Unique Problem??
 

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

RE: Unique Problem??
 

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]

RE: Unique Problem??
 

Edcyclopedia wrote:
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

RE: Unique Problem??
 

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.

RE: Unique Problem??
 

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.

RE: Unique Problem??
 

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

RE: Unique Problem??
 

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.

RE: Unique Problem??
 

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

RE: Unique Problem??
 

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.

RE: Unique Problem??
 

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.

RE: Unique Problem??
 

Okay guys, thanks for all the good suggestions. Here's what I ended up doing. I soaked a rag with ant killer and put it inside a garbage bag which I had also sprayed ant killer in. I put the camera inside the bag and sealed it up. I'm gonna let that brew for a day or two and then see where we are at. If that doesn't do the trick, then I will put it in the freezer for a while, as long as she doesn't find out. She is not happy with me already because when I came back after retrieving the ant-cam, I went straight to the computer to download pics before getting cleaned up and now she is finding ants around the computer. Oh well, such is life for an addict.

Blessings.....Pastorjim

RE: Unique Problem??
 

Boy, I hope the chemicals don't react with anything inside the camera.

RE: Unique Problem??
 

next time someone gets ants in there cam take a pcture; i want to see it

RE: Unique Problem??
 

Thats crazy. Never had that happen

RE: Unique Problem??
 

Ant-be-gone, well, almost. After letting the camera stay in the bag with the insecticide soaked rag for about 24hrs, I took it out last night and took the camera apart. Almost all the ants were dead. But believe it or not, there were still about 4-5 that were alive, must have been the Freddy Kruger variety. Anyway, I cleaned the thing out and used keyboard cleaner where I couldn't reach and then put the camera back together again. I hung it up in my yard and walked in front of it several times and it seems to work just fine. So it looks like the score is Pastorjim 1...ants0. Of course this is just the first inning, I still need a way to insure they won't come back the next time I put it out. Thanks again for all the suggestions.

Blessings.....Pastorjim