Good Morning,

We recently had a water connection break in our 6 month old home. The flood of water from under the kitchen sink ended with approximately 6 inches of water in the basement. Within 3 days of this incident we have noticed large black ants in the basement initially however now we have noticed them on the kitchen counters, in the bathroom, laundry room. They appear to be foraging as in the video and also are only one or two at a time. Is it possible for the appearance of these ants to be secondary to the water damage? Can I buy these chemicals and treat myself or do I need to call an exterminator? I live in the state of Connecticut.

You can definitely get the products listed in our CARPENTER ANT CONTROL article and do the treating yourself. As for the problem at hand; it sounds like you have an active nest somewhere in the home. It’s not likely the ants came because of the water but in my experience, I’ve seen where water leaks like you describe will many times “displace” an existing nest. And in most of these cases, the residents of the home had no idea there was ever a nest in their house. In many cases it’s the flood or water issue that triggers the ants to get extra active and that leads to the realization of the problem on hand.

At this point you have a few ways you could treat. Typically when people are seeing 1-2 ants inside the home, a good exterior treatment with some PHANTOM  and some CARPENTER ANT GEL inside will usually do the job. But I don’t think this is what you should do given the facts of your problem.

So in your situation, I’m fairly sure there is a nest somewhere but it doesn’t seem as though you have any idea where this nest might be. For that reason I feel the direct approach of dusting with DRIONE should be overlooked even though I always recommend doing this whenever possible. But really, you need to know where the ants are nesting for this to work and for now, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

So what I recommend you do is a thorough application of PHANTOM AEROSOL into every crack and crevice combined with a thorough liquid treatment of the PHANTOM CONCENTRATE. As our article explains, this active is very slow to work and will not spook or scatter the ants. This characteristic will enable the product to get into their nests in the days following your application so that when it finally gets active, it will have a big impact that should kill all nests in or around the home.

The key to Phantom being successful will be based a lot on how thorough you are in your application. You must be sure to spray all baseboards with the liquid as well as the exterior foundation of the home. I expect a thorough treatment to use 2-3 gallons of finished product.

Next, the aerosol must be applied to all the cracks and crevices around the counters, cabinets, windows, door frames and basically anywhere you’ve seen them if you are to insure enough of the colony gets exposed to the Phantom. This way in the days following the treatment, ants will walk on the treatment of Phantom and when it finally kicks in, hopefully enough ants will have been exposed to knock out the colony.

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

Carpenter Ants:  https://www.carpenterants.com/carpenter-ant-control

Phantom EC:  http://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/liquid/phantom-21-oz

Carpenter Ant Gel: http://www.bugspraycart.com/bait/gel/maxforce-carpenter-ant-gel-1-oz

Drione:  http://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/dust/drione-dust

Phantom: http://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/aerosol/pt-phantom-17-5oz