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Ugh More Problems... Ants This Time

A

Augus7us

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Jan 14, 2017
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1,190
Location
Central Ohio
I swear I cannot not win with this shop. I keep running into issues and this one is no exception.

So this year I noticed large black ants, I suspect they are carpenter ants, walking along my shop floor. I thought maybe I have a problem but I never noticed more than a few crawling around here and there. Nothing in the new stud walls i put up and that is really the only new wood I've installed outside building my rooms on the back wall.

Recently I was up on my mezzanine and I had noticed some sawdust up there in odd spots but I was cutting boards up there when I built it last year so I just chalked it up to the miter saw.

However today I was up moving things around and trying to run some speaker cable and I noticed sawdust in spots there shouldn't be on my wood cart I built that is currently holding some plumping pipe, boxes of visqueen and about 8 bundles of furring strips...

So I lifted up one of the bundles and dropped it back down about 6"s... This is what popped out.

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I've never dealt with carpenter ants on this scale before. I'm fairly certain that they have not infested anything else thankfully, however I'm probably going to loose some furring strips.

So what can I do to get rid of these short of paying an exterminator? My thought was cover my wood cart, about 8'L x 4'W x 4'T, with visqueen and just set off a bunch of bug bombs. What do you guys think?

When I shook the thing it was like setting of a code red. At first they popped out of the place I shook, then the whole cart was covered. Interesting creatures, but they got to go.
 

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K

KEH

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5,142
Well, Sevin will probably kill them. Probably a local big box store r a good hardware store will have bug poison aimed at the ants. Sevin kills all insects and you may not want that.

Just be glad they are not fire ants.

KRH
 
E

engineer2

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Dec 13, 2009
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Location
Chicago burbs
We tried Sevin for carpenter ants and it didn't work very well. Don't know why.
They love moist wood. You have to solve the wet wood problem. I had water leakage at a fireplace vent and carpenter ants made a nest. Shop vac'ed up the nest and fixed the water intrusion. Apparently the ants patrol the area all the time, so we get about one a week that somehow gets into the house.

Another solution is peacocks. They eat ants, but are high maintenance since they don't tolerate cold weather very well.
 
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HotelMike

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Oct 25, 2016
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CA
Advance 375A is what I use when I see ants in or around the house. Looks like breadcrumbs. Search for it on Amazon. The container cost $18 but had it for 3 years and it is still half full. You may want to try to verify it also works on carpenter ants.

Edit: It mentions carpenter ants on the label so should be good to go
 
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L

like2wheel

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Oct 29, 2014
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On an as needed basis
I tried most of the above with marginal success. The final nail in the coffin was when I dusted some diatomaceous earth around. It's just a harmless dust, but it's like like glass shards to anything with an exoskeleton. Apparently they only need to walk in it.

It was surprisingly effective & after such a long battle, it was morbidly satisfying to see them stagger around while their bodies ground themselves apart.:evil:
 
M

mcbane

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California
The ants are alerting you to a moisture problem, and wood will eventually rot even if the ants dont eat it. Fix the moisture problem and the ants will go away except for the occasional scout ant.
 
J

jkeyser14

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(rural) Maryland
Keep looking for a moisture problem, it would be odd to have carpenter ants without one. As already said, permethrin will create a barrier that will kill them, but it only works for 30-60 days. You can spray some Timbor (a non-toxic salt, completely human safe) on all of your exposed wood and when ants clean themselves they ingest it. Their stomachs can't process the salt, so they think they are full and they wind up starving to death. Timbor also is effective against termites and will last indefinitely.
 
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BioNerd

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Undisclosed location in the middle of nowhere
POISON-LESS indoor solution:

This solution is specially good when the lil fellas make it into your kitchen. Smells great.

Grab some essential oils, peppermint, cinnamon, whatever you like. And liquid handsoap, no dishwasher soap.

Put a lot of that in a sprayer bottle with 3/4 of water and one or two drops of hand soap. You need only a few oz.

Spray the ants directly, they die almost immediately. The solution also destroys their chemical path. The soap clogs their breathing holes too.

You can prevent ants to get to your trash can by spraying around it.

They cant cross the oils.

Sent from my LM-X212(G) using Tapatalk
 
B

b-boy

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Buffalo NY
They love wet wood.

You definitely want to get that taken care of. They can do some serious damage. Ask me how I know.

About 15 years ago I had my gutters replaced. The guy who did the work didn't angle the gutters properly. As a result I got water infiltration behind the asbestos siding through a tiny hole. The resulting wet wood became the home to about a million carpenter ants. I never saw any evidence of them.

One day we had some heavy rain. I found water running down my basement wall. I investigated the wall above the leak. Behind the drywall was literally nothing. All the plywood and half the framing had been chewed up. The damaged area was about 8'x8'.
When I pulled the drywall, I could see the back of the shingles. All the wood had been destroyed.

It cost $3000 to get the exterior wall and framing redone. My insurance didn't cover any of it.
 
J

Jinks

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Daytona Beach
Talstar (on Amazon) & Terro. A good spraying with Talstar, & a few packets of Terro laying in out of the way places. We had a big beautiful Live Oak tree that was FULL of carpenter ants. Got a tree trimmer to drill a couple of holes into their nests & fill them with Talstar. It rained dying ants from that tree for an hour. Now I spray the base of the house & the entire yard a couple times a year. Kills anything with more than two legs. We only see pests during swarming season & occasionally when my wife brings home a plant from one of the big box stores. Those never last any length of time.
 
C

CarBikeGuy70

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Western CT
Permethrin can be purchased at TSC or other rural supply stores. Mix in tank sprayer and apply. Can be used indoors or out in barns and other living areas of animals (or directly on animals with flies, ticks etc.). Apply to effected areas and also a band around the perimeter of the building. Repeat every 2-3 weeks as directed and the problem will disappear. You will not have any ants - the stuff works.
 
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DC73

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Lubbock TX
We don't have carpenter ants around here that I know of but all the ants we do have are easily dispatched by using Amdro Fire Ant bait.

DC
 
R

RegeSullivan

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Mar 30, 2014
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Canonsburg Pennsylvania (South of Pittsburgh)
I also suggest diatomaceous earth. It's cheap, super effective and easy apply a very light dusting. You must use food grade for it to be effective. The diatomaceous earth for filters (swimming pool) will do no harm to the bugs but can be harmful to humans. $20-30 will get you a life-time supply of the food grade powder from Amazon if you can't source it locally.

Sent from my SM-N950U using The Garage Journal mobile app
 
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A

Augus7us

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Central Ohio
I ended up buying some maxforce gel for carpenter ants and advance 375a off amazon. I wanted to give it a few days to see if it worked before posting an update.

I can say that it works, at least the gel, because as soon as I put that stuff down they started popping out and eating it. Not sure on the 375a as it wasn't as easy to tell if they were eating it as I spread that around.

The odd thing is that there are now dead ants all over but there are still live ones crawling around also. This is probably five days after I applied the stuff. I just want to save my furring strips from further damage so I don't have to rebuy those...

As far as moisture I can only assume it is the furring strips. There is fresh wood all over the shop and a small spot under a leaking roof and they are not bothering any of that. Its just the half dozen bundles of furring strips they seem to be interested in and those are off the ground on a cart on top my mezzanine.

I'll continue to monitor the situation and report back.
 
D

drivesitfar

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Oct 23, 2013
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ALL: there isn't much to add that hasn't already been said about the types of stuff to rid yourself of ants.

the one post (or maybe there were more) that said you need to get rid of the moisture problem is a good one. I built a cedar pergola about 7 or 8 years ago and put my galvanized brackets in my cement footing flush with the ground not knowing that it would have been nice to leave them an inch or two above.

well the sugar or moisture ants started making a home in the cracks of my 6x6's that I noticed a couple years later and I really didn't like that the bottom of my cedar 6x6's were getting a bit wet and dirty so I unbolted the entire pergola (yep it needed restaining too) and sanded put diamatious earth in the main one that had the ants after using ant spray to kill most of them.

then I cut the 6x6's 2 inches short and used the same holes to bolt the pergola back together. before staining I put on come copper green (it comes in brown now which would have been better in my case) and stained over it and 3 years later not one ant in our pergola.

a neighbor stopped by shortly after I restained it and asked about the Sikkens stain and color and I mentioned the ants and he gave us the commercial kind that I think is a # mentioned and my wife uses that for inside the house so i'm sure when I remodel the kitchen again i'll find some wet wood somewhere cause we get a few now and again now. Terra traps and drops also work good for the little moisture/sugar ants. I only put one coat of Sikkens on the new cedar pergola and with the copper green and the ants I decided to put on 2 or maybe 3 coats of Sikkens and after 3 more years it's not turning brown and looks like it might last a bit longer before I need to stain again.

Another thing I learned from the many many pest inspectors on homes I sold was that carpenter ants love old stumps so getting rid of those in the yard might help cause when it gets cold they look for a warmer wet wood place to live and a home or garage might be their first or closest choice.
 

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S

SGKent

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Citrus Heights CA
Termidor SC sparingly (Fipronyl). Spray the areas they frequent. You can mix it in a hand sprayer and keep it around for awhile to spray ant trails. They carry it back to nest where it sterilizes and kills them. Does the same to all ants, as well as termites. Since we started using it, following the EPA label 100%, we haven't seen but an occasional ant scout on the property. In fact some native species are coming back now that the Argentine are gone. Probably got rid of the Argentine nests for 200' - 300' feet all around here since they are all clones and go colony to colony. Works on carpenter ants too. Don't go crazy with it - just hit the areas they frequent with a little spray, they will carry it back to the nest(s).
 
H

Hawkerpilot05

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SGKent said:
Termidor SC sparingly (Fipronyl). Spray the areas they frequent. You can mix it in a hand sprayer and keep it around for awhile to spray ant trails. They carry it back to nest where it sterilizes and kills them. Does the same to all ants, as well as termites. Since we started using it, following the EPA label 100%, we haven't seen but an occasional ant scout on the property. In fact some native species are coming back now that the Argentine are gone. Probably got rid of the Argentine nests for 200' - 300' feet all around here since they are all clones and go colony to colony. Works on carpenter ants too. Don't go crazy with it - just hit the areas they frequent with a little spray, they will carry it back to the nest(s).
Click to expand...
I agree. The chemical in Termidor works the best. Ants can't taste it and they bring it back to the colony and kill it.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
6

67carl

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We use a mix of diatomaceous earth and boric acid because my other half is sensitive to chemicals. Both are harmless to people and pets, but desicate the ants. If you douse them with a lot they die in a minute or two, if they get a light dusting they carry it to other ants.

We used the puffer bottle that came with the DE to get it in EVERY nook and cranny we could, inside and outside. I pointed my leaf blower at a vent that goes in my crawl space under the house and slowly shook the powder into the airstream for a while. Did something similar to the attic. If it stays dry they can't get near it without dying, so be thorough and get it everywhere.

We didn't see a single ant a couple days after we dusted and haven't since.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072J8Z28F/?tag=atomicindus08-20

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K2DQWF2/?tag=atomicindus08-20
 
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P

PelicanPines

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New Jersey, USA, Earth, My own reality
67carl said:
We use a mix of diatomaceous earth and boric acid because my ither half is sensitive to chemicals. Both are harmless to people and pets, but desicate the ants. If you douse them with a lot they die in a minute or two, if they get a light dusting they carry it to other ants.
Click to expand...

This... I use a sugar shaker with the Diatomaceous earth stuff... I bought a 10 pound bag.

For those that want to know... it's a painful death... the dust gets caught in their body part joints... kinda like daggers...

Boric Acid... not sure how that works or it's safety... thanks for the info... I will check it out.

By the way... Diatomaceous Earth... is great for everything from fleas to ants to crickets... etc.
 
B

BASFStewardship

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Messages
8
SGKent said:
Termidor SC sparingly (Fipronyl). Spray the areas they frequent. You can mix it in a hand sprayer and keep it around for awhile to spray ant trails. They carry it back to nest where it sterilizes and kills them. Does the same to all ants, as well as termites. Since we started using it, following the EPA label 100%, we haven't seen but an occasional ant scout on the property. In fact some native species are coming back now that the Argentine are gone. Probably got rid of the Argentine nests for 200' - 300' feet all around here since they are all clones and go colony to colony. Works on carpenter ants too. Don't go crazy with it - just hit the areas they frequent with a little spray, they will carry it back to the nest(s).
Click to expand...

As the manufacturer of Termidor® products, we have committed to the EPA to carefully monitor, and instruct upon, the correct use of our products. As part of our commitment to EPA, we have monitored this site.



Your recent participation in a conversation around the BASF product Termidor® termiticide/insecticide gave us concern about your possible use of the product. While we do not have all the facts surrounding your use, it is important that you understand the following:

•Non-labeled use of federally registered pesticides is a violation of federal and state law.

•Uses not included on the Label have not been evaluated for human and environmental safety and can result in human and environmental hazard.

Please carefully review the label to confirm the legal permitted uses of Termidor. You may also visit our website, https://pestcontrol.basf.us/multime...sible-application-resource-for-termidor-.html, which also contains information on the proper use of Termidor. For any questions you may have, you may call us at 800-777-8570, or email questions to [email protected] . We also encourage you to share these resources with anyone you suspect may be involved in the non-labeled use of Termidor®.



Thank You

The BASF Product Stewardship Team
 
S

SGKent

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Messages
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Location
Citrus Heights CA
BASFStewardship said:
As the manufacturer of Termidor® products, we have committed to the EPA to carefully monitor, and instruct upon, the correct use of our products. As part of our commitment to EPA, we have monitored this site.



Your recent participation in a conversation around the BASF product Termidor® termiticide/insecticide gave us concern about your possible use of the product. While we do not have all the facts surrounding your use, it is important that you understand the following:

•Non-labeled use of federally registered pesticides is a violation of federal and state law.

•Uses not included on the Label have not been evaluated for human and environmental safety and can result in human and environmental hazard.

Please carefully review the label to confirm the legal permitted uses of Termidor. You may also visit our website, https://pestcontrol.basf.us/multime...sible-application-resource-for-termidor-.html, which also contains information on the proper use of Termidor. For any questions you may have, you may call us at 800-777-8570, or email questions to [email protected] . We also encourage you to share these resources with anyone you suspect may be involved in the non-labeled use of Termidor®.



Thank You

The BASF Product Stewardship Team
Click to expand...

Dear BASF - please see page 13 of the product pamphlet that comes with it for Directions and Restrictions when dealing with Argentine or Carpenter ants on structures

DIRECTIONS FOR USE TO CONTROL LISTED PESTS ON OUTSIDE SURFACES AND ALONG FOUNDATION PERIMETER OF LISTED STRUCTURES

Use Termidor®SC termiticide/insecticide to kill and provide residual control of the following pests:ants (acrobat, Argentine, big-headed, carpenter, crazy,odorous, pavement, pharaoh, thief)

Use Termidor SC to kill the following pests:beetles (Asian lady, darkling);bugs (box-elder, pill);centipedes;cockroaches (Australian, Oriental, smokey brown);crickets, house;earwigs, European;flies, cluster;millipedes;silverfish;spiders (black widow, brown recluse, cellar, hobo);ticks, brown dog;wasps, paper*;yellow jackets
Click to expand...
 
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