are you that good on ID??? ... are you sure they are carpenter ants???? the only thing ants trigger in my mind.. when i see too many on any given plant.. of any type is.. aphids.. they farm the aphids.. and milk them of honeydew .. as disgusting as thought is.. lol ... otherwise they are being advantageous regarding other pre-existing problems.. in other words.. they did not cause the dead wood ... they are harvesting it.. if in fact that is what they are doing ... otherwise.. i ignore them ... though it is rather exhilarating.. to have a bunch climbing thru the hairs on your body.. whether feet or hands.. lol ... ken

I did quite a bit of research on this subject recently, as I get a conga line of ants to my kitchen and bathroom sinks for a few weeks every April. It is worth trying to find out what kind of ants you've got, because if theyr'e carpenter ants, you then need to figure out whether they are nesting in the house, or coming in from an outside nest foraging or looking for water. If there is an internal nest, you want to try to track them back to it, as you'll want to fix any water damage. (Unlike termites, carpenter ants build only in rotting wood.) The most useful site I saw on dealing (or NOT dealing) with carpenter ants was http://unexco.com/carpants.html They advise you to not panic -- carpenter ants do not suddenly eat your whole house, and a lot of people will try to scare you into buying a monthly pest control plan. (Some, apparently, even mistake other ants for carpenter ants...) In addition to repellents and baits, there are evidently other treatments, originally developed for use on termites, that are used on some ants. (I know they are used for carpenter ants, not sure about other species.) Evidently a lot of pros (I gather from chatter on a pest control site) swear by a combination of products called Phantom and Termidor, which need to be applied by licensed professionals. These are sprays that leave a residue that the ants walk through and take back to the nest, as they do with baits. They can't detect these poisons, though, and they are (like baits) slow-acting, so it is designed to wipe out the entire colony. Nota bene: I haven't used them, I'm not a pest control professional, I'm not recommending them, I'm just saying there is another method out there that is worth checking up on. Another good resource for researching pest control issues is a message board of the Integrated Pest Control Network, http://www.ipconetwork.org/fmb/cboard.mv Good luck with your ants.

*shrug* I could be wrong. Just sharing my opinion based on my experience with ants that farm aphids: 1. I have been battling them since last year, so their appearance is very familiar to me. 2. Now that I know where to look and what to look for, I see them everywhere. 3. They're notorious aphid farmers. 4. In the first picture if you zoom in, you can see that their feet "disappear," probably because they're white. 5. If you look at a lot of pictures of common black ants that farm aphids, you will notice that WFA's have an oversized rear end, as do these. 6. In the second picture, the way they are all clustered together is another common WFA characteristic. WFA's cluster together and don't move while they "share information." Not many ants will stand completely still in the same way. They stand in these clusters, immobile, for so long... then suddenly they all scurry into action at the same time.

Your terminology is a little vague but I'm going to assume you mean that there is a gap between the baseboard and the floor and the shoemold covers that gap. That is what the shoemold is supposed to do. It just sounds like everything is in order. Ants can get through any construction. If there is rot you will get Carpenter ants and to rid yourself of ants you will have to get rid of rot. Termites will eat good wood and that needs immediate attention. Small sugar ants are just a nuasance and not a threat. Find out what ants you have and act accordingly. An exterminator if its termites, a carpenter if there is rot and over the counter sprays for other ants.