Actually, they're just as attracted to my terracotta strawberry pot and an orange could-be-hardened-styrofoam pot, and the cracks under my building's walls. All of which have now been liberally dusted with DE. I also made up a trap in a plastic jar with a protein supplement and borax (dunno if it'll work, but I read that this time of year they're looking for protein and not carbs/sugar so why not try?), and there's a robin who's been hanging around yesterday and today and hopefully won't be eating a boraxed ant...

The ants are probably already in your structure. And finding multiple winged forms indoors indicates the colony is at least 3 to 4 years old. So you need to begin looking for clues. The good news is that , although you need to determine if the ants are in your structure, you have plenty of time to figure that out and, if needed, hire a competent pest control company. Look for wet wood, as from a roof leak or leaky plumbing or soil/mulch/plants against the siding. If you're *lucky,* you can get by if you replace the damaged wood and also fix the leak. Unfortunately, by the time most folks find the winged reproductives, the colony is large and the damage more extensive than not. Investigate both the crawl space (if you have one) and the attic, if accessible. Look for piles of sawdust which may or may not contain fragments of dead insects. If none of the above are found, continue to do periodic inspections. And once the weather warms, you can look for a two-way trail outdoors. The time to do that here in the northwest is from April/May through October, at night between the hours of 10 pm and 2 am. Look first at the foundation of the house, also any overhead utilities that enter the house. When you find the trail, follow it to the main nest. If that nest is on your property, you need to have both the house and main nest treated. Oh yes, more good news. For the past several years, pest control companies have ant baits specifically for our Northwest carpenter ants. (Understand, though, that the baits you can buy for nuisance ants won't work.) Just how a site is treated depends upon the individual circumstances. So you'll need to discuss your options with several companies, then choose the one you feel comfortable with.

We live in a log home and carpenter ants are always a concern for obvious reasons. My sister, who also lives in a log home, has to be even more persistent that us. She had ants invite themselves into logs a few years back. To solve the problem you should try to discover their 'route' and possibly their nest if it's not located in the house. Once located, if outside, do not disturb the nest since this will make them move on, and since they've found the home, you certainly don't want them there. You can use the Borax/sugar if you are using where children and pets won't be. Since she had pets, the ideal places were behind the fridge, stove, etc. The Borax you purchase should be the one from your pharmacy. The Borax soap will not work effectively. Ask the pharmacist for Boric Acid. For other places, use Diatomaceous Earth. As you will read in the link I provided, it is safe to use around pets, children, and plants. It is available at any garden center/box store. We use the brand Insectigone for Ants and apply a few times during the summer circling the foundation and any possible points of entry. If you've located the nest and it is away from the house, use the DE between the nest and the house on non-rainy days. Also, by watching the nest, you'll be able to see if you are getting results. After you've rid yourself of the problem, use the DE as a preventative measure so the problem doesn't reoccur. Both measure are not instant. You will begin to see a decline in a week, and in a couple of weeks your problem should be down to nearly nothing if anything at all. Here is a link that might be useful: Diatomaceous Earth

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.