Carpenter Ants and their Control - United Exterminating Company

Secondly, carpenter ants don't EAT wood, as termites do, they burrow INTO it. This is why they attack wood that is already damaged. Damage from carpenter ants is limited by the size of their colony, and the size of their colony is limited by their food supply and the available moisture supply. What this means is that carpenter ant infestations are often discovered when undertaking repairs for water incursions.

And even though you found "damage," the damage itself doesn't need to be treated. If it's damaged enough that structural integrity is compromised, you just replace damaged components. Usually those same areas will also be water damaged, so special replacements may be advisable, especially if you can't control the moisture.

Not to say that there can't be serious carpenter ant infestations, there can indeed. And certain areas of the country will have more endemic problems than we do, here in the eastern United States. But any problem, anywhere, will almost always be a result of the combination of water and building construction. Often much more serious and expensive to correct. If you have these "serious" problems, you must solve the reason why the ants are there, or you'll just never get rid of the problem. There are no shortcuts and no chemical is going to be the magic bullet.

Or even WORSE, you call an exterminator. Bad move. Don't panic and let a wolf in the door. Not yet. You need none of that. The first thing you need to do is NOT spray. You need to clear up the REASON why the carpenter ants are there, and right now, none of that really needs an application of insecticides or an exterminator.

WHY NOT HIT IT WITH RAID?
After you clear up the moisture problem, you don't need to "spray" anything, you've just corrected the water problem and the reason the carpenter ants were there in the first

place! Got that? (And why do I say,

"Don't use Raid?")

Put away that spray can. Get out your trusty shop-vac, suck all those little guys up. After they're in the vacuum, DON'T spray insecticide into the vacuum. Just throw the collection bag out, or dump the contents outside, just in case some are still alive. This is an instant, non-toxic solution. Start with this, it's free.

KEEP ON GOING
Clean everything up, ants and all. And while you're doing that, remember your main thrust is to find out WHY the ants were there. Moisture? Hmmmmmmm. Fix it, whatever it takes. It's kind of like what the dentist does, he just keeps on going, until he gets to all the problems, then fixes it. You do the same thing. Just like the dentist, it can get expensive.

After you do all that, you can probably ascertain yourself as to whether you'll need an exterminator or not. If you want an exterminator to "check things out," then it's definitely an option better accomplished when you're not panicked. There's no reason the exterminator has to do it NOW.

And absolutely, if you are under contract with any exterminator, you must give him a call - as soon as it happens. This is where GOOD exterminators will shine, performing whatever is necessary, and performing nothing that isn't. Naturally, having the name of such an exterminator, to call, in events such as this, is invaluable. Making sure you have the BEST name is going to save you money and consternation, guaranteed. Good exterminators treat their customers as family.

"IT'S THE WATER, STUPID"
Any remediation efforts towards the ants, without fixing the moisture problem, will be a waste of time and money. You need to find out what is creating the water problem. People are always distracted by the ants, but it's the water problem you need to fix. If you worry about the ants and don't fix the water problem, the ants will be back no matter what you do.

But if you FIX the moisture problem, that's it! Most of the time you don't really have to do anything else. Naturally, there's dozens (nay, thousands) of exterminators that will be happy to rush on over and perform some kind of treatment to your home and/or yard for anything from a small fee to an outrageous amount of money.

I can tell you, from experience, that more often than not, you won't need that chemical treatment. What you will need is to FIX the problem (and the reason why) the ants were there. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's hard. But that's what needs to be accomplished to really solve the problem.

CARPENTER ANT DAMAGE
And even though you found "damage," the damage itself doesn't need to be treated. If it's damaged enough that structural integrity is compromised, you just replace damaged components. Usually those same areas will also be water damaged, so special replacements may be advisable, especially if you can't control the moisture.

You can see pictures of insect and water damage, visit our Picture Gallery.

CARPENTER ANT "INVASIONS"
On the other end of the scale, it can also be "normal" to see carpenter ant(s) inside. Yes, inside. Being such tremendous foragers, small and mobile, able to leap tall buildings at an easy walk, you can just about expect to see carpenter ants every once in awhile. As a matter of fact, if there's a tree within about a hundred yards of your house, count on it. At some time, anyway, and sometimes more than that.

Not only that, but at certain times of the year you may see a bunch. Usually it's a combination of local, transitory conditions. Could be hot weather, muggy weather, rain, new mulch, a bad sprinkler head, I could go on and on. At any rate, these "instant invasions" can often end on their own, just in case you don't like to use those chemicals with the strange sounding names.

And even if you do have a "problem," a couple of weeks (or even more) isn't going to make much, if any difference. In other words, you can take your time, see and decide what you want or have to do, pick your own exterminator if you need to, and then do it - or NOT do it, if you so choose.)

What you DON'T want to do is to get stuck in any of the following scenarios:

PLOYS THEY WILL USE
I heard a good one awhile back... An exterminator had recommended treatment, using the reasoning that carpenter ants shouldn't be inside because they have plenty of food outside - that food being the "honeydew" that aphids serve up on demand. Not bad. Very inventive, even kinda sounds right. But it's wrong. Carpenter ants enter your house because it's THERE! Your house could be surrounded by billions of aphids and they'd STILL come inside. So if anyone hits you with that one just smile - tell them you've heard it before.

I heard another one too. That if your home was made of glass you could see that there was a 3000 member carpenter ant nest in your house. THREE-THOUSAND ANTS! Can you think of anything more terrifying for a pest control salesman to pose to a potential customer? This little gem was quoted to a lady that called an exterminator after seeing FOUR carpenter ants in her home. Almost scared her to death. Luckily, I revived her. (The salesman had sensed her revulsion and quoted her over a thousand dollars for a drill-out-every-wall type job.)

How 'bout this one? A local Realtor relayed this to me. He met an exterminator at a vacant house, for a pest inspection, for settlement. The inspector checked the house, no problems. Then he went out to the garage, checked that, no problems either. On the way back to the house, in the yard, the exterminator screeches to a halt, "WHOA!" (he said) Pointing to a lone carpenter ant, on the sidewalk, at least 30 feet from the garage and 50 feet from the house and commenting to the Realtor, "This house is going to need a carpenter ant treatment."

Well, the Realtor, no babe in the woods, asks the exterminator what that ant had to do with the structure. The exterminator replies, (I kid you not) "Well, he's heading towards the house...." (That's the last inspection he did for this Realtor.)

Then there's the one where the customer asked an exterminator.... (correction: he was a salesman, not an exterminator) about a woodpecker busily pecking at the roof shingles. The exterm.... er, the salesman rather, said that this was because the woodpecker was after the carpenter ants - the ones in the shingles, that is.

Another good one, but when you think about it, it just won't wash. First of all, any self-respecting woodpecker is just not going to waste much time on those teeny-tiny carpenter ants. Not when they can find those nice big, fat, juicy carpenter bee larva just as quick. Would you eat peanuts when you can get a steak just as easily? Me neither. Give the salesman an "E" for effort, and an "F" for the scare tactic.

Another thing. If an inspector comes to your home to make an inspection for termites or carpenter ants and finds a "few" dead ants in your basement, crawl space or garage, (in, maybe, a spider web) don't let him tell you that you have a carpenter ant problem and are going to need some kind of treatment. There aren't too many houses that you CAN'T find a couple of carpenter ants in! Carpenter ants are tremendous travelers and will wander hundreds of yards foraging. The occasional dead (or even alive) ant in your house is absolutely normal. This includes your yard too. So don't let some inspector tell you that you need "treatment" because he found ants in your yard.

Don't Fall

for

Scare Tactics

Remember this. When an exterminator starts using scare tactics, it's time to get off the phone. Or throw the bum out. This is the sign of a disreputable exterminator. There is never a reason to scare anyone. These are the worst methods they use to separate you from your money - and then laugh at you later - back in the office. Don't let it happen to you. When they start to scare you, be warned why they are doing it. And don't fall for it.

DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT
Let's get a few things straight right now. Carpenter ants are not dirty, they are not vectors or carriers of any disease, do not sting and cannot really "hurt" you. They CAN bite, (they DO have the mouthparts) but unless they did this on some tender skin, you might not even feel it. Their mouthparts are just not big enough to do any real damage. Oh, I know that there might be some people out there that have been bitten by a carpenter ant, such as this gentleman, but this is not at all what they're known for and it's not something you have to worry about.

WHERE DO THEY COME FROM?
Carpenter ants are outside insects. They actually prefer the outside. But you found them inside a wall? Well, essentially that's outside, even though you might consider that as inside. Outside they are ubiquitous and you can find them almost anywhere. They live in almost every tree of any size, they live in woodpiles, stone walls and wooden fences, leaf litter, mulch, and in your neglected gutter system, clogged with wet, soggy leaves - everywhere, as a matter of fact. I have cleaned gutters on my own house and disturbed nests of ants MULTIPLE times.

The ants really don't need a lot of moisture. We have seen carpenter ants survive in a basement, on no more moisture than what condenses from a cold water pipe in the summertime - and then disappear in the winter when no moisture is there.

FORGET THE ONESIES AND TWOSIES
Just because you see a carpenter ant (or even several) inside your home doesn't mean you have a carpenter ant problem. Carpenter ants can range over 100 yards from their nest site, so that carpenter ant you see in the rec room could have actually come from across the street. Of course, he probably came from closer than that, but for you to see ZERO carpenter ants you would have to eliminate every nest within 200 yards of your house - not a very likely scenario.

Not, and live to tell about it.

Raid won't go around corners. It's a liquid and a couple of offset cracks or galleries will prevent the insecticide from getting to where it's going to be effective. Dusts and powders, however, DO go around corners much better than liquids.

This homeowner, a Regular Service Customer for the last four or five years, has never had a problem with the ants. Has never seen ants around the window, nor have we had any reports of ant problems from our servicemen. We removed the insulation, dusted all the window components and advised the homeowner to leave the trim off for a couple of weeks to make sure the problem has been abated. As one of our Regular Service Customers, we covered all costs of treatment under her monthly service contract.

This is a perfect example of what we meet up with almost every day. If the homeowner had not been our customer, she could just as well done everything I detailed all by herself. And the dusting might not have been actually needed for this problem. The removal of the insulation and venting of the area might have been sufficient.

Since we are still unsure of the exact cause, we had also advised that any trim installed should be easily removeable, installed with an ear to the distinct possibilty that we may have to get back in there in the future. (NOTE: This event occurred in the spring of 1998. There were no further complaints or occurrences.)

A little stabilty and common sense is what's needed here. No spray, no Raid, no panic, no trips to Home Depot.

You have to stand back, think objectively, (again, without any panic) about WHY the ants are there. If the reason is plain to see, (you're looking for moisture problems) and it's easily corrected, (or eliminated) then the course is clear. It's shop-vac time. Hasty decisions are bad decisions, especially when you're talking about something that has (probably) been there for quite some time already.

If you're using any kind of insecticide,

follow these directions.

OK, SO HOW MANY ANTS MAKE "BAD?"
This is what you look for: LOTS of ants, every day, usually in the same areas. Lots of ants might mean as many as 50 or 100 per day, maybe more. Not onesies and twosies, one here, two there, another here and a couple in another place. If this is the case, you just have, what we call in the trade, "occasional invaders." This can be a natural occurrence, part of life and nature, and nothing more. Certainly no reason for inside (or even outside) pest control.

So my first question, to anyone that calls in with this problem is, "How many are you seeing?" And, "Where do you see them?" If the answer is (only) up to 15 or 20 per day, on a short-term basis, you may be just seeing a "seasonal" problem. If this is the case, there is little you really need to do, they will often go away on their own anyway.

Certain times of the year bring more of these pests. That's because the population is so high on the outside that you get some of the overflow. Usually that's spring, but can be anytime the moisture is abundant. Lots of rain often means more carpenter ants are forced from their normal habitats into the areas where you see them. It doesn't even have to be lots of rain. It can just be muggy weather. Carpenter ants LOVE muggy weather, especially when it's hot! Next time the weather is hot and muggy, check it out. You'll see lots more ants - on the sidewalk, in or on the trees - and, of course, inside and outside your house.

Long droughts increase the number of ants that will enter a house, even just foraging. Again, this is no reason to panic and whip out the Raid or call the exterminator. Just wait for the weather change and you'll notice they are less. I don't have to go outside or watch the weather forecast to tell when it's muggy. I just have to check our switchboard.

Well, I guess so! That's where they're supposed to live! There are carpenter ants in just about every tree. (Often, they're called "tree ants" for that reason) They live in the crotch of just about every tree you can see. And sometimes, because a tree is near the end of its life cycle, you may see a LOT of them. The ants don't hurt the tree. They are not causing the tree to be less viable than it normally would be. They are a symptom, not a cause. No need to spray or treat carpenter ants in a tree. In fact, if you DO treat them, they may migrate to somewhere else - maybe to a place where you don't want them. (Your house?) Just leave them in the tree - they won't hurt anything just where they are. The ants do have a close and harmless symbiotic relationships with all trees, don't worry about them. If anything, they help the tree.

OKAY, BUT.....
Now what if, let's say, you have an old rotting stump in close proximity to the foundation walls. And you suspect, or you can see, that it is inhabited by carpenter ants. Well, first of all, this is probably more a termite danger than anything else - you just don't see termites as readily as carpenter ants. Termites forage below ground, or deep into wooden artifacts, and carpenter ants forage above ground. And sure, you could have carpenter ants entering from the close distance between a stump and your home, but the answer is not the exterminator - or even the use of insecticides.

REMOVE IT
Don't just grind it down using a stump-grinding machine. Dig it out, remove all the wood and wood chips that you can, also remove any construction debris that you run across, then re-pack the soil around the foundation, (do a good job) and you won't have to pay the exterminator a nickle! Harder this way, but certainly much better.

EXTENSIVE DIGGING NEXT TO BUILDING FOUNDATIONS
If you are under a termite contract with an exterminator, call him up, describe to him what you plan or have done, and ask him if the area requires any treatment, and if it will cost anything. Forward-thinking exterminators will make such minor adjustments to your chemical barrier, under your guarantee or Renewal Plan, without charge. Money-hungry exterminators will charge extra. (My opinion.)

WHY IS THAT?
It's because your dishwasher is an unvented appliance. It also has insulation (for noise and heat) which also does an excellent job of holding moisture. Which means that you can have a small carpenter ant nest in there, maybe under a hundred individuals, and you're going to see virtually every one of them almost every day! Naturally, your first reaction after seeing a few skittle around the inside of your dishwasher, is to turn it on, wash them right out of there.

And again, naturally, it doesn't work. They don't care about the heat. If they did, they wouldn't be there in the first place. So then you get even MORE moisture, and, maybe, even more carpenter ants. Carpenter ants thrive on these conditions.

Generally, it's fairly easy for an exterminator to handle this kind of problem with simple pest control procedures. Don't fall for some Big Bucks carpenter ant job for this problem. Look for a Good Guy exterminator that will help you solve your problem simply, without taking you to the cleaners.

OTHER PLACES TO FIND THEM
We also see these little fellows in other areas - such as hollow doors, the trim around windows and doors, and other places like these. This is where you MIGHT need the exterminator. Although, in this case, not for one of those "big bucks" jobs, just normal pest control. If you know where they are, it's generally pretty easy. Don't fall for one of those "drill-out-every-wall" scenarios - that's just a giant make-work project to separate you from your hard-earned dollars. Look for an exterminator that considers carpenter ant control as pretty much a normal pest control procedure.

CRAWL SPACES
Very small populations of carpenter ants can remain undetected to resume activity even after moisture sources have been eliminated. Insulation of any type can be your ultimate worst nightmare by trapping the humid conditions that the ants need. Foam board insulation in crawl spaces, coupled with bad building practice can mean many repairs and adjustments in the future. Pull it all down, if you can, and don't be surprised if you find problems (termites or ants) behind this stuff. The amount of insulation value is negligible, and the other risks are high.

REAL PROBLEMS
Carpenter ants, however, can certainly cause ongoing problems, usually by taking advantage of the flaws that develop in current and past building practice. Certain kinds of construction, (slab on grade, log and custom) are especially liable to incursions, infestations or other problems. Moisture is a major contributing factor in 95% to 100% of the infestations. The rest of it will always be bad building practice.

Not only that, but in certain areas of the country, (and the world) there are endemic problems with carpenter ants.

A "REAL PROBLEM" SCENARIO:
You live in our great northwest and your house has one of those sweeping cathedral ceilings. On the inside, looking up, you have wooden planking showing. Under that, you have foamboard insulation, and then, sandwiched all together, the roof. Ants, and not just carpenter ants, can get in between the layers of your roof, they will scour out their living space inside the foamboard, and you see a constant rain of the tailings the ants eject, falling onto your furnishings.

THE FIX?
Well, the real fix, if the ants have a home up there, is to start dismantling the problem areas and remedy the situation until the problem is resolved. Just like what the dentist does. He drills into your teeth until he gets to the "good part," then he fixes it!

In this industry, chemicals can help, and experience helps even more, but the cure is never just chemicals. The real cure, for real problems, is always considerably more expensive than chemical treatments and often involves a careful and extensive building renovation. It can be a whole lot more expensive than chemical treatments, but it will have been done without chemicals, and if you repair correctly, you won't have to worry about it.

GETTING THE EXTERMINATOR TO DO IT....
Understand, that if you DON'T know where the ants are coming from, and the exterminator has to do a lot of detective work, you will pay for his time. So if you know where the problem is, or can find the area, it will be a whole lot easier on your pocketbook. At least that's the way we think it should work.

WHAT TO DO?
So rather than having a constant problem from your cathedral ceiling, if you've just experienced some sort of "invasion," (very common, actually) then before you do something rash, gulp down your panic, get yourself calmed down, and think straight. If you just have one of those "weather-related" incidents, the "problem" will probably go away even if you do nothing. Without using insect sprays or other preparations. And if you do have one of those real problems discussed above, there's a better than good chance that you'll need professional help of several types. In this case, you'll want to be sure you don't have any bad apples in the bunch. Get the wrong builder or the wrong exterminator and both will blame the other and you'll be SOL. Or you'll have to sue, so just the lawyers will make out. (That's usually the way it goes, by the way.)

This page is designed to give you the information you need, so you won't get tricked by some mumbo-jumbo from a pest control salesman, trolling for suckers, and get stuck with some long, drawn out pest control service contract that you don't need.

Look at it this way. If an exterminator is going to rip you off just 'cause you've seen some season-related carpenter ants, would you want to trust him to do the right thing if you had one of those real problems? Something to think about before signing on the line that is dotted.

Remember: Those salesmen-types are just in it for the money, and if anyone tries to suck you into something you don't need, don't fall for it. (What would you think if you had to talk to a salesman before you saw the doctor?)

Finding a Good, Honest Exterminator
Want a good way to weed out the good from the bad and the ugly? Okay, here's what you do. Sit down with the Yellow Pages, turned to the pest control section. Start calling exterminators and pose this set of circumstances:

Tell them you just discovered what appears to be a nest of ants (okay to call them carpenter ants) in your, let's say, window frame. You discovered the problem because you found a slight water stain (or maybe a bit of "sawdust") coming from one of the corners of the trim. So tell them what you did, is you carefully took off the trim and now you can see the ants around the window frame. Tell them you were very careful taking off the trim and it didn't seem to upset the ants, and you then very quietly put everything back and did not use any insecticides, and you know they're still there.

Now ask them what you should do, or what they would do and how much (about) it would cost. Naturally, you don't want them to come out, so if they refuse to talk about it over the phone, and want to send someone (a salesman) out, cross them off the list. Or, if they try to scare you into thinking the ants could be "all over the house and you'd better do something - quick...." Cross them off your list too. Make sure you ask them to quote you a price for just treating that one window frame, without any ongoing contracts. If they won't, cross them off your list too.

Best of all, if you find one that tells you to open it up, suck the ants out with a vacuum, and fix the leak (if any) and tells you that you probably won't need any insecticides, then that's the exterminator you want to employ in the future. There won't be too many of those, so for a second choice, keep the name of the one(s) that said they would come out and treat that one window frame, with no contract requirements. You should be able to find a few of these.

And for all you exterminators out there, reading this, and wondering why in the world I would tell people to do this, please go here.

..... Do I say things like this, very different from most of the other exterminators you may have visited on the 'Net or talked to on the phone? That's a good question. This site has been here since 1995, but it took me over five years to put up this page. The actual reason for that was because I have never really considered (and still don't) carpenter ants to be a big problem. So I just never put up any information on these little critters.

HOW WE DO IT
For years, our company has handled these kinds of simple carpenter ant problems as just, more or less, regular pest control. Oh, I knew that a lot of the other exterminators made a big deal out of carpenter ants, oftentimes extracting big bucks from the public. Usually doing a lot of fancy "control" efforts - worthless or unnecessary treatments most of them - we see an awful lot of that.

OKAY, SO WHAT I WANTED TO SAY....
So starting work on my "new" Carpenter Ant Page, I tried to detail what you (the public) can or should do if you happen to run across these little guys. The thrust is that you can often do it yourself! And a great deal of the time you may not even need to use insecticides. I add to this Carpenter Ant Page whenever someone hits me with a new angle. My last update is listed at the top right of this page.

I actually used to think that a lot of the other exterminators (except for maybe the hard-core biggies) did it like me. Boy, was I a dummy! So I am determined to put the truth up here, to help keep you from getting ripped off, and save you some money! Maybe, even, someone will be thankful enough to name me in their Last Will and Testament.

Well, anyway, even if they don't, I'll still make a few friends and sleep easy at night.

You can get a sense of what you might have in store for yourself, if you look at what other people have written in about their own carpenter ant problem, some are detailed on our "Ant Story Pages." Since putting up this carpenter ant page, I have had more hits, comments, questions, phone calls and inquiries than almost all the other pests combined!

DOING IT YOURSELF
There are times, of course, when you might want to use some sort of control method on these critters. And there are several things you can use, that are (or should be) available to you. One of the best is Drione dust. This is a product that is not restricted to the exterminator and can be valuable to the homeowner. It is usually available locally, if not, it is one of the products that we can sell to the public. There is also a granular for use with carpenter ants. Both products, and details on how to order, can be found on our Equipment and Supplies Page.

I also did my own little informal test on the carpenter ant bait, Albamectin, in a worst-case scenario situation, and have posted the results right here.

Most of the time, with carpenter ants, you don't even need any kind of chemical. Fixing moisture problems and eliminating the ant colony itself can sometimes be all that's required.