Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Carpenter Ants

Will any spray from HomeyD indicated for house ants work on carpenters?

Yes. But you probably have a moisture problem if these are in your house.

this is the chit for carpenter ants. got from HD

The ants themselves aren't difficult to kill. However, they may difficult to CONTROL. First of all, you must S.O.S. (seek out the source). Find their nest sites and treat those. Randomly spraying visible foragers is basically useless. As far as products, anything labeled for outdoor ant control, and containing Fipronil as the active ingredient, will kill the schit out of them.

As stated above, check for moisture issues. These ants prefer damp / partially wet areas. Rectify any issues found.

i put that out in my bathroom when i noticed the carpenter ants. the first 3 days there was a steady stream of them coming to the bait, then less and less within a week or so they were gone.

12 guage, Mike. #10 shot.....

Not effective, but fun!

I use that that white stuff powder in round can (I know this helps) from Soldotna Hardware around the perimiter of house and garage. Sometimes 2X year, this year only once. Works good. Really irritating listening all night long to the little bastards chewing on the framing...

Home Depot or maybe Walmart may have it too.

Your nests are pobably in some of the big spruce trunks on their way to dying and falling on your house, your horses, your dog, your car.

Clearcut and burn!

carpenter ants won't take some baits.

Ive only seen a few, but want to get after it before there's a bona fide infestation. As las mentioned, could be related to the spruce beetle kill. Lots of it. Also, no problem with wet, especially this popcorn-fart year.

Very Very easy--- ironbender-------- buy a box of 20 mule team borax ---- laundry section ----- boil up about a cup of water---- add lots of just plain white sugar to it and stir. More sugar the better. Then add about 2 or 3 tablespoons of borax--- when it cools it will be a saturated sugar syrup with borax. - dip Q-tips in syrup and place a few where you see ants. Ants will feed and take back to nest. 3-4 days no more ants. Save syrup for reuse- Used it many a time. Never has failed me. Web

Do you have oak trees overhanging your house? they gallery out rotten wyes in oaks here and the best control is done actually outside around the base of the trees with permethrin.

Might not be applicable to your ant scenario


Carpenter ants are wood destroying organisms, the methods of controlling piss ants gettin into the sugar bowl by the toaster might not be what you seek.

Sprinkle ortho ant granules on their residence and that will take care of the problem.

The only oak here is at HomeyD.

From what I've read, carps destroy wood not to eat, but to find a sugar of some sort.

Gasoline

Did 3 sprayings around the outside with seven, ants all gone.

Yeah they do not 'eat' the wood, they just chew it out to make a colony. Termites actually eat the wood.
Either way still classif as WDO wood destroying orgs

The google says they pimp out aphids for the honeydew secretions of a sugary liquid. I've seen them eat dead cicadas and slop/table scraps raked out over the side of my deck. lol

Supposing theyre omnivorous opportunistas.

I used to have ants in my house every spring. Paid an exterminator to take care of them at 300 a year. Still had a tick or two in the yard. So I started putting out 12 dollars worth of tick granules twice a year around the house and boundary of the yard. No more ticks or ants. And I cancelled the pest contract.

I used Viper at my camp and it wiped all the carpenter ants out. I found spraying the base of the trees worked well.

Instead of spraying, try Terro ant killer.
http://www.terro.com/

The liquid ant baits works. Keep them fed (carpenters eat a lot). In two weeks they are gone.

Until the next queen likes her new home.

Which is why in my 116 year old house I used a home made mixture of Boracare. I did that 14 years ago and haven't seen one yet.