How to Get Rid of Carpenter Ants

December 1st, 2008 Posted in Ants & Roaches, Wood Damaging Pests




Do you hear rustling in your walls? Is shredded wood accumulating around your house? You may have a carpenter ant problem, and this article will tell you how to solve it.


Mission: Find Carpenter Ants

The first step of your mission is to search around your house late at night in all black, because these ants do most of their work late at night, burrowing and foraging in the walls of your home. (No, you don’t really have to wear all black; that’s just for fun.)

Anyways, get down on your hands and knees and get close to the floorboards or walls in your house, preferably in your basement, because that’s the closest thing to the ground outside of your house. This is mostly how they get in—from outside in damp, old firewood. Now, stay close to the ground. Listen for crinkling and crunching noises. These are signs that there are carpenter ants traveling around in your walls, creating pathways, and mayhem.

Now, if you want to get rid of them, and destroy little of your walls, grab a drill and drill a small hole in the wall. Next, spray some dust-like insecticide or boric acid in dust form into the walls, and this should terminate your ant problem in no time…but, if it doesn’t, below are some more helpful solutions to try, including an organic solution.





How do I know if they are carpenter ants?

You may not see them scurrying around the house; they are heard in the walls, scratching and scurrying.

You may find evidence of them, called “frass.” This is a material similar to sawdust; these droppings are the leftover pieces of wood and lumber that the ants leave behind after they are done digging their galleries out.

Carpenter ants have various characteristics that distinguish them from other types of ants in general:

Description:

Carpenter ants have unique coloring. They vary from black to orange to red to yellow. Also, the females are winged during mating season.

Habits:

  • Don’t just live near the food in the house, like other ants do.

    •  

  • End up in the insulation or any wooden walls or parts of the home.

    •  

  • Create tunnels in the wood, called “galleries,” which are pathways in which they travel to get to each other and food within the colonies.

    •  

  • Sometimes travel up to 100 yards for food.

    •  

Their favorite places are in damp firewood, logs, or lumber inside or outside. This is why they are called carpenter ants.




Insecticides/Pesticides To Get Rid of Carpenter Ants

Here are reviews of a couple of ant insecticides/pesticides that may be helpful when choosing your method:

  1. Combat Ant Control Bait: This product has many good reviews, saying that it is the one good product amongst all of the bad ones. One reviewer said that the ants disappeared after 2 days of using this product.But, be careful of what you read because what they don’t tell you is that this ant controller contains a chemical called hydramethylnon. This chemical is termed a metabolic inhibitor. What this means is that hydramethylnon slows down the chemical reactions within a carpenter ant’s body in order to kill them….and this same active ingredient could have an adverse effect on people or animals.

  2. Terro Ant Killer II- 1 oz. #100: Apparently, this one works fairly well. Some have said you don’t need to use any other ant killer to complement this one. Terro Ant Killer II contains borax, which seeps into the carpenter ant’s system, and exterminates them.

  3. Raid Ant Bait: This one does not seem to work very well at all. Derek Franklin said, “These things are truly worthless. I actually think I saw more ants after using them.”Raid Ant Bait contains abamectin, which works to interrupt the neural transmissions of insects, which ends up killing them…eventually.

There are many other ant killers, that include aerosols, dust insecticides, and diatomaceous earth.

Aerosols are insect killers that work to kill on contact and leave a residue that keeps killing for weeks afterwards, but leads to putting more toxins in and around the home. This is not a good thing for the environment.

Dust insecticides are mostly used to spray small amounts of insecticides into cracks and crevices in walls of your house. This entails going on a night time scavenger hunt for carpenter ants; you find them and spray some dust insecticide into the wall through a small hole you need to drill there.

Also, although this is said to be an effective method, when their homes are sprayed with some sort of dust insecticide, they just move to a new location within the home, not out of the house altogether.




Home Remedies

There are also some home remedies carpenter ants cant’s stand:

One method is just to keep your house as clean as possible. Keep all foods in closed containers. Get rid of old firewood that was previously stored in the home. In addition, do this same thing with any sort of old, rotted wood that is not necessarily needed inside the house.

Also, marigold flowers , vinegar, and lavender oil are repellents. If you plant marigolds outside, carpenter ants are turned away by this scent and should stay away from the wood and insulation in your home. If you put lavender oil and vinegar out near their entry points or their habitats that you found earlier in your top secret mission, then they should stay away, also.

In addition, to keep carpenter ants out, a home owner should eliminate high-moisture conditions. To do this, you would want to get rid of any standing water. Also, check throughout your house for any areas where the air feels hot and humid. You may want to consider putting in a dehumidifier if there are areas in your house like this. This is where the ants gather. Carpenter ants enjoy this climate, and will only keep coming back for more.

It’s better be safe than sorry, right? The safe thing to do is get rid of these pesky ants before they grow into a satellite colony, which is bigger and has many different sites, which may end up being in your house if you don’t act fast.


Killing Carpenter Ants Naturally

With organic insecticides like EcoSMART on the market, you’ll end up with a win-win situation. EcoSMART’s natural ant killer will keep pets and families safe from harmful chemicals and chemical residue.

EcoSMART Ant and Roach killer is made with rosemary oils and peppermint, which tend to leave a fairly good smell behind after used.


Chelsea Roser




  1. 25 Comments | The First 1,000 to Comment (Starting 12/21/2009) Will Become EcoSMART Product Testers!

  2. By Bob Vartanian on Dec 10, 2008

    Since I am a smoker, I have tried boiling the used tobacco to extract the nicotine. I then used a spray bottle and sprayed the little buggers. It worked, but not as well as I would have hoped.

  3. By Matt Hitchcock on Dec 16, 2008

    I get invaded twice a year inside my house. I also run a residential children’s charity and I am concerned about product safety in my home and my work place. I am looking forward to trying your product. I currently use Andro everytime ants invade. How will I use yours by comparison?

  4. By D Rice on Dec 17, 2008

    I see nothing here about sugar ants. They drive us crazy! Every time the weather changes, they stream inside. Help!

  5. By amy woehler on Dec 20, 2008

    I have a large backyard with potted flowers, i don’t really have an insect problem, but more of a weed problem. we use roundup alot in the summer for that, but i am afraid for my dogs.

  6. By lisacarter on Dec 31, 2008

    Ants are a problem for us about 2 times a year. Since we have kids and pets, and we try to use healthy products, we are extremely interested in trying your products.

  7. By pamela parnell on Jan 13, 2009

    we live on a farm ,so there is a lot of pest.we have a barn and the flies are bad around our horse’s.the ants are bad also.would love to test a product that would work.also we have a big garden every year and are having problems with pest.

  8. By Margaret Rushton on Jan 17, 2009

    I live in a heavily wooded area and have had a real problem with carpenter ants. Last summer I had new siding put on my house and when the contractor pulled off the old siding he found ants had eaten through the wood almost into some of the inner walls. He used a commercial pesticide. I wish he had used a safer ant killer. I hope I can try your products next summer.

  9. By Patti Wall on Jan 19, 2009

    These are great articles!

    What do you recommend for fleas inside and outside?

  10. By EcoSMART Kara on Jan 29, 2009

    D Rice, one of our writers is working on writing about sugar ants, so stay tuned. For now, EcoSMART Ant and Roach Killer should do the trick.

  11. By EcoSMART Kara on Jan 29, 2009

    Thanks, Patti Wall!

    There isn’t much you can do for fleas outside, but you can add nematoads to your environment; they eat fleas. Nematoads can be purchased freeze-dried.

    EcoSMART Ant & Roach Killer will do the trick, but more information about fleas will be available soon – so stay tuned!

  12. By Chris Fry on Apr 23, 2009

    Hello,

    We’ve had carpenter ants in our house for many years; they seem to be worse at the front of the house around the picture window. We had a pest control service come out and spray that area very heavily. It took several treatments but it finally starting working.

    My question is: if the carpenter ants are inside the woodwork and are rarely ever seen, how do you get the EcoSMART, or any other, product to where the ants are?

  13. By monika on May 19, 2009

    ditto on the above question. we have hundreds of carpenter ants in our attic – crawling on the wood and in the insullation- and sprayed the area with EcoSmart Ant and Roach Killer. While it seems to have killed the ants it touched, how to be ensure it kills the rest of the colony that is still wandering around up there?

  14. By Karrie on Jun 28, 2009

    I have assumed what we have are carpenter ants, but we do see them everywhere outside scurrying along the sidwalks and up to cracks in the bricks of our home. They do not stay hidden. I would like to try your product.

  15. By Marianna Bonetti on Jul 18, 2009

    Hi,
    My husband has a company come by twice a year and spray insecticides around the perimeter of the house to keep carpenter ants out. This doesn’t work. We don’t know if there is a nest inside or out. I don’t want to use anymore poisons around the house, inside or out. We need help.

  16. By Kitty Bickford on Jul 20, 2009

    I have recently noticed carpenter ants along our neighbor’s fence line, which is made of cedar and along our sidewalk on the side of our garage. We have a small dog that likes to be curious and need something that will not be of harm to her. I need to get rid of the ants before they become a problem. Please let me become one of your EcoSMART Product Testers!

  17. By Rick Arnold on Jul 21, 2009

    We have ants twice a year. I spray outside my foundation but that only seems to expose them more on the inside. I have a young child and pets and would like to try a safe product like yours.

  18. By elizabeth dusman on Jul 26, 2009

    I have had a carpenter ant problem for a while. We replaced the threshold of our front door and thought that was the whole colony. But they are back and I think they are living under a large potted plant. I would like to use a natural product as I have had lymphoma in the past and are concerned about chemicals and carcinagens. Thanks!

  19. By Amanda on Oct 25, 2009

    Carpenter ants destroyed some of our trees and had nested in our home. Awful bugs, ants are.

    Sugar ants must be what I’m getting in my kitchen. They have a sweet smell when mashed.

  20. By Lori on Oct 28, 2009

    I have a child on the spectrum, so I am always looking for a more natural product to rid my home of pests! Living in the south, we sure have lots of them. You can name the season by which insect I am fighting. Heck, we even get slugs??? At least those are easy to catch…LoL. I have tried various “home remidies” by not really found anything that works well. Right now I have my hubby spray a barrier product OUTSIDE the house, but regardless of the promises it doesn’t last long after the rain. I would love to find something to spray inside, that I don’t have to worry about my children.

  21. By Donna on Dec 2, 2009

    HELP. My house is falling apart. Doors wont close. I have pictures of the pouring out of the walls. They seem to have got worse since IKE. I have tried all kinds of things. Only a few die. Please I need help!

  22. By Belinda on Jan 8, 2010

    Our house has been plagued by carpenter ants in past years. We have been trying to eliminate moisture, wetness and branches touching the house. After replacing the roof and treating the exterior of our house with Termidor, we have had several years of no ants. Last summer, however, we began to see a fair amount of ants on the exterior and some on the interior of our home. We found Termidor to be very effective, but would prefer a non-toxic alternative. Would EcoSMART work for a long period (at least a few months) if only the exterior was treated? Is it important that EcoSMART be sprayed directly on the ants? I think this would be impossible for us to accomplish as the pathways the ants used in the past are mostly hidden from our view. We hope EcoSMART would meet our needs.

  23. By stan abramson on Jan 20, 2010

    HAVE CARPENTER ANT PROBLEM ALL OVER
    THE HOUSE.
    CAN YOU HELP?
    THANKS.

  24. By Charles Johnston on Feb 5, 2010

    Hi I have a carpenter ant problem dont no what to do can yoy help!!!! thanks Charles

  25. By EcoSMART Megan on Feb 8, 2010

    Hi Stan and Charles,

    This article has great advice about little things you can do around the home to deter ants from invading. For example, get rid of rotting wood and keeping all food in closed containers.

    But to get rid of carpenter ants fast, EcoSMART’s Ant and Roach Killer works great. You can spray it directly on the ants and any areas you commonly see them.

  1. 1 Trackback(s)

  2. Jan 18, 2009: The Destructive Carpenter Ant | Get Rid Of Ants

25 Comments | The First 1,000 to Comment (Starting 12/21/2009) Will Become EcoSMART Product Testers! (details)