Carpenter Ants-Should I be concerned

[SmokinDodge]

I need to thank a wood pecker for alerting me to a carpenter ant infestation in my house. After hearing the wood pecker hammer the corner of my house and seeing the damage it was doing, I got out my pellet gun. Before pulling the trigger it occured to me the wood pecker was probably just after a meal and not out to lower my property value. I waited till after dark and closely looked around the base of my house. I found a dark stream of ants flowing into and out of the house. I moved my firewood and trimmed trees away from the house and now also spread granuals around the base of my home every spring.

Isolate your wood with the ants, split it open and kill the ants, or listen for the knock of a wood pecker on your house.

Good thinking, very few people actually take the time to think about what the woodpecker is after. Like my last landlord.

 

[fuzzle]

Use the ant bait they take back to the nest. I use one called "Grants Kills ants"

+1, good choice

 

[buzz sawyer]

Welp.........here is ga best I can do on short notice.........It's awesome http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq1EjBT9kwM

My Uncle set up his Harley like that but my Aunt was too chicken to ride it.
sorry - couldn't resist.

I got some free Norway maple firewood one winter and stacked it near the house. First warm day - ants in the house. I do see them more in cherry than anything else. Seems like I always see them swarming in the Spring. Sevin works for me.

 

[BIGBORE577]

Believe it or not, sprinkle cayenne pepper at their entry point and they will not come back until it washes away. Laugh if you wish but, it does work.

 

[goof008]

The ants came in cherry, oak and shag bark. I have it all cleaned up around the house, and I sprayed an insecticide around the foundation of the house, so it should be good. Now I would like to spray the pile of rounds waiting to be split, as I know alot of them stayed in the wood all the way back there. Will the Borax mixture wash away and be harmless later and ok to burn? Does it kill the ants, or just make them go away?
As for the garages, one down...hopefully no more to go.

 

[Al Smith]

That's a good question,I don't know but I assume it's safe.

Generally speaking the ants only get into rotting cherry or dead portions of oak and hickory,all three species not just shagbark.The hickorys develop bad spots by loss of limbs over the years.The stuff has about zero resistance to rot for some reason.As a result most of the losses of rather large hickorys in this area are caused by ants.I'm a thinkin perhaps we need some pet ardvarks or something.We have a plurality of woodpeckers but they don't get them all.


What amazed me was the speed the little rascals attacked that sound green wood in my woodpile.I had always assumed it was just the decaying stuff but evidently they like it in the drying stage.

I've heard of spreading dried grits so they take them back to the queen who supposidly ingests them,takes on moisture and explodes.I don't really think that is the truth though.Although the thought of grits is not appealing to myself .I was born and raised too far north to every acquire a taste for them and I'm too old to change.

 

[Urbicide]

I've heard of spreading dried grits so they take them back to the queen who supposidly ingests them,takes on moisture and explodes.I don't really think that is the truth though.Although the thought of grits is not appealing to myself .I was born and raised too far north to every acquire a taste for them and I'm too old to change.

So that is why we have so many fat queens walking around these days. They over dosed on grits!

Maybe we should try to give the ants diet coke and mentos.


http://www.filecabi.net/video/mentos-and-diet-coke-show.html

http://www.filecabi.net/video/coke-men-suc.html

 

[RiverRat2]

Hey Think about it!!!!!!

Another garage?

Look @ his Screen name!!!!!

 

[buzz sawyer]

That's a good question,I don't know but I assume it's safe.

Generally speaking the ants only get into rotting cherry or dead portions of oak and hickory,all three species not just shagbark.The hickorys develop bad spots by loss of limbs over the years.The stuff has about zero resistance to rot for some reason.As a result most of the losses of rather large hickorys in this area are caused by ants.I'm a thinkin perhaps we need some pet ardvarks or something.We have a plurality of woodpeckers but they don't get them all.


What amazed me was the speed the little rascals attacked that sound green wood in my woodpile.I had always assumed it was just the decaying stuff but evidently they like it in the drying stage.

I've heard of spreading dried grits so they take them back to the queen who supposidly ingests them,takes on moisture and explodes.I don't really think that is the truth though.Although the thought of grits is not appealing to myself .I was born and raised too far north to every acquire a taste for them and I'm too old to change.

Now that I think about it, I've had carpenter ants in cherry lumber stacked to dry and they did eat away the faces of two adjacent boards. Also had a nest in in a trailer full of sound equipment - cabinets made of MDF.

Al, if you ever get a chance, head to Folly Beach near Charleston, SC and have a mess of shrimp and grits on the beach - doesn't get any better!

 

[Al Smith]

Al, if you ever get a chance, head to Folly Beach near Charleston, SC and have a mess of shrimp and grits on the beach - doesn't get any better!

Ha,I'll take the shrimp,somebody else can have the grits.I developed a taste for good seafood during my tour in uncle Sams deep water navy.Being somewhat land locked in the middle of a giant midwest cornfield,I sure do miss the fresh good tasting stuff.

Back to ants.I've heard of this stuff called blue flash fly powder that will kill about any thing that eats it.They mix the stuff with a bit of cola or some other soft drink and use it for rat poison,raccoons or anything else dumb enough to eat it.I'll bet a dollar to a doughnut it would do the number on ants.

 

[SRT-Tech]

fire off your old canisters of bear spray, at the ant entry points. You will never see ants again. Works well aorund the ant hill too.....walk around the hill and spray a ring of bear spray. They wont leave the area and you can firebomb the ant hill with gas or diesel.