Unique Problem??

PastorJim08 · 05-26-2009, 05:41 AM

Hey Guys,I had an unusual thing happen Monday when I went to retrieve my cameras. I opened the first one and ants came spilling out everywhere. I don't mean just a few but literally thousands, it looked like a scene from a horror movie. I had them all up and down my arms and all over my clothes and had a hard time getting them off of me. The camera was absolutely full of them. I decided to open it up and just leave it there while I checked my other cams. When I came back about an hour later, it was better but they were still all over everything. I opened up the battery compartment, Moultrie I-40, andit looked like there were nests of ants inside there. I scraped them out as best I could and put it in the bed of my truck for the trip home. Even after I got it home, there were still quite a few. Anybody else have this kind of problem and if you did, do you have a solution for preventing it in the first place? I had to sleep with the light on last night, I was so freaked out.

Blessings.....Pastorjim

Edcyclopedia · 05-26-2009, 06:11 AM

Was it attached to a rotting tree or something?
That something could be that your so damn sweet, after you set your camera the ants came a marchin'!!![8D]

PastorJim08 · 05-26-2009, 08:14 AM

Edcyclopedia wrote:

Quote:

That something could be that your so damn sweet, after you set your camera the ants came a marchin'!!![8D]

You know Ed, it's funny, that was my first thought too but when I mentioned thatto my wife, she just laughed and said something about some guy named chance being overweight, think about that one.

Ya know, I did place that camera in a pine tree and when I went to get it, there was pine sap all over the security box. I liked to never got that stuff off my hands.

Blessings and laughs.....Pastorjim

Pope94/IA · 05-26-2009, 01:30 PM

Uh oh. Ants aren't good. They ruined my first ever camera. It was a film camera. It was getting old but still... The seal on it wasn't that good and when I opened it ants went everywhere to. Their were white eggs or larvas or whatever you wanna call them everywhere. I think on flash camaras their is an opening where the flash is and ants can crawl in there. On infrareds they dont have the flash and it really helps. I had my stealth cam out the past week and it was on a tree that was crawling with ants but when I checked it their wasn't a single ant in there. It seals up really good when you close it.

janesburg · 05-26-2009, 04:22 PM

Jim.....it happened to my Cudde last year. I could see ants eggs thru parts of the camera. Got out most of them with compressed air and threw the cam in a freezer for a few days. Another treatment of compressed air and should be good to go.

I just pulled my Cudde today for that very reason. There wasn't alot of ants but by the next time I would check my cam I thought it might be a problem. I am going to try and spray it down with Raid ant killer before putting it back out and see how that works.

I had a p41 homebrew a few feet away and didn't have an ant on it. Must be something with the Cudde electronics.

Siman08/OH · 05-26-2009, 05:05 PM

I hear it happens all the time, but hasnt to me yet (knock on wood)

AR Bowhunter · 05-26-2009, 05:52 PM

They are attracted to the electronics an batteries. I try to avoid putting mine on trees that have ants on them. It helps to have a camera that seals very tight.

Snoogsdad · 05-27-2009, 09:46 AM

Last summer I had ants get into three of my cameras, it was a bad ant year. I cleaned them out the best I could and sprayed them down with ant killer. The ant killer seemed to stay with them and the ants did not come back, it seemed to have a residual effect. I can still smell the ant killer in one of them.

As a preventative matter I guess you could spray the outside of the case with ant killer.

The next best option is to make sure you sleep with the lights on! Just Kidding

Bergcrane2 · 05-27-2009, 10:52 AM

Jim, You can open that camera up pretty easy to clean it out. There are 4 screws on the face and make sure the batteries and the card is out of it. You should be able to save it.

mcorso · 05-27-2009, 11:20 AM

I had same problem last year, I moved camera and went back a week later, opened it and ants everywhere, i blew them out of there and put in the freezer, blew out again, and camera was working, was, somehow something rolled in there or fell into a circuit and it started to smoke, I took batteries out and it was a ant carcass ,, camera was torn apart and cleaned , worked fine after theat, clean everything ,and everywhere, seal with a lil dap of caulking anywhere you think they can get in,, i am afraid to spray with insectide ,due to smell or worse corrode the camera's parts.