Hello to all, I had some fire ants get into my car 2012 prius

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by john celletti, Sep 10, 2025 at 3:34 PM.

  1. john celletti

    john celletti New Member

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    Im new to this forum, thanks to all that take time to help others. As I said ants got into my car, I ngotn the amber warning triangle said to pull over in safe place. I was home so all good I pulled everything out of the car that didn't need to be there and vacuumed all (hours and hours) I tven pulled plastic door kicks and vacuumed in there. Ants are tough critters to track down. I d/c the neg battery terminal in 2ndary and pulled the orange hybrid fuse. I checked with meter and it beeped so I'm assuming ok I checked some 30 amp box fuses under hood and beeps as well I have not pulled all fuses. Are there likely fuses that I should check. any advice much appreciated I'm trying to avoid dealership. thanks to all
     
    #1 john celletti, Sep 10, 2025 at 3:34 PM
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  2. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    You need codes from a quality scanner. The ants could have gotten into the battery, inverter, wiring connectors or a hundred other places. Traditionally ants like relay contacts and other similar current switching devices (hv battery contactor?).

    But it could be unrelated to ants such as water pump, weak hv battery, etc. Either way codes narrow it down and most low cost code readers don't pickup hybrid ecus.
     
    #2 rjparker, Sep 10, 2025 at 8:42 PM
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  3. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk MMX GEN III

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    Could the car be sealed up and some sorta inert gas pumped in, suffocate anything living?
     
    #3 Mendel Leisk, Sep 11, 2025 at 2:55 PM
    Last edited: Sep 11, 2025 at 3:05 PM
  4. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    There are termite exterminators who place huge tents over houses and inject poison gas so toxic they have to guard the house overnight. I am sure you could park the car in the garage and kill some ants as well. However ants usually don't live in the house or the car, they are traveling men (workers) who forage for food and bring it back to the mound in the yard or even hundreds of feet away. They leave a scent trail the backup army uses for the next attack. So the only effective ant treatments are time delay baits the worker ants bring back to the mound.

    In this case there is no indication ants caused the codes.
     
    #4 rjparker, Sep 11, 2025 at 4:05 PM
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