Carpenter Ants

[vern]

Hi everyone,

Any advice on getting rid of carpenter ants? I've noticed small sawdust piles under my front door over the last couple weeks (I have cedar siding). I can see large black ants moving in & out of a small hole under the door. I've tried a few different baits & granules that claim to kill carpenter ants but I've had no luck so far. Any good ideas? Do I have to call an exterminator?

Thanks, Vern

[cavalierowner]

We had that trouble quite a while ago. What worked for us was to use a liquid concentrate mixed in water and sprayed with a pump-up type sprayer. We sprayed 6' up the side of the house and the ground for about 4' out from the house, all the way around the entire house. We did 2 applications, about 2 weeks apart. If I recall, we used Diazinon at the time, but I think that's been outlawed now. I'm sure the garden stores have some kind of replacement that would work. BTW, we had zero luck with granuals too.

[delcecchi]

You might also look for the home nest. Often the ones going in the house aren't the main part of the colony.

[Steve Foss]

Del is right. Often carpenter ants are in homes because they are foraging grounds within easy distance of the nest. However, if you have piles of sawdust from the ants, you do have them working on a nest within the wood/walls of your house, and you'd best act fast.

Here's what one of the state extension services says about killing a colony of carpenter ants:

Quote:

If the colony is in a wall void, you may need to place an insecticide inside the wall. Do not use liquid insecticides inside wall voids. Introduce the dust into the nest through the entrance hole using hand duster with a tube with a tip which fits snugly in the entrance. It may be necessary to enlarge the hole to fit the duster. You can make a duster from a flexible plastic bottle equipped with a tube tip. An old mustard or catchup bottle might work for this use. Fill the bottle no more than one-third full, insert the tip in the entrance hole and inject the dust by alternately squeezing and releasing the pressure on the bottle. Unfortunately, there aren't very many over-the-counter dust products available for homeowners. It may be money well spent to hire a pest control professional who has a greater arsenal of products at his/her disposal and proper application equipment.

Dust formulations registered for use in and around the home include Drione® (pyrethrins), Tempo® (cyfluthrin), Deltadust® (deltamethrin). These are marketed for the professionals and not readily available in retail outlets. Another useful dust formulation is Apicide® (carbaryl). It is a product made to control bees and wasps in wall voids, but, because it is labeled for wall void treatments, it can be used for these situations. It is important to make sure these wall void treatments won't come into contact with humans or pets. Be sure to store any leftover insecticide in its original container with the label intact and throw away the make-shift duster so it doesn't get used around food.

We had carpenter ants in our lake cabin last year, but no sawdust piles, so they weren't nesting. We could have used an over-the-counter product available to homeowners for this level of ant population, but decided to leave it in the hands of a pro. It cost about $200 to have the exterminator take care of things. That was near Bemidji, however. Probably it's more expensive in the Cities.

[delcecchi]

Your tax dollars at work

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/housingandclothing/DK1015.html

and

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/housingandclothing/M1166.html

[PurpleFloyd]

Call Billy the Exterminator.

[titelines]

We use Terro Ant Killer at our cabin. It's a liquid that the ants are drawn to, then they take it back to the nest and spread it around so it kills all of them. It seems to work well on the carpenter and black ants that we've seen.

[eurolarva]

We had problems with them in Blaine and tried poisons and finally found the 4 nests in our house. One went 15 ft into our dining room. One was on the north patio door and one was under a large window. When our house was built they did not flash the deck. The last nest was where the deck connected to the house. Go looking at night with a red light flash light. They are more active at night. If you are not inclined to look you need to get an exterminator in and find the nest or nests before too much damage is done. I had to replace a good portion of our sub floor. A bunch of siding and some Joists. Could even be dying tree near your house. If so they will eat it inside out to where a good storm could blow it over.

[vern]

Thanks for the info everyone. Looks like I'll call an exterminator. Please let me know if you have any recommendations around the twin cities. I think I'll try Terro 1st though.

- Vern

[Surface Tension]

I thought of Vexcon and Terro.

While Vexcon would be more entertaining to watch the Terro will work.

[Steve Foss]

Good luck with the Terro, vern. Hope that takes care of the problem for ya.