Carpenter Ants.

[LuckyCharms]

I have been having a problem with carpenter ants in my home. It seems to happen every 10 years or so. They are black, about 1/2 to 5/8 inch long.

I tried to battle them myself, but I was losing the battle. I finally called an independent exterminator (he's not with any of the major pest control companies). I was worried about them destroying my house, but he calmed me down. He said that you have to be very negligent for a very long time before things get that bad with these ants. In other words, just be diligent and handle these ants as problems crop up. Also, he said not to get too excited unless I start seeing a bunch of them with wings in your home. This could indicate a major nest in your house. They often have a primary nest, with several satellite nests far removed from the primary.

The problem with these ants is this: they will send out scouts up to a hundred yards away from the nest in order to find food and water. So there might be a huge 50,000 ant nest somewhere outside, and the little pricks are getting into your house by just looking for food.

The exterminator started by looking outside to see if he could determine where they are coming in. There was no real definitive answer, but he did bait a tree and a few other areas outside. They take the bait back to the nest and it can contaminate the entire nest and kill them. He also gave me a tube of the bait and told me where to treat inside.

None of that seemed to work real well, so I called him back. He proceeded to dust and spray the shit out of the house exterior, including the roof. Unfortunately, it started to rain (big surprise) so he stopped and will be back on Monday to finish.

Then we went into the basement, and he went to town with the dust and spray. I was really quite fascinated as he explained why and where he was applying the treatments.

The next day, I found apx. one dozen ants dead or dying in my office and living room. I went into the basement and vacuumed up 146 stone dead ones (yes, I counted them). In addition to apx. 100 ants I killed myself over the past few weeks...there are/were a lot of them. Today was the first day where I have seen no live ones, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he got them. He told me that he has never had a case of ants that he was unable to get rid of.

I am really hoping that they are on their way to being eradicated. They wig me out. I understand how people with bed bug problems feel. I've had 5 or 6 of them crawl up my left leg (they like my left leg for some reason), so now I'm having phantom sensations of ants crawling on me.

Also one interesting thing I found out...they do not eat wood like termites do, but rather, they tunnel through it to nest in it. This still weakens the wood over time, but I have read that they mainly like to nest in wood that has already been compromised by rot or wetness.

It is all very frustrating to me, because I keep my home at an almost psychotic level of neatness, and I repair anything that needs to be repaired very quickly.

So we'll see what happens.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Could be worse. You could have bullet ants.

https://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/health/a37149/what-feels-like-stung-by-most-painful-insect/

[LuckyCharms]

2. Have you ever seen those videos where...

some tribe somewhere load up gloves full of those things and have young men where the gloves as a rite of passage?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Yes.

I would much rather have carpenter ants.

[LuckyCharms]

4. Some time ago, I thought that I might like to experience the bite.

I don't feel that way anymore.

[Historic NY]

5. I won the battle some years ago...

they were in a tree close by the house. I still have the exterminator come to make sure the bastards don't think I'm on vacation. They do several of the out buildings where my old cars are stored and bait traps for spiders that seem to just love to move in. Having a wooded area or any wood piles is like candy for them.

[LuckyCharms]

7. My neighbor has, for lack of a better description...

sections of a tree trunk that was cut down years ago on his property, about 50 feet from my house. I have no idea why they are there.

I went over there today to take a look at them. They are horribly rotted. I moved a few of them around looking for a nest, but I did not see any ants.

Good idea on your part to have the exterminator make those visits occasionally.

[ProudLib72]

6. This is the stuff I have always used for ants

http://www.terro.com/terro-liquid-ant-killer


But those have been sugar ants, not carpenter ants. I don't know how much of a difference that makes. That Terro stuff kills them within two days. You leave it out for the drones. They find it, like the taste, load up on it, and bring it back to the nest. There is kills every last one of them.

[LuckyCharms]

8. I am not sure, but that name sounds similar to what he told me was in his...

spraying device. He said that liquid spray kills them within 3 hours.

Also, the gel bait is called Advion.

[ProudLib72]

10. I did a quick search and found a review site

Here it is: https://www.thespruce.com/best-ant-killers-4142823

So basically, it sounds like Advion is professional grade for people who want to get serious about killing ants.

[LuckyCharms]

12. Thanks for the link...

[Ohiogal]

26. Yes!

I’ve used the exact same thing - Terro - for black ants. It works great.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. You could get an aardvark.

[LuckyCharms]

11. Like Noah did?

Noah's Aardvark?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

15. He had two of them, of course.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

13. Thanks for sharing, LC. I have a few of those every year.

I've always assumed they come in from my trees to find food but after what's you've said, I wonder if they could also be in my structure. They seem to go away after springtime.

Interestingly, this year a few of them got caught in my indoor gnat traps. I keep several of them in strategic locations in my kitchen and office and make them from those little clear plastic sauce containers we get from fast food joints with snap-on lids. I put a liquid made up of cider vinegar, a tiny bit of honey and tiny bit of dish soap, all mixed with some water. I punch small holes in the lids and once the gnats get in, they rarely get out. Apparently to my surprise, it works for the big ants as well!

For regular ants, I agree with the other poster that Terro's ant gel is excellent, sold at Lowes. I buy both the bottle of liquid and the little green traps I stick in the ground outdoors. I first go outside and find the trails and install the green box traps near there. Then, for any I notice indoors, I place a drop or two on little cardboard squares where they observed and they go for it like crazy. It seems to take a couple of weeks for the whole process to complete, and then no more ants!

I am interested now to see if the larger carpenter ants will go for the Terro gel so that their nest is also killed out......

[KY_EnviroGuy]

14. Have a little laughter with your bug challenge from Minuscule.

Minuscule - Night Of The Mandibles

Warning: Habit forming, see.... https://www.youtube.com/user/Minuscule/videos

[Scurrilous]

16. I've been battling those things forever.

In the house and out in the yard. Good luck with your fight.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

17. Oh, dear.

At various times over the years I've had various pests, but never carpenter ants and never serious pests. So you have my sympathy.

Once when we moved to a new home in the midwest we discovered that the wood pile in the back yard was infested with termites. So we got rid of the wood pile.

Some years earlier we learned that we'd apparently transported cockroaches from the east coast to Arizona. Sigh.

My point is that I have enormous sympathy for your plight.

[eggplant]

18. I grew up with an awareness of carpenter ants and currently own a log home that got infested.

So I knew what the risk to the house was. You can rebuild a house built with 2x4 walls, but there's no way you can replace an actual log. We used Orkin (still do). After they sprayed and dusted, the number of ants fleeing was huge. They were everywhere. After my answering machine died I opened it up and it was full. Yuck. After a few rounds, they were gone, and only reappear when outside nests get disturbed and they try to relocate.

Now when I see more than two (or even one with wings), I'm on the phone the next day for them to come back and treat again.

On the plus side, the stuff they use to kill them is remarkably harmless to people and pets. If you are willing to put in the effort, you can do it yourself, but I wasn't willing to roll the dice when there was a clear problem.

ProTip: If you find one of their trails (say the back edge of a kitchen counter), you provide bait for them to take back to the nest, but you DON'T clean the area. If their trail is disturbed, they will search somewhere else and you have to find them again.

[Silver Gaia]

19. Ew. I hate ant wars!

I've not had to battle carpenter ants, just sugar ants and Argentine ants. Those Terro baits work well if your type of ants are attracted to sweets. The active ingredient is just borax mixed into a sweet syrup. Any cracks where I've observed them entering get caulked, too, which helps a lot. Another thing I've used that works is food-grade diatomaceous earth. I've tossed it into areas I can't reach and dusted it into cracks. It will kill them, but isn't toxic to pets or humans (be careful not to breathe the dust, though). I put it down into the nests of Argentines when they were taking over my neighborhood. They are nasty ants that were unintentionally imported and will kill off native ants. They will eat the roots of your plants and kill them too. Plus, they love to "farm" aphids. Ugh. As I said, I hate ant wars! So, I sympathize. Good luck!

[tymorial]

29. Ant wars. Lol

Every late May I would tell my wife that it was time to go to battle. Home Depot was my quarter master.

[LunaSea]

20. Boric acid

Mix it with something sweet (honey or syrup) into a thick goo.
Leave it around in small open containers, plastic lids work well for this.
Make a lot, and leave the bait inside and out as you want them to find it and take it home to mom.
Poison the queen and the colony will die.

[Jarqui]

21. This works

For those tight on a budget

20 Mule Team Borax detergent at Walmart is a substitute for Boric Acid that works for 1/10th the cost

The advice on getting the main nest is must-do advice. We've observed the ants going to and from the nest to help us find it - after we'd got a couple of satellite nests.

Ants do not like varsol. Kills them almost instantly. There have been times I've used that to kill a nest or curtail an outbreak.

[LuckyCharms]

22. Is Varsol mineral spirits?

Do you think it would continue to work after it dries?

[Jarqui]

24. Close but not the same

Varsol is the older more crude and smelly form of mineral spirits.

The smell encourages one to use it more sparingly as you know when it is around.

I've spilled some on grass and grass would never grow there again. Had to dig it out and replace the sod.

Years ago, we had red ants coming in the house through a cracks in our basement concrete floor. Ant traps didn't work. I was painting down there and got pissed off - tossing a cup of varsol on the cracks. The ants were instantly gone and never came back - we were there a few years. So some elements of it have lasting effect.

The main nest for carpenter ants was in an outer beam in our garage that could get damp in wet weather. We used the borax traps. But it was so massively infested, I was worried about structural damage so I painted the beam with a varsol soaking. The combination of the two things stopped the problem quickly.

Mineral spirits might work as well. I've never tried them.

[Kali]

23. boric acid works better and you can get it pretty cheap on line

borax works, though

[Kaleva]

25. You are so screwed if God is a giant Carpenter ant.

[brewens]

27. Call Dale's Dead Bug! He's the best in town.

[tymorial]

28. My wife and I rented a house with an addition that was turned into a make shift bar

There was a crawl space below it and had a huge carpenter ant problem. It wasnt insulated so it was only really usable in the late spring summer and fall. Anyway I turned it into a home office and about 3 years ago I was working and all of a sudden I noticed nymphs flying around. The whole place was swarming with them. They seemed to spring out of no where. I sprayed raid and killed them all, vacuumed up the dead ants etc. I noticed some drones in the house and so I started tracking them, leaving borax in the entry points. I thought that I had got them all. I sprayed the foundation too. I did a lot around the house to keep the rent down. The next year the same thing happened but it was even worse. Bald faced hornets were attracted to the swarm so I had those to deal with too. I called the landlord and told him that we needed an exterminator but he told me to do just what I did the previous year. So yet again I went to battle with the infestation. I filled every nook and cranny with borax and diatomaceous earth. I didnt see any more that year.

We bought a new home last spring so thankfully I didnt have to deal with it again. It was a gigantic pain in the ass. I told my landlord that he had a fairly large infestation problem and that he should get ahead of it. One of the first things I did for my new home was to hire an exterminator for the year to handle any pest problems. I was lucky because we had tiny sugar ants in the house. Kock on wood, they dont seem to be here this year. I made sure the house was sprayed early.