First and foremost – DO NOT SPRAY ANYTHING INSIDE THE DISHWASTER! Some people will do this which can make the dishwasher smell for extended periods of time. Running the dishwasher through a cleaning cycle will get rid of the pesticide but the smell can linger. This alone can make the unit unusable so DO NOT SPRAY INSIDE. We recently had someone contact us after they did so using a smelly "off the shelf" spray they bought at their local home center store. In most all cases, ants in the dishwasher are there for one of two reasons. Either they're seeking water due to local dry, hot weather or they're seeking food. Many people commonly store dirty plates, pans, silverware, etc. in their dishwasher for more than one day. If you tend to accumulate dirty dishes for several days before running them through a wash cycle, you're asking for trouble. No doubt there will be some kind of insect lured to the smell and one of the most common insects that will sniff out these dirty dishes are ants.

Now that you know what "not" to do, just what can be done for an ant problem like this? The first thing you should do is read through our CARPENTER ANT CONTROL article. One thing we explain in our article is how this ant will generally forage great distances to harvest food or water. It's not uncommon for carpenter ants to forage from one property to another. In your case, the ants you're seeing aren't necessarily living on your home or even on your property. But regardless, you should attempt to locate the nest as our article explains. By finding and treating the nest directly, you'll surely get the fastest and most complete control of the problem. Our article provides a video and lots of great information on how to locate a nest and it's best to try this at first.

Now if you're not able to track the ants back to any one nest location and after a day or two of watching them you find you are still confused as to where they might be coming from, you still have treatment options. The simplest thing to do would be to set out some CARPENTER ANT GEL. This slow working bait has proven to be very effective on carpenter ants as explained on our product page. Make placements anywhere you see the ants and they'll readily forage to it within a few days.

Alternatively you can spray some PHANTOM LIQUID around the outside of the building on the foundation and other routes of entry. This treatment will effectively be putting a barrier in place that will affect any ants coming in from outside. You can spray inside as well focusing in on baseboards but since the liquid can be a little hard to use inside, we recommend the PHANTOM AEROSOL over the liquid. It goes on dry and invisible making it ideally suited for inside applications.

Phantom is slow acting and lasts at least a month when applied. It's unique active won't kick in for several days after the ants have picked up a lethal dose. By the time they realize what's happened it will be too late and in most cases all the nests will be shut down and destroyed. This will take 1-2 weeks to complete but it's highly effective and a good choice.

Here are direct links to the information and products listed above:

Carpenter Ant Control:  http://www.carpenterants.com/carpenter-ant-control

Carpenter Ant Gel:  http://www.bugspray.com/catalog/products/page560.html

Phantom:  http://www.bugspray.com/item/phantom_insecticide.html

Phantom Aerosol:  http://www.bugspray.com/item/phantom_aerosol.html

Wood ants are what we call carpenter ants. Though they don't eat wood, they can chew through it and commonly will do so when making a nest. I suggest you read our on line article on WOOD ANT CONTROL to better understand this pest and what you should be on the lookout for to make sure they don't make nests in other parts of the home.

As you'll learn from our on line article, this ant loves to nest in small voids or spaces like the location you're seeing them at now. To treat such locations thoroughly, the use of some DRIONE DUST is most appropriate. It will do a great job of penetrating all the spaces where they might be and will quickly kill them all. I suggest you also spray the outside of the building with some SUSPEND to make sure there aren't other nests close by that can continue to thrive.

The good news is that you should be able to treat this problem without putting your family at any real risk. We have a bunch of information about Carpenter Ants and I suggest you take some time to read through it if you haven't already. It's important to understand that carpenter ants can cause a lot of damage and of all the ants that can nest inside, they're probably the only one that can do any significant damage to a structure if given the chance.

Fortunately there are several products available these days which are both good at controlling carpenter ants and safe to use. Inside, you'll need to set out some Carpenter Ant Gel where the ants are active. This can be up in cabinets, out of sight and where only the ants can find it. Foraging ants are looking for food and the Gel is something the love to eat. Once they find it and start taking it back to their nest, you'll notice a big reduction on how many you're seeing.

Outside requires some liquid treatments to the foundation. These treatments will insure more don't come inside and should be done every 2-3 months once the problem is resolved; more frequently when you're seeing activity. Choose one of the liquid materials we have listed in our Carpenter Ant Article or the ECO IC Non Toxic alternative. The ECO IC won't last as long  but is safe for us in sensitive areas and would be a good choice if you're hesitant about spraying but really do want to get rid of these ants.

The ant you're describing is probably a carpenter ant. These are large, black ants that nest in wood. They have strong chewing mouth parts and will readily gnaw through wood. This gnawing can get quite loud and I'm pretty sure it's what you're hearing.

Since carpenter ants can cause a lot of damage, I suggest you either treat the home as described in our Carpenter Ant article or get a service company to do the treatment for you. The gnawing is usually the sound of a new infestation and though it will probably subside in a few weeks, the ants will still be present which will only lead to further problems.

Carpenter ants will readily forage up a tree for food. Some of these trees will many times be prime locations for a nest. There is no doubt that over time an active carpenter ant nest will kill a tree faster than normal. To stop this from happening, there are two ways you can treat that are easy.

The simplest approach is to get some Carpenter Ant Gel and apply it to the trunk where they are traveling. Carpenter Ants will find it as they ascend the tree, feed and share it with their nest. This will ultimately kill all the ants. The second option is to treat the tree with some Termidor. Spray the trunk down so that any ants walking up the tree will have to cross the treated surface. This will shut the nest down as explained in our Carpenter Ant Control article.

You're describing carpenter ants and I'm pretty sure the ones with wings are carpenter ant swarmers. These are reproductives which colonies send out every spring to start new colonies. Since they will only emerge from established nests, it's reasonable to assume you had an active nest last year which is now releasing these ants to go and start new colonies somewhere else. Because the nest is on the home, some are finding their way inside instead of outside where they really want to be. Since carpenter ants can cause a lot of damage to wood, you'll need to treat the nest as described in our carpenter ant control article.