Carpenter Ants ?

Well I see a small contingent of all black, (not the red middle) carpenter ants on the kitchen counter, so I figured I'd ask what people use or do to get rid of them.

I do burn firewood, in the basement, this year all my wood was split and about 1 year seasoned, no insects except those hibernating jumping spiders. No punky wood with any nests or what have you. The house being of late 70's construction, seems to be dry all around the sill, I can't find any wet areas that would attract these kinds of ants, based on my understanding they need moist wood, I've never seen them in anything but old soft wood lumber or logs, or logs, utility poles that are compromised, I've even seen them in new high voltage line poles, one pole, that was installed in '06, creosote treated, brand new and they are still in it, unbeknownst to the power company, darned thing will probably break off someday while I am near it LOL ! They seem to like black cherry trees too.

I did find some fine sawdust in the track of a sliding door, old though and no other signs any where in the house. In a log, they will leave fresh piles easily spotted. I will look further there, check the header etc. clean it up and see if more appears.

I have in the past, split wood like cherry and opened up a nest, log was warmed up, so they scattered, and I'd have them around for awhile, then they would be gone. I am wondering given I cannot seem to find any area that would be wet and allow these ants to nest in the framing of the house, I will keep looking, I wonder if its just an isolated case. When that did happen, I noticed that the dry, firewood dust on the concrete floor and overall dry conditions would cause these ants problems, they don't last all that long, when dispersed, but do that outside in a wet bark pile, even with snow, frost, come spring they will recover easily and move on somewhere, so its best to kill em off when possible.

I am wondering what would be best to use, Diatomaceous earth being inside and dry ? Or something like a poison that they take back to the nest with them, if in fact there is a nest. Mind you they are on the counter, specifically one area I did not wipe clean yet, so as to keep em occupied. I've had them in logs before, in the house, and learned that if I disturbed them, leave that log where it is, they will settle down, return to it, at that point take it outside, burn it or what have you, they seem to return to any former/current home quickly. I also wonder, maybe vacuum them up and see what returns, suck those up too, see what comes back, if more, then a more serious problem ?

Any and all suggestions welcome LOL !

Terro seems to work very well. it is available in the pesticide section of most places including many hardware stores. It is a thick syrup like substance in a sealed packet that you just thear the end off and lay it where you see ants. They will carry it back to the colony and feed it to the rest. In a couple of days no ants.

Do a search for stuff called Demon Max.
It does the trick.........kills em dead.

Follow the directions.

1. Do not allow any living plant to touch your house. If a plant is living ants will use it to enter.

2. Get a Terro 901 Ant Killer 3 lb shaker bag and follow directions. Easy to use. Simply shake what appear to be little ant eggs all around the foundation of your house. One bag should be plenty. Ants see the eggs and work their little tails off taking them back to the nest which then kills the whole colony.

We fight with them alot. I use the poison powder on them. This time of year a warm day seems to wake them up and send them out marching.

As soon as I see them a strip of poison gets laid around the house just adjacent to the foundation so they have to cross it. Within a couple of days the dead ants pile up. After a month or 2 I have to repeat as the rain seems to wash it away.

They like rotting wet wood so check around and make sure you don't have a water problem somewhere.

I use Bifenthrin. Can be sprayed around the house and inside following instructions. No odor that I can tell. It is not very expensive if bought by the gallon. I bought a 3 quart container yesterday for $45. Will mix a lot of spray. Also sold under the Talstar label.
Richard in NW SC

Carpenter ants are very easy to identify; tiny toolbelt and a beer can in hand ! ;^)

I don't get carpenter ants but do, on occasion, get sugar ants.
Heres how I take care of them.

Works best if you hide their tool boxes.

The Monrow brothers? Alpf and Ralph?

If you can find where they are entering your house, sprinkle some baby powder there. They'll be gone by day's end.

I had a problem with carpenter ants about 6 years ago , I cut some yellow locust wood in late fall early winter. It was cold enough they were dormant. A long came summer and I was setting in my shop studying a manual and kept hearing a grinding or knowing noise. I walked outside and the closer I got to my wood pile 30 feet away the noise kept getting louder. I saw saw dust around the pile (5 logs wide and 18 feet long by 7 foot tall), it looked like someone had sawed wood for as much sawdust was on the ground around it . I moved a log and there were literally thousands of ants. I was in shock . I went to the house and got the wife and showed her. She was also surprised. I was ready move the whole pile and start a fire. She told me to wait . The next day she went to the hardware store and they recommended a chemical to spray around the pile and on the wood. . The hardware guy told her to spray this stuff and spray it again in a couple of days . I wish I could remember what it was because I have never seen them since. I learned to be careful of what wood I cut if I can . If not anything with bugs or ants gets burned directly in the stove and not piled inside . I know this is not always an option for everbody. I am totally amazed how much saw dust they can make in a couple of days.
Jeff (JJ)
'

If you have carpenter ants, you either have wood in contact with the earth or you have a leak in your roof. Carpenter ants require wood rot fungus to burrow into wood; they can't simply eat dry wood. The ants and the fungus have a symbiotic relationship: The fungus softens the wood so the ants can chew it, and the ants spread the fungus. So the first thing you need to figure out is where the ants are living, figure out how water is getting there and repair that problem. Then you can worry about killing the ants.

LOL ! darned things !

Thats my understanding, but the roof is just 10 years old now, I have not found any wet areas so far, not even any staining. Now I have one old log in the yard I know has these ants in it, and a cut off of an old utility pole, as well, both of those will be on the burn pile as soon as the weather clears. I have a little to trim off one tree near the house, though there are no ants in it. Some overhanging branches to trim back, its an apricot tree, nothing touching though.

I have an area over a sliding door to check, the old kitchen counter/back splash area, but the sill plates, ends of the joists, all dry and well above the grade line around the house. This happened last year for a little while, then they were gone.

In the interim, I put out some Terro bait(s) on the counter, being they are dormant outside, I will try some of that perimeter, (exterior) treatment as well, + getting rid of any and all habitat, like suspect logs and fully process the firewood logs I have stacked up asap, most if not all of those were clear of ants too, logs were clean when I cut the trees down late last September.

Never know, maybe I'll still find a problem somewhere, given the size of the house. Thing that bugs me is that its too cold for them outside, so something has to be going on inside somewhere, I've seen none in any firewood I have brought in, which was split a year ago, mostly covered, and well checked from being dry, it ignites immediately in the stove its so dry.

if you have trees around your house, check those too. We have a hollow pear tree and they live in it.

Try feeding them. Some are sugar loving. Terro ant killer liquid is for sugar lovers other products by terro are for grease loving. They work and kill the colony. Jim

Aluminum siding with fiberboard backer will almost always attract carpenter ants.

Terro works as well as anything I've seen for killing carpenter ants.

We use Diatomaceous powder. Water will disolve it so you have to repeat after rains. It works!

Amdro ant poison. Ace Hardware or WalMart may have it. I used it on some ant hills in the hay field two years ago. Put it on the hills one day, next day no ants. It is a small yellow granule.