Early this summer I had been out running trail cameras when I stopped to check a camera not 80 yards from a known buck bedding area off the leeward side of a bluff. In every attempt to not be noticed by any potential deer in the area, I crept in slowly, quietly, and with the afternoon thermals to my face. I began unlatching the housing to the camera, and noticed an ant crawling up my arm. I swatted it away, and it was immediately replaced with another. And then another.
Within seconds my arm was covered with ants, and I became consumed with a fight of epic portions, that can only be described as a ball of dust inspired by the old Tom and Jerry cartoon. Arms and legs were flying, and an occasional expletive rolled across the ridge lined woods as if I were shouting through a megaphone.
Once the dust finally settled, and I was able to locate my shirt and pants, I made my way back over to the camera for round two. To my surprise, inside the housing, the ants were starting to colonize inside the camera.
This led me to the question of how do you get rid of ants in a trail camera? And most importantly how do you prevent them from getting into the camera to begin with?
There seems to be no specific one answer, but rather a host of suggestions that sort of worked for some people. So I set out on a mission to rid my trail cameras from ants once and for all. What I found was a system that covered all the basis.
Ultimately what worked best for keeping ants out of trail cameras was using a combination of fly strips, or backwards duct tape wrapped around the tree above and below the camera, using bay leaves around the camera, and a dryer sheet inside the camera’s housing.
Why are Ants Attracted to Cameras
While ants seemingly can find a trail camera in the depth of winter, its not just cameras that they are attracted to. They tend to find any electrical device, from air conditioner units to electrical outlets in your home. The question is, why are they attracted to electrical components?
The science behind their madness has yet to be fully understood, but some scientists believe that ants that have become a nuisance, are ants that have yet to colonize, and are looking to find new nesting grounds. The heat from that the electrical components give off becomes an attractant. This would explain that why ants who swarm to trail cameras, eat away at the rubber seals that lead toward the housing of the camera.
It is not known if battery powered electronics have the same effect as household electronics, but once an ant chews through a wire, and becomes electrocuted, it releases a pheromone that is detected by other ants nearby. This pheromone is a scent that ants use to communicate they are under attack, and it likely attracts other ants to come and fight. This mentality is likely the reason for the swarms of ants that you will find inside your camera.
How to Prevent Ants
With a simple google search you can find thousands of home remedies that can deter and kill ants. The problem I found with most of these remedies is that they have some sort of odor. If you have ran trail cameras for more than a day, you probably already are aware that the objective of getting trail camera pictures of animals is to have an animal walk near your camera. Most prey animals, such as deer and elk are extremely cautious of unfamiliar smells and equate them to danger. So spraying pesticide or vanilla extract would be completely counter intuitive to what we are trying to accomplish.
So, I began searching high and low for non scented alternatives to rid my cameras from these pesky insects. What I found was a community of bird watchers, more specifically those who feed hummingbirds, who fight the same problems of infestation of ants around their feeders. My hats off to these spectators of the world’s tiniest bird, some of their remedies were truly ingenious.
I began testing their recommendations one at a time, and found a combination of a few, that creates a type of obstacle course, truly did eliminate ants from swarming my game cameras. Here is what I found.
Fly Strips/ Duct Tape- It is well documented how well sticky traps work for fly’s. They are an eye sore and are quite disgusting when looking at a fly strip loaded with dead insects. But the fact that they truly work is what we are after. Using a fly strip or wrapping duct tape with the sticky side up, around the tree above and below your trail camera works for stopping some ants from climbing up and down the tree. They will get stuck to the tape, and are unable to get out. The problem is that in the weather conditions, over time they loose their effectiveness to stick, but does a formidable job for a number of weeks.
Bay Leaves- For whatever reason, ants are repelled by bay leaves. Simply hanging a few leaves from the camera, not only will deter the few ants that get past, it is a nice camouflage for hiding your camera as well. There is no scientific study that I was able to find that could pinpoint the reason why ants are repelled from these leaves, but it simply worked.
Now if you know anything about bay leaves, they give off a somewhat poor odor. The difference between a bay leaf and pesticide is that leaves in general are a natural forage for animals. So while they many not be a natural growing vegetation for deer, it is a more natural alternative, that hasn’t had any affect on my ability to capture photos of deer.
Dryer Sheets- I placed half of a dryer sheet inside the housing of my camera. The scent of a dryer sheet can be a problem so I used some of the scented free options you can find in the hunting department of your local sporting goods store. The dryer sheets alone did not deter the ants from climbing onto the camera, but it did stop them from chewing their way into the housing. So, if ants find their way beyond the gauntlet of sticky traps and bay leaves, the dryer sheets at least kept them from getting into the electronics of the camera.
Whether it is the texture, or the slight chemicals that keeps ants away from dryer sheets, I honestly don’t know, but either way it works.
Vaseline- For those who no longer use the tree straps to attach your camera to the tree, using Vaseline to coat the outside of your camera mount will deter ants from making the jump as well. There is a host of mounting brackets and camera sticks I recommend, but the important thing is that ants for whatever reason do not like to march through Vaseline.
How to Get Rid of Existing Ants
Likely you have already had ants take residency within your camera. Cleaning them out of every orifice they have burrowed themselves into can seem like a chore. The easiest way is to make sure you take out the batteries and SD card, and seal the camera in a Ziploc freezer bag and place it in the freezer. The immediate cold freeze will kill all of the ants in less than an hour, and the bag will keep them from falling all over your freezer.
To get the remaining dead ants out of every nook and cranny is easiest if you use a can of aerosol air duster, and blow them out the same way you would clean out the dust from the keys on your keyboard. In less than a day, you will have rid yourself of all ants, and your trail camera is ready to head back into the field.