Carpenter Ants

karma_carpentry

Rebuilding a front porch floor and posts, found an unsound beam holding up the porch roof rafters and the ceiling joists, that was infested with carpenter ants on one end, where the old wooden gutter was wicking through keeping it damp. It's on the northwest corner and shaded by trees too. Put in a double LVL beam and we're having aluminum gutters installed to keep it dry from now on.

Anyway, between the boards of the old doubled 2x6 beam I uncovered a nest core with one ant that had wings. It was a cold morning so they were all slow moving and didn't scurry.

There were some passages into the end joist that half-lapped this crossbeam, but no ants came out and the wood was still sound an inch away, so I installed an angle iron for bearing.

Called a pest control guy and he said that if you fix it so it stays dry, the ants won't want your wood, even if there are some remaining they will leave. That's what I though but still... want insurance.

I read that borax or boric acid powder is the stuff to use, but does it really work in your experience and how long does it repel or kill ants? Did any of you ever have to get rid of a colony of ants or have any homegrown wisdom on it?

copusbuilder

My understanding is they only eat damaged wood? I guess that means that if you stop the water then it will stop them??
I, like you still want to kill them so usually use an insecticide to at the very least make me feel better

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PipeGuy

I woke up one morning a couple of years ago to a scene that looked like it was out of a horror movie. The window next to my head was covered with ants (on the inside). As it turns out, they were carpenter ants.

I "knew a guy. that knew a guy, who knew a guy" that came by the house one evening after his day gig with Terminex. If there was ever a 'stereotypical' exterminator it was this guy - permanent facial twitch, crazy look in his eyes, really into killing bugs. He poked some holes in the drywall around the window with a #2 phillips head until he found a spot where some ants emerged (the stud bay(s) in which the ants were living). Then he went to the bottom of the wall below that point, just above the base molding, and poked several holes - the ants really started appearing then. Finally he went to the top of the wall, poked another hole and proceded to pump in the chemo out of a hand sprayer. I've never seen so many ants in my life - they just started pouring out of the lower holes, running across the floor and dying within a couple of seconds. He pumped chemical until the drywall started to take on a damp appearance.

It took about 20 minutes for the ant exodus to slow to a trickle and within a couple of hours it stopped completely. I never saw another.

I was later told that some recent tree removal work I had done probably left the ants, who had likely come into the house off the tree, with no way to get back out. Also, the particular window around which they had taken up residence was beneath a spot on the roof where the shingles were cut too close to the edge and water spilled over onto the top of the window molding. The ants need a way moisture to survive. Eliminate that and you're good to go.

ContractorSon

While living in Florida we had 2 large coconut palms about 40 feet behind our home. They were infested with large ants when planted. The exterminator told us to remove the outer fronds and expose them to the light/heat and dry the inner "stalks" and he would spray the outside of the home.
It seemed to work...

bigjax

Try Lysol multipupose cleaner in a spray bottle, it will kill them dead in about 10 seconds or so spay it on heavy, and your problems are solved
Big jax

reveivl

My homegrown wisdom (if that it be...) is that ants won't move into a place unless there is moisture for them, but once they are there and established, if you dry up the source of the water they might not move out. They have lots of workers who will travel quite some distance and carry water home for the colony.

If there are kids/pets or others who don't want the chemicals, you can liberally spread around diatomaceous earth, which is a very fine, very sharp dust, which gets into their exoskeletons and causes their joints to bleed. (Nice, eh?) This stuff doesn't hurt anything except bugs, but it hurts all bugs.

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fvmerl

Carpenter ants don't eat the wood, they just make cavities in it for their colony. Check online for Delta Dust. It's a fine white powder that is unaffected by water. Punch a hole in the wall, put the blower nozzle in and puff in the dust. It is a desiccant that is taken back to the other workers and queen and it drys them up. Death by dehydration.

In_Mexifornia

fvmerl is correct. Carpenter ants don't eat the wood like termites. They just build their nest in there. They like the soft/wet wood cause it's easy for them to get into.

hbiss

I had the critters remove nearly all the wood from inside the sill of a vinyl clad Andersen window once. They got in from the ends which are not clad.

-Hal