We are daily finding 12-15 dead ants on our living room rug, directly below two ceiling spotlight fixtures 12 feet above. We also find live and active ants in our kitchen area…bur never near food storage areas. We suspect a colony located in an unusable attic area behind the spotlights. I can spray the spotlight fixtures…any suggestions ? Thank you for your interest.
If you read our CARPENTER ANT CONTROL ARTICLE, you’ll learn there are two ways of treating problems like this. The easier way is with the use of bait and a spray they cannot detect. This involves using CARPENTER ANT GEL where you see them foraging. Carpenter ants love this stuff and will readily feed where it’s applied. The gel takes awhile to work but the by the time it starts, the gel will have infiltrated so much of the colony you’ll be able to kill all of them at one time.
In all areas surrounding where the bait was applied, you should spray PHANTOM AEROSOL. This product goes on dry, does not have an odor and unlike most sprays, won’t be detectable by the ants. And like the gel, the Phantom won’t start working for several days after it’s been applied. This way when it does kick in, it will impact many more ants and not just the ones that walked over the treated areas.
We also suggest spraying the outside foundation with PHANTOM CONCENTRATE because most carpenter ants keep multiple nests with some surely located outside. By treating the foundation, you’ll put in place a treatment that will insure no nest is missed.
The second way of treating carpenter ants is more direct. So if you are correct in where you think the nest is located, you can dust it with some DRIONE DUST which will kill the nest on contact. In many cases this is a viable option and highly effective. But you must be 100% sure the nest is where you think it’s located. Because if you miss it or allow any other nests to survive, the problem will not go away.
Here are direct links to the information and products listed above:
Carpenter Ant Gel: http://www.bugspraycart.com/bait/gel/maxforce-carpenter-ant-gel-1-oz
Phantom: http://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/aerosol/pt-phantom-17-5oz
Phantom EC: http://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/liquid/phantom-21-oz
Drione: http://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/dust/drione-dust
Carpenter Ants: https://www.carpenterants.com/carpenter-ant-control