CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Greensboro family said they returned to Charlotte-Douglas International Airport Sunday afternoon, walked to their car in Long Term Lot 2, and made a startling discovery.
"We opened the back door to put our daughter in her car seat and noticed there were ants crawling up the door jam and all over her car seat," Carolina Tedder Hacker told Channel 9.
Hacker said they then opened the hood.
"There was a big, big ant's nest kind of in the corner by the windshield and they were just everywhere," Hacker said.
She said they were crawling around the engine, in the trunk, and in the interior. She said someone noticed their hood up and called an airport employee to help.
"The young gentlemen who came and helped us said, 'Oh, do you have an ant problem?' And we said, 'Yea we do.' And he said, 'Unfortunately, this has been going on for about three months,'" Hacker said.
In 2014, Channel 9 reported on a similar story from other families.
[READ MORE: Travelers return to insect-infested vehicles at airport]
Officials said they have worked to prevent and solve the problem.
Of the recent incident, airport officials told Channel 9, "It is a problem that occasionally happens in surface lots due to weather."
They said they regularly monitor grassy areas, set ant traps as needed and close off parking spaces that contain ant colonies until they're removed.
"We apologize and ask CLT customers to contact airport parking,” airport officials said. “We will be happy to remedy the problem immediately. Please note, in the past, CLT has worked with its customers to remove any ants in their vehicles."
Hacker said they had to drive to Greensboro with the ants in the car. She said an airport official offered to pay for their car to be cleaned after her husband asked.
She wants to warn others.
"I just really want other people to know it's a problem so that hopefully they don't come up on the same situation because it was really, really frustrating," Hacker said.
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