TheSamba.com :: View topic - Attack of the ants!!!...in my water tank?

Mon Apr 22, 2013 7:39 pm

I feel bad for posting two topics in one day, but this is an unusual one for me. I went camping this weekend and did the usual of cleaning out my water tank and filling it with water. I went to use it and found that I was getting little to no water out of the faucet. After getting home and looking into it, I found a ton of of ants in my tank! Big ants! They didn't appear to be in there when I filled the tank, so I have no idea where they came from! Anyone else ever run into that?

Now I have to replace my faucet because it's clogged with dead ants. I took apart the faucet as much as possible and tried to clear it out, but there are still a bunch of dead ants in there. The pump is still fine, but I almost wish that was the culprit, since it's cheaper!

I also found that my sink drain hose seems to be leaking slightly where it attaches to the bottom drain. I took it off and re-attached, but it didn't help. May try a hose clamp, but if anyone else has any suggestions let me know!

Mon Apr 22, 2013 7:52 pm

Does your Westy use a plastic key to open the flap on the water tank fill hole?

Maybe the ants marched in through that hole?

Neil.

Mon Apr 22, 2013 7:58 pm

Vanagon Nut wrote: Does your Westy use a plastic key to open the flap on the water tank fill hole?

Maybe the ants marched in through that hole?

Neil.

It uses a key, but I don't even have the key so I've never used it. I swear there were no ants when I filled up, but I don't know where else they would have come from.
Either way, it means a new faucet for me. Stupid insects!

Mon Apr 22, 2013 8:23 pm

While I had the fresh water tank disconnected on my '88 it seemed that in super windy rainy weather, rain water was getting in through that filler key hole. I figured if water could get in ....

Ya, don't get me started on things that can crawl into a bus. ;)

If you have the spray type faucet, though it can look a bit ghetto, a standard residential type sprayer can be connected if one is on a tight budget.

https://picasaweb.google.com/musomuso/SinkPumpAndFaucetUpgrade#5351799879468458802

Neil.

Mon Apr 22, 2013 8:34 pm

I'll have to look into that filler hole...
I'm not sure how else they could have gotten in there in a span of 1 night. I'm desperate and just ordered a new faucet from Bus Depot. $60 is more than I wanted to spend, but I'm going on a trip next month and can't afford to live without my faucet!

Tue Apr 23, 2013 4:20 am

Did you fill your tank with the garden hose?

Maybe the ants were using it as a wintering house

Tue Apr 23, 2013 5:31 am

or the ants nested in the feed line from the tank to the faucet and got washed out-probably never happen again

Tue Apr 23, 2013 6:52 am

Gruppe B wrote: Did you fill your tank with the garden hose?

Maybe the ants were using it as a wintering house

I did use the garden hose, and I thought of that too, but I had a sprayer attachment on the end of it that I don't think they could have gotten through.

Nesting in the tank to faucet line seems like it could be the case. Now that I think about it, I remember having a bunch of ants crawling around on the outside of the van before winter. I suppose they could have gotten in and nested in that line somehow. I guess there are worse places they could have nested.

Tue Apr 23, 2013 8:38 am

FWIW, we deal with a lot of ants in our house... one way to deal with them quickly is to hit them with bleach. This also seems to deal with their scent trails.
Of course you would then need to run a TON of water through your system before using it for drinking.

Tue Apr 23, 2013 11:04 am

blackglasspirate wrote: Gruppe B wrote: Did you fill your tank with the garden hose?

Maybe the ants were using it as a wintering house

I did use the garden hose, and I thought of that too, but I had a sprayer attachment on the end of it that I don't think they could have gotten through.

Nesting in the tank to faucet line seems like it could be the case. Now that I think about it, I remember having a bunch of ants crawling around on the outside of the van before winter. I suppose they could have gotten in and nested in that line somehow. I guess there are worse places they could have nested.

Really check that they DIDN'T get into somewhere worse!!

Can't clear the Faucet with an air compressor blowing back through?

Tue Apr 23, 2013 12:28 pm

Eeeeewwww!!! to the ants!

And, note to myself to get a special hose and keep it in the house in a bag, in another bag, in a box! :wink: Thanks for that, I remember my dad filling our camper w/ the garden hose, wouldn't have thought of *that*!

tam
Gruppe B wrote: Did you fill your tank with the garden hose?

Maybe the ants were using it as a wintering house

Tue Apr 23, 2013 2:37 pm

Ants were all dead? Had you plugged into shore power for the electric when you camped last?

Tue Apr 23, 2013 2:39 pm

tam_shops wrote: Eeeeewwww!!! to the ants!

And, note to myself to get a special hose and keep it in the house in a bag, in another bag, in a box! :wink: Thanks for that, I remember my dad filling our camper w/ the garden hose, wouldn't have thought of *that*!

tam
Gruppe B wrote: Did you fill your tank with the garden hose?

Maybe the ants were using it as a wintering house

Filter that attaches to the hose and the a spout with an on/off valve works!

Tue Apr 23, 2013 2:51 pm

blackglasspirate wrote: I'm desperate and just ordered a new faucet from Bus Depot.
Did you get the Shur-Flo? It's a worthy upgrade for the same price. If you want to stick with stock, I may still have my old on that you can have free. In which case maybe you can return/cancel the BD order. PM if interested and I can check if I still have it (I might have sold/gotten rid of it).

Tue Apr 23, 2013 9:45 pm

Now the bugs can get into the spout too!? :shock: :shock: :shock: Yuck! I might just have to add my water at the water store like someone else suggested! :?

Will check out filter and valve w/ on/off next time I'm at Canadian Tire! :)

tam
Timwhy wrote:
Filter that attaches to the hose and the a spout with an on/off valve works!

Wed Apr 24, 2013 9:25 am

tam_shops wrote: Yuck! I might just have to add my water at the water store like someone else suggested! :?

You could also:
A) Run the spigot/hose bib prior to connecting the hose to clear out any possible "nesters".

B) After connecting the hose to the spigot/hose bib, flush the hose before filling the on-board water tank.

C) Connect a filter, like Tim said, which is also available in the RV section at Walmart.

Wed Apr 24, 2013 11:57 am

Timwhy wrote: Ants were all dead? Had you plugged into shore power for the electric when you camped last?

Sorry, just saw all of these posts. They weren't all dead. Some were still moving(slowly). And I haven't plugged in my shore power for quite some time. I think it's possible they came in through the water hose hookup on the side. I didn't notice until just now, but there's nothing covering the hole at the connection. Is there supposed to be some sort of plug there? I may have to get something to plug it up, either way.

I think my old faucet is just hosed(no pun intended). I couldn't blow all of them out of there and not knowing if there are still dead ants in there makes me not want to drink water that goes through there. I have two trips next month, so I'll be needing a working faucet, so it's just another thing to add to the list!

Wed Apr 24, 2013 1:25 pm

if you pour some chocolate sauce in there, you would have a chocolate covered ant dispenser - turn the Van into a gourmet food truck...

Wed Apr 24, 2013 2:40 pm

randywebb wrote: if you pour some chocolate sauce in there, you would have a chocolate covered ant dispenser - turn the Van into a gourmet food truck...

Not a bad idea - those trucks are pretty popular around here.

Thu Apr 25, 2013 6:47 am

chimivee wrote: blackglasspirate wrote: I'm desperate and just ordered a new faucet from Bus Depot.
Did you get the Shur-Flo? It's a worthy upgrade for the same price. If you want to stick with stock, I may still have my old on that you can have free. In which case maybe you can return/cancel the BD order. PM if interested and I can check if I still have it (I might have sold/gotten rid of it).

X2 on the Shur-Flo faucet. Cheers to you if you really want to keep it stock, but IMHO the shur-flo is a vast improvement over the stock faucet.

-CJ