Carpenter ants and the nest

egghead2004

15 years ago

Year after year we get carpenter ants looking to make a new nest in our house. Year after year I use Borax and confectionate sugar to fend them off. I usually only see 10-20 ants for a week or so, then they are gone.

Well this year is different. We let it go a couple weeks before putting out the Borax solution yesterday. There are no less than 50 ants congregating around the sugar in my first floor bathroom. I looked in the basement under the bathroom and found hundred of ants around the crack between the 2 sill plates above the foundation.

Should I just wait and see if the Borax will take care of things or should I get a little more aggressive, and how?

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Comments (7)

Kimmsr
15 years ago
You continue to treat for the symptom of a problem, the presence of Carpenter Ants, instead of so;ving the real problem. Find out why those Carpenter Ants are coming in your house, what is drawing them, fix that and they will no longer seek that wet wood. Wet wood is the draw and if your house structure has wet wood that is drawing Carpenter Ants inside you will have much more serious problems in the future.
Zyperiris
15 years ago
Carpender ants are big here in Wa state..we have lots of wet wood. My hubby and I moved into a garage apartment attached to his parents home to care for Mom who was crippled. She has since died..but Dad had put in a bathroom and it was poorly done. The tub leaked. Well after fighting Mom over it we had the bathroom redone. The floor was wet into the bedroom. There were several large carpender ant nests in the wet wood. They are bad bad. I would call an exterminator
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rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
15 years ago
Do you own this home? If so, it past time to do something 'more aggressive' about controlling these ants. Remember, this has been going on for years, according to you. Your borax treatments have taken care of the problem.

A trained professional will have the means to locate the nest sites and any satellite nests (which could be outside AND/OR inside) He/she will also be able to ascertain the extent of the damage to structural wood (non-wetwood). You have no way of doing that with any accuracy and possible contact with electrical wires, etc. They will also be able to identify problem areas in your home and help you repair them. There's not much sense in killing carpenter ants unless you make sure that they won't/can't gain access to your home again.

Be mindful that a do-it-yourself approach involving strong chemicals can be very dangerous to you and your family. Steer away from that if you were thinking about it.

I strongly suggest that you do some googling about carpenter ants so that you can arm yourself with some information and good questions when you begin calling around for inspections. There are some ignorant and unethical pest control people out there. You need to find the good companies.
Kimmsr
15 years ago
I have never heared of a "professional" pest control person saying to someone that the reason you have this an problem is because the wood that holds you house up is wet and that needs to be fixed or on day your house will fall down, and when you get that problem fixed the ants will stop coming in and I really do not need to do anything.
Carpenter Ants are a symptom of a problem, not the problem.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
15 years ago
Kimmsr: huh?

Anyway, egghead, I mispoke in my earlier posting. I said that the borax treatments HAD taken care of the problem, but what I meant was (obviously, I hope) that they had NOT. You really need a good pro (with the right equipment) to help you locate the problem spots around the home.

Though carpenter ants prefer rotten, decayed, or wetwood in which to build their nests, they will excavate through sound wood. Also, they may build their nests in a rotting tree outside, but enter your home to forage for food. They may be attracted to other insect activity within the home (insects are their primary food outdoors) or have learned that they have access to the pantry.
Kimmsr
15 years ago
I have no idea how Carpenter Ants find that wet wood but some years ago I saw these wee buggers in the house and searched and found the area they were mostly in. Since this was up on a roof we called a contractor, one we trusted, to look and he found some of the roof decking had gotten wet because some of the roofing material had worked loose. A short time later, after that wet roof decking was replaced and new roofing material properly laid and there was no more wet wood up there, there were no more Carpenter Ants and have not been any since.
Many, many people have done the same thing, fixed the real problem, and have seen the Carpenter Ants leaves without needing to put any kind of poison (and Boric Acid is a poison) out for them. Find and fix the problem and the symptom of the problem, the Carpenter Ants, will go away.
dutch62
13 years ago
Here's another decent article on the ants that could be of help.

Here is a link that might be useful: Carpenter ants

Carpenter ants and the nest

Comments (7)

Kimmsr

Zyperiris

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