car's air conditioning **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 5, 2013, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-ant-somewwhere-in-my-cars-air-conditioning/670420 "2013-10-05T05:54:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2013, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-ant-somewwhere-in-my-cars-air-conditioning/670420/1 "2013-10-05T05:54:16Z")
I don’t see any other explanation. I never see them anyway in the car’s interior, and believe me, I search. I start the car and turn on the A/C, and I can see them fly out. The longer the A/C has been off, the more that shoot out. I have vacuumed the SHIT out of my car, I have placed ant traps in the floorboards which never catch anything. I have washed the car and mega-vacuumed what I thought was the air intake. Below the windshield wipers? It’s an Acura TL. I have left the car running and sprayed RAID ant killer all through everything. Yet, today, after maybe 3 days of sitting without the A/C on, I turn it on and manage to kill 20 ants during a 3 mile 15 minute drive. They are shooting out of the vents. What’s the best way to find and kill the queen? Surely there’s a queen, it’s been three months. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2013, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-ant-somewwhere-in-my-cars-air-conditioning/670420/2 "2013-10-05T11:03:04Z")
Did you change the filter? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/FQsDxqxyeqM/hqdefault.jpg "How to Change 2004-2008 Acura TL Cabin/AC Filter") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQsDxqxyeqM) ---
**Author:** ![aNewLeaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2013, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-ant-somewwhere-in-my-cars-air-conditioning/670420/3 "2013-10-05T11:03:18Z")
I feel bad laughing about this. I want you to know that. 😃 Yes it sounds like a pregnant queen got in your car. Spraying in from outside isn’t going to do it, you’ve got to get inside the car, seal it up, and spray poison while recirculating the air. Which obviously is problematic. I wonder if you could kill them by flooding the car with exhaust fumes? It froze here last night, are you near cold weather? If all else fails, buy an anteater. Edit- Or change the filter^^^. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2013, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-ant-somewwhere-in-my-cars-air-conditioning/670420/4 "2013-10-05T12:54:21Z")
I could laugh at this one too, as I had a problem with toilet flies that I had to also laugh over. Fumigate the car comes to mind, and leave it sealed up. Thinking it may be an explosive potential to have the car running during this with the a/c on ventilate, so best to have the car off. If you are in a hot area leave the car bake in the sun, get it as hot as possible for aas long as possible. Same thing for cold. Find a competing species that will kill the ants, queen but not have the ability to reproduce. also I had a mouse that died in the a/c vents, actually the blower motor fins. The blower was clearly unbalanced, it may be that you have some dead animal in there that the ants are feeding off of. Anyway I found that the blower motor/cage was easy to remove and gave me great access to deep inside the vent system, it was under the glove box (accessed from the floor, not the glove box). ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-ant-somewwhere-in-my-cars-air-conditioning/670420/5 "2013-10-07T02:50:21Z")
Thanks all, yeah I laugh too, right after I get mad and cuss, then cry. heh I wasn’t aware of the cabin filter, I will certainly look into that. I’m in New Orleans, the heat the last two months didn’t kill them so that’s out, and it won’t get below freezing for months. I had to replace the blower motor maybe a year ago, and it cost $1,000. They had to discharge the entire system and remove the dashboard to get to it, 8 hours labor by the book. I was thinking a bug bomb but damn those things are for like 10,000 cubic feet. Maybe I’ll do a bug bomb “partial burn” and if that doesn’t work give it longer bursts. I certainly don’t want to poison the car and endanger my family’s health. Are those bug bombs designed to degrade into more harmless chemicals after a certain amount of time? Thanks again, any and all advice or experience is welcome. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-ant-somewwhere-in-my-cars-air-conditioning/670420/6 "2013-10-07T03:10:48Z")
So, your air conditioner has refriger-ants? ---
**Author:** ![JerrySTL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e274bd/32.png) [@JerrySTL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerrySTL)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-ant-somewwhere-in-my-cars-air-conditioning/670420/7 "2013-10-07T12:45:40Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > So, your air conditioner has refriger-ants? Groan. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-ant-somewwhere-in-my-cars-air-conditioning/670420/8 "2013-10-07T13:04:34Z")
New Orleans, yeah, it’s probably voodoo then. You may be able to sacrifice a frog or small snake using that spirit to eat the ants spirits. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-ant-somewwhere-in-my-cars-air-conditioning/670420/9 "2013-10-07T13:27:05Z")
_“Oh, yeah, what are you gonna do? Release the AC? Or the ants? Or the AC with ants in the vents and when you’re hot, it shoots ants at you?”_ ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2013, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/queen-ant-somewwhere-in-my-cars-air-conditioning/670420/10 "2013-10-07T14:14:28Z")
You may wish to give United Artists a call. Even Ian Fleming never thought of an air conditioning system that shoots live ants.