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Carpenter ant problems? See them foraging in the yard? Worse yet, have them in the home? Carpenter ants can cause a lot of damage and if you’re finding them close to or on your home, it’s time to take action because once they establish their scent trails, they won’t go away without a fight.
As their name suggests, carpenter ants like to chew on wood… READ MORE ON HOW TO CONTROL CARPENTER ANTS
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Would wood mulch next to building be a factor in attracting carpenter ants?
Wood mulch will most definitely attract carpenter ants. They’re quite good at detecting certain smells and decaying wood (aka: wood mulch) is number one on their list of “10 best places to live”.
Does this mean you shouldn’t have wood mulch on your property? No. If you want to keep wood mulch but not attract carpenter ants, treat with either the CARPENTER ANT BAIT or the SUSPEND mentioned in our CARPENTER ANT CONTROL ARTICLE. Baiting the mulch will be the most cost effective. As foraging ants come around, they’ll no doubt encounter some of the bait, eat it or bring it back to the nest and eventually consume some. This will have a deadly consequence and once a few ants die, the colony will recognize the source of the problem and avoid the area.
Liquid spraying with Suspend isn’t as easy to do but you will have the added benefit derived from using a residual meaning that liquid treatments will cover any invading pest. Use about 1 gallon of finished product for every 800 sq/ft of mulch and treat every 2-3 months to keep them in check. Since wood mulch tends to attract everything from termites to scorpions to roaches to springtails, treating it with a liquid would be the better of the two preventive treatments for carpenter ants.
Here are direct links to the information and products listed above:
Carpenter Ant Bait: http://www.bugspraycart.com/bait/granule/pt-advance-carpenter-ant-granules
Suspend: http://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/liquid/suspend-sc
Carpenter Ant Control: https://www.carpenterants.com/carpenter-ant-control
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Hello,
We have discovered an infestation of carpenter ants in our decking outside (which we plan to remove). I would like to order Termidor, but would like some instructions on use. Can we use a regular sprayer? How should it be applied?
Carpenter ants will readily forage onto anything that has wood including homes, garages, trees and most certainly decks. Since they can travel far as explained in our CARPENTER ANT CONTROL article, the nest may not even be located on your property. Still, allowing these ants to forage on the deck would be a mistake. Our advice is always the same when it comes to this ant.
First, do a good inspection of the premises to see if there is a nest anywhere close. The video we have featured in the article that explains how to track their trails to a nest should prove to be very helpful in accomplishing this task. If any nests are found, treat them with the PYGANIC or DRIONE dust for quick and immediate control.
Second, whether you find a nest or not, the turf around the home should be treated with the CARPENTER ANT GRANULES. This bait will be found and fed upon by any foraging onto your property and can do a great job of reducing this activity. Remember, ants foraging on your property is essential for them to create a new nest. Interrupt this behavior and you interrupt their ability to establish nests.
Third, spray the house with something like the TERMIDOR using a good PUMP SPRAYER. This material can be applied to the foundation as well as the decking and once the ants walk over it, the nest will be shut down within a few days regardless of where it might be located. All it takes is one ant coming in contact with the Termidor and impact will be devastating to the colony.
In summary, you could attempt to use just the Termidor to solve this problem but many times there are more than just one colony active in any one area. That means foraging ants in your turf could start new colonies if you don’t apply the granules so don’t neglect this important step.
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I have a lot of big black ants walking up and down a fence post attached to my house. It looks like they’re crawling into a joint where two boards meet and there is a lot of sawdust coming out of this joint. I think these ants have done damage to the wood there but before I do anything I’m wondering if I should be prepared to spray something. This joint is only 5 ft from my house and if I don’t do anything, I’m sure the ants will get into my house.
Carpenter ant signs include leaving a sawdust or frass which is essentially a by product of all their chewing. As explained in our CARPENTER ANT CONTROL article, they do a good job of chewing through wood but don’t in fact eat any of it. Based on your description, it sounds like you have them in this fence and probably at this joint too.
I suggest you get some DRIONE DUST and CYPERMETHRIN. Fill one of our HAND DUSTERS with the Drione and have it alongside you when you take the fence apart so it’s ready to use. I’m pretty sure you’ll uncover a nest and the Drione will be ideal to use for the treatment. Once you complete the work at that joint, I suggest you dust each of all the other joints you have to insure there aren’t any other satellite nests on the fence. The Drione will do a much better job than a liquid spray treatment.
Once the fence has been treated, finish the work by doing a foundation spraying using the Cypermethrin. This will insure straggler ants won’t find their way into your home.