I have recently has to use another ant bait manufactured by MaxForce and was utterly impressed. You should make sure that you read up on how to use baits, however, before applying it. I'll mention a couple of things: don't put the bait where a non target animal can get to it. Baits will be attractive to pets and wildlife.

You will need to remember that the baits do exactly what they are intended to do....attract ants, which take the poisoned bait back to their nest. You had better be prepared to see a whole lot of ants before the job is finished. Ants are likely to swarm the gel in large numbers, maybe in alarming masses. But you cannot disturb this activity in any way. That is what it is supposed to do.

After a few hours (it was overnight for me), the ant activity will dwindle to just a few and THEN THERE WERE NONE!!! That is when you can remove the bait.

I would think hard about where you want to place the bait. It might not be something you want to watch up close....
I purchased my product from one of the warehouse home improvement stores. They had carpenter ant baits, too.

If you have Carpenter Ants in the house they are there because you have a problem that needs to be resolved, and its not the ants. Keep looking for the problem and fix that and the ants will leave without you poisoning them.

Acutally, to clarify, carpenter ants will not leave just because moisture problems are fixed. If there's an established nest, it's not going anywhere unless you kill the ants, run them out with something that disturbs them (and if they're in the house the place they'll run to will almost certainly be another part of the house), or remove the wood in which their nest is located (in which case they'll just establish another nest nearby). And BTW, there have been plenty of documented cases of carpenter ant nests in otherwise healthy or unblemished wood (i.e. not water-logged or even stained from previous moisture).

Carpenter ant nests can be destroyed by killing the inhabitants of a particular nest, but that does not rid an area of them. Established queen nests will have satellite nests, and killing a queen prompts the otherwise sterile workers to produce eggs for the purpose of creating another queen. If the main nest and all its satellite nests are destroyed, there is still a chance of re-infestation in the future by neighboring colonies further out that spread into the newly vacated area. Monitoring for, and possibly treating for, carpenter ants is just one of those things that has to be done regularly when you own a house that has wood in its structure (in an area known to have carpenter ants -- which is almost everywhere in the U.S.).

Oh, and finding carpenter ants in a house doesn't necessarily mean you have a nest in the house. Carpenter ants can be in a house just as scouts, so the idea that lack of moisture will keep them out of the house is incorrect. They prefer to tunnel through moist wood for a nest, but they will scout anywhere within 100 yards of their nest. And I mean anywhere. If there is a nest near the house, and there's a way into your house, they will almost certainly end up in there. That doesn't mean they're turning your framing into swiss cheese; in such a case they're just looking for food.

Carpenter ants do not consider our houses to be sacrosanct -- inviolate unless the sin of failed maintenance is committed. They do not distinguish between forests and houses, or woodpiles and houses, and while it's true that they're attracted to moist wood, they do not require it -- it is simply a convenience for them. Like lions picking the weakest animal in a herd, it's just easier.

As for your original quaestion, I've never used the gel, but it's generally considered worth the price if used as recommended. For the gel, it's important to use it in a well-travelled (by carpenter ants) area, with the understanding that it can be attractive to other insects and animals, and that it can lose its attractiveness quickly as it hardens from exposure to air. You need to locate the foraging trails and put it as close to the nest as possible -- protected from the elements and from other creatures -- and renew it at intervals (the packaging will go into more detail) if you know there are still ants in the area.

The most effective way to treat carpenter ants is generally considered to be:

1. Ensure that there are no nests in the house (track the ants, kill with bait if you're uncertain of their location, or kill with drione dust if they are in a house and location is known and accessible).

2. Use a perimeter treatment at regular intervals (for the life of the home) to keep them out of the house.

Ants in a natural setting do not necessarily need to be destroyed. If you are sure there are none in your house and you use perimeter treatments correctly, ants in the landscape should not be a problem (unless they're destroying something alse you cherish, like a fence). Carpenter ants are everywhere -- they exist, and there's nothing we can do about it. Get them out of your house (if they're there), keep them out, and let the ones outdoors do their thing.

Nice post julia, thanks!

Thanks for the info! I had ordered the MaxForce gel, and then found that Home Depot has the same gel - Fipronil - same strength, for 1/6 the price and no shipping. I used both, and haven't seen any ants for about a week.

I have a carpenter ant infestation in a rotted section of a 100 year old maple. I worried they will bore into the live area of the tree and damage it further. Can anyone suggest how I can rid the tree of these ??

They will not 'bore' into living wood. They infest rotten wood, lumber (which is dead wood), etc. Removal of a large carpenter ant colony in a tree can be done the same way you would do it inside. Bait. Research and purchase your product wisely. Make sure it is labeled for outdoor use.

juliaw,

Wonderful answer to the post! My sister and I both own log homes... Carpenter ants are our #1 enemy. Last thing we want is for them to come and weaken a bottom log - or any log for that matter.

My sister had a real problem two years ago - you could hear the ants boring in the logs. We used many of the approaches you have mentioned, and she no longer has a problem, so your advice is sound!