Thur 24th Jul, 2014
I noticed it before we left Pompei. In fact, I’d have had to be blind not to notice it. We have an attack of ants. Not the huge ones that seemed to prowl around Gargano: these were small. What they lacked in stature, they made up for in numbers. There were millions of them, inside and outside.
We cleared them out as best we could – which wasn’t very, as we were in a rush to get off the campsite before the 4pm deadline, but I couldn’t really figure out where they were coming from. The only theory I had at the time was that they were perhaps scaling the electric hookup cable that lies on the ground, and passes into the van’s garage, though I hadn’t noticed an army of ants on the cable when I disconnected it.
It was while we were driving up to our overnight stop that I think I figured it out: where we were parked in Pompei, there were citrus trees all around. These were great for providing shade from the sun, but not so great for depositing loads of wet, soggy leaves in the fly screens on the skylights. I remembered that the branches of one of the trees was in contact with the roof. That must have been it. It would certainly explain why they were marching up & down the roof, down the back of the van, through the door seals & into the van.
We STILL had ants in the van and on the outside two days later – despite having driven through a number of torrential downpours – though continual removals of the stragglers with a bristle brush did seem to finish them off in the end. I’m happy to report zero quantity of van-based ants tonight.
Addendum: 26/7/14: Just found another ant taking a stroll across the dashboard.