Carpenter ant help!

jamjr74

I live in a wooded damp area and have always had carpenter ant issues. I have had professionals treat my home but still seem to have issues every spring and summer. Today I observed a lot of activity on my side deck and ants going up the side of my home. I am treating the area with DuPont Advion gel bait which I have had success with in the past. Are there any other recommendations to treat area. Are there any good products to prevent future problems? I have used ortho home defense in the past but I am not impressed.

joecaption

Google Boracare, or Timbor.

jamjr74

I ordered some timbor thanks. I am still treating with advion as well. How do I know when the ant problem is taken care of? The amount of ants is far less then it was and I have also seen some dead ones on the ground and being carried by other workers.

jamjr74

Can timbor be used on existing homes and ant problems? Looks like its more for preventative measures on new wood.

caperton22

I've got the same issue! My girlfriend and I were in our home when we stumbled upon a bunch of ants (which we identified later as carpenter ants) by our fridge. Needless to say she freaked since there was a considerable amount of them but what's puzzling about it is that our house is newly renovated and we're sure that there are no possible places of moisture or liquid that are left out. I haven't had a chance to try and follow them out of the house to see where they may be heading into since there are no trees in our small backyard.

Are there any other options aside from boracare/timbor? Has anyone had good results with advion?

jamjr74

I am treating with advion now and I am liking the results. The amount of ants has decreased greatly and I am seeing large amounts of dead ones all over. Plus it's cheap!

caperton22

That's good to hear, I'm at the office right now but I'm going to make a note to pick some up as soon as I can afterwards. I suppose that I could order them online but I want to start using it ASAP. Do any stores carry them? Like Home Depot or Lowes or something?

jamjr74

I don't think they carry it. I get mine on amazon.

neight

it takes time, but if you mix 1:1 borax with sugar and add warm water, you've got a great ant killer. put it in bottle caps where ant activity is high. they will eat it right up...bring it back to the colony...everyone enjoys it...then they die. it takes a while, so you have to be vigilant and replace the mixture often. you can also switch it up a bit by adding peanut butter instead of sugar.

caperton22

I made an order for some advion the other day, rush shipping should get it to me sometime later on this week.

Anyways, I found the ant nest! When my gf and I leased the house, the back shed came along with it and at the time we didn't think much of it than to just use it for storage. We didn't think to see if it had any structural damage or what was really inside it is what I mean. The previous owners had left lots of spare plywood behind a set of old metal shelves, some leftover DIY project long-since forgotten. When I went to check it out just in case, it turns out that there are LOADS of carpenter ants in the back area and the plywood boards (which are stacked upon one another) are completely hollowed through.

The shed also has a huge hole in the sheet metal in one of the back corners. Apparently the ants got to us from our neighbor's place (across from our backyards) and they've got a tree that looks to be completely infested with carpenter ants as well. Turns out that they themselves had no idea and were completely sympathetic since the ants were basically coming from their property and into our's. They said that they have had carpenter ant issues in the past but just used some basic insecticide and after the ants stopped appearing, thought nothing of it.

I'm waiting for that advion since I already bought it but @neight, I'll look into mixing up a solution depending on how effective the advion is. At this stage, though, my neighbors said that they would hire a good exterminator and pay for the service on my home/shed so we'll see how this progresses.

I'll update later on this week!

Jennydiy

Since you consistently have issues with carpenter ants and luckily now you've found the nest, try to seal off all access points. This is obviously difficult because they're so small, but there are a lot of things you can do including foam, screens, etc. Also remove all that wood and stuff in that shed and make sure that is sealed well too.
And I usually use this diy pest control website to get my products. They have advion too. http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/ad...advion&x=0&y=0

noquacks

Wil this work for fire ants?

__________________
Alexander Pope: [a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing]