Black Carpenter Ants!!!

[MST3KFan]

At my folks home, where I still live for now, our computer is at and next to it is a pool table with a cover on it. Anyway, as I'm working on the computer I hear the sound of something small hit the pool table with a 'tap'. I look over to see a black winged bug apparently having burned itself on the light above the pool table and proceed to squish it in a napkin, thinking nothing else of it.

Until it happens again...and again...and again. Next thing I know I have like 15 napkins of squished bugs in our wastebasket.

I tell my Dad whom also said he had squished some previously as well and we start to look around for a source of where they're coming from and see one coming up from between the wood area under a window.

These little buggers have apparently gotten into the basement walls of my parents home. We realize we must have a few nests now in the walls alongside the basement windows, which is where according to our research online tells us as an indication of where they be by little piles of sawdust and stuff.

So my Dad sprays the areas in hopes of dealing with them, until I read how liquid insecticides aren't the way to go, but some kind of dust like substance.

My Dad worries about having to have a massive bill as a result of an exterminator coming out and would like to deal with this in a way that won't be insanely costly.

I would also like to not have to keep squishing the buggers or looking over at the pool table everytime I hear a 'tap' noise.

Anyone else have problems with these pests?

[Jack]

My folks have a condo in Florida that they use in the winter.  They usually have to call the exterminator once a year or so to deal with the ants.  I guess it's not too expensive, and it seems to get the job done.  You should just give one a call and get a quote.

[Hammock Rider]

I just dealt with this problem last week. I was house sitting for my bro while his fam was in Vegas and woke up very early one morning, about 4am, to use the bathroom. I stumbled downstairs to use the basement bathroom, since the upstairs bathroom was being remodeled, and was quite shocked to find hundreds of ants pouring through two holes in the basement wall, which was an outside wall. There were also a few dozen big winged ants flying around. It reminded me of a scene from Starship Troopers but in miniature. I vacuumed up most of them but they kept pouring in so I grabbed some Clorox bleach tile cleaner and squirted a little into their access holes(?). That stopped them from coming in momentarily. I drove to a nearby 24 hour Walgreens and picked up some off the shelf ant bait. I picked a middle of the line brand price-wise, although they all seemed similar. I placed half the bait in the house and half outside near where the ants were congregating. They swarmed the stuff. Just went crazy for it. Within a few hours their numbers had seriously decreased, and within 3 days there was no ant activity whatsoever. According to the box the bait would wipe out an average colony in less than a week. They recommend replacing the bait every 3 months or so.

If you don't like using that toxic stuff I've heard that artificial sweetners like Aspertame will kill a colony in a week or so. No proof to back that up tho.

[AndyC]

Had some ants in my basement a couple of years ago. They used to appear at a gap in the wall panelling at certain times of the day. I got the shop vac and sucked up every one I could get. Then I came back later and did it again. After about three times, they stopped coming, and they haven't been back. Had they returned, I probably would have pulled off the panel and found the spot where they were getting in - then filled it with silicone. I probably should have done that anyway.

Of course, if your ants are carpenter ants, you might have a bigger problem - wood rot. Carpenter ants don't go for nice, dry, solid wood.

[CheezeFlixz]

Of course, if your ants are carpenter ants, you might have a bigger problem.

Yep, they bring their own tools. Want to get rid of carpenters, miss a payment.

Oh .. carpenter ants, you have to find the nest and the queen, they are hard to get rid of any other way. No kidding watch them, follow them, find the nest and dig it up and find the queen and KILL HER (don't tell PETA). All other ants are a push over, most poisons will kill a few carpenters but they'll replace the dead faster than you can kill them.

I've seen mixed results with baits and killers, a old timer pest guy told me the above method. I had some in a barn a few years ago. Luckily I had his help to find the nest and the queen, they were gone in no time after her death.

[MST3KFan]

Well, an article I looked up on the best way to deal with carpenter ants in one's home is some kind of chemical dust you put into some kind of squeeze bottle, put it the spaces the buggers are coming out of and squeeze the stuff in. It is supposed to with the push from the bottle go deep into the areas they're in and take them out.

Hopefully.

Otherwise it's probably going to be a major issue of tearing out the wall areas of the basement side they're in I'd be guessing. Even though our basement is cement foundation and then the wood is built over it.

Anyway, the funny thing during all this is I discovered a HUGE house spider in one corner along the wall near a corner of the floor the buggers seem to be in. Looks like it's been really eating well. Figure we'll let it live and help in this. Looks like it has already. LOL

[odinn7]

If you don't like using that toxic stuff I've heard that artificial sweetners like Aspertame will kill a colony in a week or so. No proof to back that up tho.

I can attest to this. I used it last year to kill off a colony of carpenter ants outside that were eating my shed. Mix a little with water to make a paste and leave it where they walk....they eat it and somehow it kills them off. It took less than a week to be rid of all of them.

[AndyC]

My guess would be that it starves them to death. They're eating a pile of stuff that tastes sweet, but has no nutritional value. Can't imagine an ant lasting long without taking in any energy.