Carpenter Ants

[Melensdad]

I've been noticing some large black carpenter ants lately. They seem to be entering the house, or centered at one spot. A door off of our west patio. Last evening I noticed about 20 of them at the doorway, but inside the house. I frequently have seem out on the patio area outside that door. It is the closest door to the woods that are around our house, probably no more than 20 feet to the woods.

HOW DO I GET RID OF THESE THING? My wife has a phobia about ants. She can tolerate bees, wasps, and other creepy crawlers. But she goes nuts when she see ants.

Is there some integrated way to attack these things that a homeowner can reasonably do or do I call in an exterminator?

Right now they are just annoying, but I really don't want them to set up a home in the wall. Other than the fact that the lovely Mrs_B is extremely upset, I know they can cause structural damage too.

 

[DaveNay]

I've been noticing some large black carpenter ants lately. They seem to be entering the house, or centered at one spot. A door off of our west patio. Last evening I noticed about 20 of them at the doorway, but inside the house. I frequently have seem out on the patio area outside that door. It is the closest door to the woods that are around our house, probably no more than 20 feet to the woods.

HOW DO I GET RID OF THESE THING? My wife has a phobia about ants. She can tolerate bees, wasps, and other creepy crawlers. But she goes nuts when she see ants.

Is there some integrated way to attack these things that a homeowner can reasonably do or do I call in an exterminator?

Right now they are just annoying, but I really don't want them to set up a home in the wall. Other than the fact that the lovely Mrs_B is extremely upset, I know they can cause structural damage too.

Since you own a food storage warehouse, I am assuming you have an in depth pest control policy and contractor at the warehouse (perimiter spray, rodent traps every 20' around the outside wall, etc). Perhaps you can talk to your vendor and have them do your house too....similar to your HVAC guy doing the workshop the other week .

 

[Melensdad]

Dave,
As I have been working out of the house over the past couple of weeks while recovering from foot surgery, and as I have been using the family room as my office, and as the family room door is the apparent entry point for these critters, I probably could do that. But I was hoping to deal with these things TODAY.

I know that boric acid powder kills regular ants that are attracted to sweets, but does it work for carpenter ants? Regular ant traps do not work for capenter ants from what I've been told in the past.

Should I put up a perimeter defence of boric acid outside the house to keep them from coming in from the woods? What about sprays . . . are there any that have a residual effect?

 

[bczoom]

Ortho "Home Defense" (spray) works well.

After it dries it's harmless to people and animals.

Use caution when applying as it's pretty nasty stuff when wet. Don't inhale it.

 

[DaveNay]

Dave,
As I have been working out of the house over the past couple of weeks while recovering from foot surgery, and as I have been using the family room as my office, and as the family room door is the apparent entry point for these critters, I probably could do that. But I was hoping to deal with these things TODAY.

I know that boric acid powder kills regular ants that are attracted to sweets, but does it work for carpenter ants? Regular ant traps do not work for capenter ants from what I've been told in the past.

Should I put up a perimeter defence of boric acid outside the house to keep them from coming in from the woods? What about sprays . . . are there any that have a residual effect?

I have been using Terro brand bait (basically Borax and a sweet syrup), and they seem to work good for me. Their products are available at any of the big box stores. Since Borax is a natural mineral, I would guess that as long as there is a liquid around for it to remain in suspension, and to attract the ants, then it is going to have residual effects.

You might want to look at the Terro Outdoor Liquid Ant Bait.

 

[Melensdad]

Ortho "Home Defense" (spray) works well.

After it dries it's harmless to people and animals. . .

Does the residue that remains continue to kill the surviving ants taht may not have been affected by the spray?

I have been using Terro brand bait (basically Borax and a sweet syrup), and they seem to work good for me.

Dave is this effective for "carpenter" ants? They are not a sweet eating ant? I noticed that Terro had a Carpenter ant product, but did not see an outdoor powder/barrier type product on their site. Carpenter ants eat wood, just like termintes. They are large ants, some can reach 3/4" long. The queens can fly.

 

[bczoom]

Does the residue that remains continue to kill the surviving ants taht may not have been affected by the spray?

Yep. Kills any insect that crosses it for about 2 months.

It's harmless to humans and pets once it dries. Actually, it can be used indoors as well (but keep people out for about 30 minutes after spraying).

 

[Melensdad]

Well I hobbled around the garage on my good foot and found some Ortho Bug-B-Gone and killed about 100 carpenter ants, all within a few inches of the patio door. I'm guessing there is a nest of them just outside the threshold because they were dying all over the patio too. The lovely Mrs_B is out shopping and I gave her a list of several items to buy that have been recommended to control/kill carpenter ants.

 

[DaveNay]

Well I hobbled around the garage on my good foot and found some Ortho Bug-B-Gone and killed about 100 carpenter ants, all within a few inches of the patio door. I'm guessing there is a nest of them just outside the threshold because they were dying all over the patio too. The lovely Mrs_B is out shopping and I gave her a list of several items to buy that have been recommended to control/kill carpenter ants.

Bob, I was at the store today, and Terro has a product that is specifically labeled for carpenter ants.

If thata doesn't work, I'm sure you could spend some quality time sniping them with your .22

 

[Melensdad]

Bob, I was at the store today, and Terro has a product that is specifically labeled for carpenter ants.

Terro was one of the items on the list, but as long as you were at the store, you should have picked some up and dropped it off here. . . I'm only a few miles south of the Borman.

 

[DaveNay]

Terro was one of the items on the list, but as long as you were at the store, you should have picked some up and dropped it off here. . . I'm only a few miles south of the Borman.

If I had to drive that thing twice in two days, you'd be reading about me in the Sun Times.

 

[daedong]

Bob, we don’t have carpenter ants here to my knowledge, are they as destructive as white ants?

If I had to drive that thing twice in two days, you'd be reading about me in the Sun Times.

[FONT=&quot]
Dave,10 bloody lanes, could I have fun on that, I love playing chicken with no indicators when changing lanes! [/FONT]

 

[Melensdad]

Bob, we don’t have carpenter ants here to my knowledge, are they as destructive as white ants?

I dunno??? What are white ants? We don't have those here. Based on some internet searches, it appears that they can be somewhat destructive, but it also appears that they can be fairly easily controlled, even if they set up a nest in the walls of a house (although if that is the case, it sounds like calling in an exterminator might be the right answer).

 

[daedong]

[SIZE=-1]Termites or White ants, same thing[/SIZE]

 

[Melensdad]

Termites are nasty bad things that would quickly yield a call to the professional exterminators. Carpenter ants are natives of the woods, annoying and potentially destructive if they get out of control. But I've never heard of a house that was destroyed by carpenter ants, yet that is unfortunately a serious possibility with termites.

 

[Pigtails]

We use regular ant dust. We go under our mountain home and spread it around any object that they can crawl up to the house on. It works very well for us. Our Mtn home is set up off of the ground on metal posts, then we have our redwood deck we built a few years ago with all the pilings that go up to the house. So, it takes about an hour to spread it. We go through about a can a year. We have carpentar ants with wings also.. their nasty.but anyway. hope you found what you need.

 

[Junkman]

I had carpenter ants once and sprayed with Dursban to get rid of them. Then I applied Dursban powder all around the foundation and made sure that there was no rotting wood anywhere around the house. I believe that the product is no longer available. If it works, then it is banned a few years later.. I did have some pressure treated lumber that was stacked on the deck that hadn't been moved for a few years, and when I moved it, I found that the ants had set up housekeeping in the wood. I disposed of the wood and ants. So much for pressure treated lumber being ant resistant. I think that I still have a small scrap and if I do, I will post a picture tomorrow of what they can do to pressure treated lumber. I have also been told that they don't like coffee grounds, but I have never found if it would work. I suggest that you have a professional come in to exterminate. I was also told that the ants climb to the highest point of the house and attack from the top to the bottom, so when you see them on the floor, that means that they have already devoured all that is above you.... Junk......

 

[Cowboyjg]

Just saw this thread and thought I'd throw in my $.02 worth.
(Former bug guy)

Carpenter ants (like most ants) like warm moist conditions. Typically, they live in dead or decaying trees, stumps, mulch, wood piles etc. Thier natural foraging will result in your seeing them around the home. If circumstances are right they can set up shop most anywhere in the house. eg; insulation in a wall, ceiling or floor where there have been moisture probllems. areas around AC duct work where there is condensation that does not readily evaporate. or moisture damaged drywall and framing lumber. A big misconception is that carpenter ants eat wood. In fact, they make thier homes in moisture damaged wood and eat protien and carbohydrate material like other bugs and animal flesh.

There are two key things you need to do to deal with them.
1) make conditions around the home less attractive to them. I prefer non moisture retentive material around the immediate perimeter of the house. The idea is to keep it as dry as is reasonable. This is effective for dealing with most insects, termites especially.
2) The primary nest is somewhere outside. The rule of thumb is somewhere up to 150' out. If you can locate and treat the primary nest you will have done the most damage if you will.

The borate type products are fine if you can get the ants to walk thru the stuff and if it doesn't rain on it and terro is fine so long as they are in thier carbhydrate cycle. Using a pyrethrin or other repellent based product will only chase them around if you haven't eradicated the nest. Sometimes you will think you have aleviated yourself of the problem when in fact you've only forced them to move. The do-it-yourself bug places offer a bait that is protein and carbohydrate based. What's great is that you can spread it like fertalizer (stuff is animal friendly) in areas that they travel and be relatively sure it's getting back to ALL the nests. (Yes there is more than one) The way to find out where they are coming from is to go out at night with a flash light and follow the trail back to the nest. They love to follow phone and power lines. check for leaky spigots and other opportunities for moisture.

For most other types of ants I'll sometimes take terro and place a few drops in a store bought trap and place it out. This adresses which ever cycle thier in.

Ok, I guess that's worth about 2 cents....

 

[Melensdad]

Well I seem to have virtually eliminated them from INSIDE the house. I have not seen any of them in the family room since returning from vacation. I saw one in another room this week. I've seen one or two strays outside the house.

Thanks to the internet I did some research on these things and found out that they are pretty tough critters to eliminate, but they can apparently be reasonably contolled. My problem is largely related to the woods that come within 20' of the west wall of the house and I suspect that is where they are migrating from? It seems likely. I put down a granular barrier product that is supposed to keep them at bay "for an entire season" and used it to circle the entire house. I also used a killer product inside the house in every area where I found the carpenter ants, and it was not a spot treatment as I did what I could to get under the baseboards and do the entire wall length/etc. Also in the areas outside where I found them I used a concentrated killer with a residual effect and made sure I got it into cracks, crevices, etc and again treated the perimeter of the area, around the doors, windows, etc.

I think I did a pretty good job of it because we do not see them!

But I also think it was very necessary to treat the inside and the outside of the house. I'm a bit skeptical about the granular barrier, but it certainly can't hurt! Carpenter ants seem to require a well thought out treatment plan and a coordinated attack against them.

 

[Cowboyjg]

Just a perception/ observation.

It's interesting that there seems to be significant support for the use of chemicals in dealing with insects and home invasion, particularly applying to the inside of the home. It's Interesting in that I have always felt that this group was very researched based and I know how we feel about our pets but I have not seen discussion of IPM (Integrated pest Management) in the various bug related threads.

Now I'm not a purist or anything about this but I prefer not to apply ANY chemicals to the inside of my home if I can at all help it. In truth, there should be almost no need to use chemicals inside if the exterior is being treated and maintained correctly.


The premise of integrated pest management is to reduce conditions conducive to the varioius insect and plant pathogen problems one might experience based on thier region, insect types etc. It incorporates many non chemical treatment methods providing for the reduced need for chemical applications in an effort to limit or eliminate all together, exposure to family, pets and so on.

Here's a link some of you might find interesting. There are tons of others, this was just one of the first on my list.

 

[Ice Queen]

Thankfully we only have ordinary ants and flying ants, they sting or bite, but other than being a nuisance as far as I know they don't do any structural damage. My daughter was plauged with them in her kitchen in the previous house, a kettle of boiling water (not nice for the ants) on the nest did the trick.