Carpenter Ants

[Brent Smith]

I just found one of the little buggers walking down my hallway liked he owned the place. Any one have experience with these things and how to get rid of them?

[Greg Peterson]

Getting rid of them is a matter of finding the mother nest. They explore and set up remote nests by day, but return to the mother nest at evening. If you watch in the evening you may find them marching single file away from your house. You can try following them to see where the mother nest is.

We put down a chemical barrier around the perimeter of the foundation three times a year (spring, summer, fall).

[Howard Norman]

Carpenter ants can cause trouble. I live in a log home and found some last summer which I killed with an insecticide that I bought somewhere. They reappeared this spring and this time I called a pest control company. They came out and did what they call a "spot treatment". So far so good, I have not seen any more after a few days since the pest control company was here.

[David G Baker]

Brent,
If you don't take care of the ants they will own your home. :D I see them around the outside of my place on occasion, I spray but I know that I don't get all of them. I have too many trees around my property to ever get rid of them completely. I use Home Defense on the inside of my home, spray Diazanon (sp?) and ant granules around the outside. If I start seeing too many of them I will call a commercial pest control company.

[Dave Johnson29]

I just found one of the little buggers walking down my hallway liked he owned the place. Any one have experience with these things and how to get rid of them?

As has been stated, you need to follow them to their nest. I use some granules (Amdro) I get from Ace hardware. Probably available elsewhere. The nest will have quite a large volcano looking mound for the entrance.

They are largely nocturnal so tracking them can be tricky. I would not mess with them if they are in your house. Time for a professional.

[Mitchell Andrus]

I just found one of the little buggers walking down my hallway liked he owned the place. Any one have experience with these things and how to get rid of them?


Don't kill it. Every one of its relatives will come to the funeral.
.

[John Shuk]

indoor ant baits from Terro. Set them in the path they are taking and let them go to town. Non toxic it takes care of the whole nest when these brave souls bring home the food for his buddies. I've done it and though it is disturbing to see them parading through the house to get the bait in about a day or two they go bye bye. Easy peasy.

[Fred Voorhees]

I wish I could find the photo of the time I had to rip open the side of my home when I found a carpenter ant egg chamber in the wall of my homes second floor guest room. There was a built in air conditioner in the wall of one of the second floor bedrooms when we moved in. We kept finding wood dust below the conditioner. We never really used that air conditioner and I finally decided to rip it out and patch the holes in both the exterior and interior. Turns out the sill of the hole was a carpenter ant egg chamber. Yup, found the queen and all. It was a damned mess. The 2 by fours for about ten feet around the hole were like swiss cheese from all of the activity. I had to sister newer two bys to what I could. It was a mess, and a real headache, but I got her done and the ants moved along. I have had them to a lesser degree since, but thankfully, we haven't seen much of them for a number of years though. They are nothing to mess with. They will eat the house right out from underneath you. If you suspect serious infestation, I would call in a professional, if not just for an assessment.

[Joe Pelonio]

I agree with the others about professional help.

We get them a lot around here due to the local woods, they love rotting wood and sometimes it's fairly close to the homes. I spotted a bunch of them one day under the patio door, so tore it out as well as some of the family room floor to expose the damage. Luckily I caught it early and the damage was easy to fix, plus I took the opportunity to install french doors in place of the old aluminum slider. While open I had the exterminator come in and treat the area as well as the rest of the house. Besides going under the house, they drilled small holes in the siding between the studs and sprayed inside.

[Brent Smith]

Thanks all for the info. I've put down some of the Terro stuff, but will be calling a pro tomorrow. The last thing I want to have to do is tear apart walls down the road if I can prevent it now. So far I haven't seen anymore of the critters, so I'm hoping any infestation is in the very early stage.

[John Daugherty]

Don't know if it's true or not, but I've heard that they will only infest damp wood.

[Jon Grider]

In a former home we lived in, we had a large colony living in a wall that had some large yew bushes growing against the wall on the outside. The bushes held moisture[rain, dew,condensation,etc.] against the siding which in turn provided an ant mecca for the black devils. They tunneled through the siding in an area about 6' X 4'.Armed with several large aerosol cans of bug killer and a large jug of boric acid powder I tried a DIY eradication program. First I removed the bad siding which exposed the wall studs in which they were nesting. I sprayed the studs and was surprised by the volume of ants pouring out of every crack,hole and cranny. They must have sent the ant army to stop me, as some of these ants were large,like 3/4" size with big pincers. They would defiantly look at me and open their pincers as I administered the spray.After spraying, sistering in new studs next to the old,replacing the sheathing and siding, I figured I had won the battle. Boy was I wrong. A few weeks after my homemade treatment, my daughter complained of big ants on the floor of her bedroom. I investigated and watched as a carpenter ant climbed her curtain and entered the hollow curtain rod through a crack in the seam.After removing the curtain rod finial, I was astounded as hundreds, of ants poured out of the metal rod and onto the carpet.As quickly as I could I threw the rod into the bathtub in the adjacent bathroom and turned on the hot water.My daughter and I both were amazed at the number of ants nesting in that rod.I then decided that home remedies were not enough. I called in the pro's who drilled small holes through the plaster into every wall cavity and sprayed their heavy duty poison into the walls, attic, and basement several times over the course of a year. That seemed to solve the problem and I never saw an ant inside the house again. Upon the advice of the exterminator I did take out the bushes next to the house.If you see an ant in your house, there's a good possibility that there are many more where you cannot see them.

[Dave Johnson29]

Don't know if it's true or not, but I've heard that they will only infest damp wood.

John,

I am not an expert on them, but do have some experience. They prefer damp wood but they will make a home anywhere. They may start out in the damp stuff but will keep making tunnels as the colony grows regardless of damp or otherwise.

If you can remove all the damp wood in a house there is a very good chance of them not setting up camp. Places like under sinks, around bath tub and shower drains etc. They are likely to keep looking until they find damp wood to start a home. If there is none in the house, they will almost certainly keep looking elsewhere.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

They may be using the sweat from your water pipes for moisture. CAs collect water and carry it ti the nest to rot the wood.
Nice habit. This can be solved by fixing leaks in tubs sinks and toilets.

You can kill 'em with boric acid in solution with whatever they like to eat. I use sugar water.

Chlordane works great too but that's banned - unfortunately.

[Joel Goodman]

I have been having them treated professionally for an infestation in a 3X6 T&G cedar ceiling. The amount of sawdust they can create is awesome but... have you seen a carpenter bee? They drill a perfect 1/2" diameter hole in wood-- one of nature's wonders-- except that they also eat the house!

[Scott Shepherd]

John,

I am not an expert on them, but do have some experience. They prefer damp wood but they will make a home anywhere. They may start out in the damp stuff but will keep making tunnels as the colony grows regardless of damp or otherwise.

If you can remove all the damp wood in a house there is a very good chance of them not setting up camp. Places like under sinks, around bath tub and shower drains etc. They are likely to keep looking until they find damp wood to start a home. If there is none in the house, they will almost certainly keep looking elsewhere.

I was flipping a house several years back and it had ants everywhere. I was told by the Realtor to find the closest tree to the house and bait it. Turns out, they had one heck of a trail from the house to the closest tree to the house. Since telling me that, I have seen it a number of times.

Second thing, we called the exterminator and he said immediately "You've got a water leak somewhere in the house". Sure enough, under the sink and the fridge were both leaking. Also found a piece of flashing that was missing and a beam was soaked. Ripped that out, replaced it, stopped all the leaks and the ants disappeared from inside the house.

Used AntBlock for the ones going from the house to the tree and never saw them again either.

I don't know what kind of ants any of them were, but I know we stopped the water and they went away.

[Eric Larsen]

You can kill 'em with boric acid in solution with whatever they like to eat. I use sugar water.


We don't have carpenter ants here -- fire ants aplenty, and I hate 'em.

Standard operating procedure here is to broadcast boric acid powder. When I installed the closet, I laid down boric around the edges of the room, then put up the panels. When I made the entertainment center, boric was cast on the floor under the center. It's also behind the stove, the refrigerator, under the baseboard, etc.

It's fairly inert (as long as it stays dry), and anything with six or eight legs won't walk on it willingly. That keeps the edges of rooms safe, so they're forced to walk where we can see them.

Unfortunately, ants don't glow under UV light like scorpions do. So it's hard to follow them to their nest. But look for the tell-tale "volcano mounds" and hit that with Amdro. It's available at most borgs and hardware stores.

As already posted, insects need water. Remove their source and they'll find another house. All of my ant nests have been within a few yards of the irrigation drips.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello,
I'm two grand light today & the neighborhood is two real nice old oak trees shorter than yesterday at this time.

Carpenter ants made a home in both trees.
:(:mad:

[James Rambo]

Here in Florida, they like to nest under the roots of trees during the day and forage at nightfall. The guy who does my pest control told me to go to home depot and get liquid concetrated termite killer. The two insects are in the same family. I use it sparingly at dusk and when I find one walking across the driveway I spray the little bugger. They usually don't make it across the drive before they go into convultions.

[Alan Trout]

James I am sorry to say that you Pest Control guy was wrong. Termites and carpenter ants are no where near the same critter. The closest relative to the termite is the roach if you must know. But yes in general the same stuff that kills termites will kill carpenter ants. But by law you should use a product listed for the insect you are trying to control. Many of the commercial termitacides are also listed for carpenter ant control.

I am happen to hold a structural pest control license. Typically as mentioned before carpenter ants do not like good wood. They will always go for the damp, wet, rotting wood before any thing else. Just because they are on or in your house does not mean that they are there but does mean they are foraging around the house.

First trim all shrubs and trees off of your house. Mechanical prevention is the first step. Repair any rotted wood and seal areas that need to be sealed. Fix any water leaks or flashings that could lead to an overly moist condition. If you still see them around your house then see if you can find them entering the house anywhere. I suggest calling a pro that can flush them and then treat the area. Generally it is a cheap treatment and be done with it.

It is rare that I see extensive fresh damage. Generally I see areas that they have made worse. Such as rotted and or moist areas of wood.

Carpenter bees are pretty cool. There again they prefer soft deteriorated wood over anything else. Where I typically see them is in well aged cedar garden arbors and fences of red cedar. I see them in other places from time to time but that is where I have found them most.

Good Luck

Alan

[Brent Smith]

Just an update. The exterminator came this morning. He had a good look around and asked a lot of questions, seemed to know his business. He drilled holes around all windows and doors and sprayed insecticide in there. I was surprised to see that he carried a set of wax sticks with him to fill the assorted stains and paint colors. I thought I'd be doing that job myself! Afterwards he went outside and drilled a number of larger holes in the mortar between the bricks and srayed in more insecticide and a borax based powder. He plugged those holes with clear silicon. The whole job took about 3 hours and cost $500. I have an 18 month guarantee to go with it. He said given the summer we're having, I may not see any more this year, but that next spring will be the telling point.

Thanks to all for the info given!