Need info on Carpenter Ants

[deelam]

My sister has seen ants in her home recently. She thinks they are carpenter ants. She is single and is going to try and treat the problem herself. Does anyone know how hard getting rid of carpenter ants? And how destructive are carpenter ants?

 

[Geoff_M]

Carpenter Ants are only slightly less destructive than termites. If she's seeing more than a couple of them a day in her place, she needs to call a pro. If she's living up against a wooded area, she probably ought to get on a schedule of regular outside sprayings from a local pest establishment.

 

[usamickey]

Tell her to call Orkin. They will try to find where they are coming in and put out this gooey bait and believe me, it will work.

 

[deelam]

I think she believes she can just spray and be done with it. But if these are really carpenter ants I guess they can damage her house. These Ants are big and black. Another friend said they were carpenter ants. They have only showed up within the past 2 weeks. She told me she killed 4 of them in her living room last night. she killed 2 more were in her bedroom.

 

[CJRN]

Yes, sounds like carpenter ants. I had read the first few are the "scouts", these of course are the first ones we see, and kill.....supposedly if an ant is killed, it sends out a scent which just brings out more of these "scouts". If I see them around, I try not to squish/step/throw a big book on it, but pick it up with tissue and throw it into the toilet and flush it. Not really sure my method is right, but that's what I do.

Apparently the ants will continue until the nest is found, and sprayed. DH has found nests in our basement, behind the insulation, and also up in the attic. He will go outside and look around for the ants, and watch where they go, and then goes after them.

Good luck!

 

[deelam]

Tracking these ants down sounds like quite a job. Does anyone no if these ants bite?

 

[deelam]

Also, How hard is it to find the nest?

 

[welovedisneyx4]

Tell her to go to Lowe's or Wal-Mart, (I would think other places have it, but I know those do) and get some Terro. It is in a small orange box and works wonders!

You put a few drops of the liquid Terro on a little piece of cardboard from the package, the ants get in it and carry it back to the nest and that kills the rest of them. We were having the worst time a few weeks ago and had even scheduled the exterminator to come. We ended up having to cancel that appointment and he told us about the Terro. It only costs about 3.00, so even if it didn't work, you weren't out much $.

You do need to be careful w/ it around pets or little kids. We put ours in 2 of our bathrooms and kept the doors closed and it got rid of them, even the ones in the kitchen. We still have some out b/c we are still seeing a few, but it is a very few and compared to what we were seeing at first, it is WAY LESS.

Good luck!

 

[HayGan]

I'm afraid that we probably have these as well. We have seen more than our share of ants in the house lately and I did notice some saw dust type material in our hall closet a few months ago. I'll try that Terro stuff but I think that we are going to have a pro come out and give us their opinion

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

carpenter ants like wood. Spraying and being done aren't an option IMHO. I would recommend a pest control company and they can treat her home.

Mine liked to live in wood in the yard. Took 2 companies before they figured that out. He kindly treated the source as well. Now we have no problems!

 

[BeNJeNWaFFLe]

Oh no, tell her to please be careful. These things are nasty. We have lost countless trees because of them. They also tried to eat away at our picnic table. Tell her to call a pro. We tried the store bought stuff and they kept coming back. We had the yard professionally treated maybe 10 years ago and we haven't had a problem since.

They might be nesting in trees. Watch the trunks. You will see them crawling on the trees and you might also see big holes where they are nesting. Our one tree had a good 2in wide, 3in long, deep hole in its trunk, all from the carpenter ants.

 

[BalooTheBear]

Tell her to go to Lowe's or Wal-Mart, (I would think other places have it, but I know those do) and get some Terro. It is in a small orange box and works wonders!

You put a few drops of the liquid Terro on a little piece of cardboard from the package, the ants get in it and carry it back to the nest and that kills the rest of them. We were having the worst time a few weeks ago and had even scheduled the exterminator to come. We ended up having to cancel that appointment and he told us about the Terro. It only costs about 3.00, so even if it didn't work, you weren't out much $.

You do need to be careful w/ it around pets or little kids. We put ours in 2 of our bathrooms and kept the doors closed and it got rid of them, even the ones in the kitchen. We still have some out b/c we are still seeing a few, but it is a very few and compared to what we were seeing at first, it is WAY LESS.

Good luck!

I second the vote for Terro (really just Borax and sugar/water), it really works She is probably seeing them now because of all the rain, they tend to send out scouts to track for new nests. If she hasn't seen them before, then they may not have nested in the house yet. Best way to find out is to call an exterminator. We used to have quite a bit, but the Terro kept them under control and out of the house... And they aren't as agressive as fireants, but they can bite.....

 

[rayelias]

DON'T SPRAY!!!

Spraying just kills the ones you see. If the colony feels threatened, they'll split up and create 2 colonies - then you'll have 2X the problem. This can go on and on.

Here is an EXTREMELY valuable, informative website. http://www.unexco.com/carpants.html He's an HONEST exterminator (yes, really). Read through the article and site - he'll tell you how to get rid of them FREE (if they're not a serious problem)! I've not used the guy (but I do have a call in to him - I think I've got them too. If I can figure out how to post a pic, I'll do it.)

I took this with a digital camera through a magnifying glass. You can tell it's a Carpenter because (1) it has 12 segments in the antennae (2) it has a rounded thorax (rounded back) (3) it has one "node" (connects the thorax (back) to the abdomen (bottom) (4) the abdomen (bottom) has a hairy circle at the tip (hard to see in this pic). Pretty nasty, huh? As you can tell, I did a LOT of research on these things.

 

[Magickndm]

Carpenter ants usually only eat rotten wood, so they really aren't as bad as termites.
She needs to find the rotten wood and treat it, either herself, or have a pest control company come out.
I know she may have visions of it just chowing down and eating her house, but that really won't happen.

 

[Geoff_M]

Carpenter ants usually only eat rotten wood...

I think that's not a good rule of thumb. Friends of ours had a major nest of them in the wall of their home that was only a couple of years old. The husband tore off the siding and discovered that they taken up residence in the cellulose (makes ants go "Yum!") based insulation. His wife could actually hear the ants moving behind the shower wall in their bathroom without putting her ear against the wall! If they're in your house, they're doing damage... which makes professional proventitive spraying (in wooded areas) a good idea over just treating the latest nest that appears.

 

[rayelias]

Carpenter ants usually only eat rotten wood, so they really aren't as bad as termites.
She needs to find the rotten wood and treat it, either herself, or have a pest control company come out.
I know she may have visions of it just chowing down and eating her house, but that really won't happen.

To be completely accurate, carpenter ants do NOT eat wood like termites do. They DO, however, typically live in "nests" created by digging tunnels throughout the wood. You'll often see a pile of "sawdust" near the nest that the ants carried out. They like rotten wood, because it's easier for them. I've read that nearly every tree(stump) has at least one colony.

Not trying to nit-pick, just trying to distinguish between termite problems and carpenter ant problems, in case someone is trying to distinguish between the two.

 

[HayGan]

DON'T SPRAY!!!

Spraying just kills the ones you see. If the colony feels threatened, they'll split up and create 2 colonies - then you'll have 2X the problem. This can go on and on.

Here is an EXTREMELY valuable, informative website. http://www.unexco.com/carpants.html He's an HONEST exterminator (yes, really). Read through the article and site - he'll tell you how to get rid of them FREE (if they're not a serious problem)! I've not used the guy (but I do have a call in to him - I think I've got them too. If I can figure out how to post a pic, I'll do it.)
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Thank you so much for that info!!!! It is really helpful!

I think that we have a colony in our crawl space. We have seen the sawdust and we see on average 15 - 20 ants per day -YUCK!!! We (I mean - DH ) is going to open up that door to see if we can see where the problem is. Something tells me that it has to do with our gutters as well (seeing that he hasn't cleaned them out in 3 years )

 

[stevenpensacola]

DON'T SPRAY!!!

If you look real close, you can see the little pencil stuck behind the carpenter ants' ear.

 

[LindaG4458]

Yup, that picture looks just like the ants we found in our Vero Beach condo a couple years ago. The place had been empty for 5 months and we did not leave any lights on inside. There were at least four nests: one in the drawer of my coffee table,one in the faucet in the bathtub, one in the woodwork around the front door, and one in the woodwork around the laundry room door. The exterminator said it was the worst infestation that he had ever seen. It took two solid months of the exterminator coming at least once per week to get rid of them. Now we leave a light on in each room when we are away and the exterminator comes once per month to spray.

Afterwards they told us that most people would just have moved rather than deal with the ants. Believe me, it was tempting. These are not to be trifled with.

 

[lowie]

My sister has seen ants in her home recently. She thinks they are carpenter ants. She is single and is going to try and treat the problem herself. Does anyone know how hard getting rid of carpenter ants? And how destructive are carpenter ants?

i would tell her to get a professional in to spray the entire house and perimeter.