how to treat

In one room in my house I have noticed a couple of what look to be carpenter ants. There haven’t been many seen but a couple appear every two or three days. The room has wood paneling on the walls. Should I be worried that they will damage my walls?

Yes, you most definitely need to be concerned about this activity. As a general rule, 1-2 ants a year would be no cause for alarm. But if you’re seeing 1-2 a month, there is a problem. And based on your message, you’re seeing a lot more than 1-2 a week so you’ll need a treatment. At this point you need to either hire a service company to treat or do the work yourself using the products they’d use and save yourself on the cost of a service.

For now, I suggest you review our online CARPENTER ANT ARTICLE. This details all you’ll need to know about this pest and why they can be so damaging. As you’ll learn, they many times nest in or on a house and forage outside so the homeowner won’t see much activity even though they’re present. This leads the homeowner to believe there isn’t much of a problem even though there is a full blown nest or two hidden and from what you’re describing, I’d say you have at least one nest in or on the home at this time.

In our article you’ll learn one of the best things you can do is to “follow” any ant you find to see where they trail. This means you don’t want to kill them when you see it walking around; instead you need to let it walk where it wants to go, undisturbed, with the hope that it will lead you to their nest site. If you let any ant you find continue along on it’s travels, there is a good chance it will provide a clue as to where a nest might be located. So if you see him walk for 10-20 feet and then disappear through a crack somewhere, it would be a indicator that in fact a nest was located in this area. Our article has a great video on how to “follow” an ant to locate their nest and this should help you learn the process.

Now if you are able to locate a nest location, dusting it with some DRIONE would be the way to go as explained in our article. This treatment method is fast acting and will take care of the nest immediately. But if it turns out you’re not able to find any specific location to treat, no need to worry. In cases like this where we’re seeing some activity but are unsure of where the nest might be, a good application of PHANTOM AEROSOL throughout the room will usually do the trick. It’s slower acting and might take 7-14 days to affect the nest but it should get them.

We also suggest you get some PHANTOM CONCENTRATE and spray the outside of the home. This will insure you get any that might be moving between your home and the outside landscape. Phantom is unique in that it won’t be detected by the targeted insect so they don’t avoid treated areas. And once they step on a treatment, they’ll pick up some of the product which they then share with other members of the colony. This in turn will “kill” the nest after a few days making Phantom a great candidate when nest locations aren’t known.

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

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

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

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

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

Can you give me an email and let me know how to find them all and get rid of them? Do you offer services or just sell the product? They are in my window. I keep seeing saw dust. Lots of it. Thanks in advance.

We don’t actually do service work but we are wholesalers to the pest control industry and what they use you can get direct from us and do the work yourself. The main benefit of doing this is to save on the cost because certain pest control services – especially for carpenter ants – can be quite costly. As our CARPENTER ANT CONTROL ARTICLE explains, carpenter ants can do a lot of damage and do a good job of hiding so treating for them can be tricky. The only exception to this is when you get lucky and somehow know where they’re nesting. And based on your message, it sounds like you know exactly where they’re located!

For now, review the article and focus on the section that talks about using the DRIONE DUST. This is really what you need. There are 1-2 videos on this dust and you need to watch them because it will explain why this is the right product for you. To treat, you’ll need is a few small holes to access the wall void just under and to the side of the window where you’re finding the sawdust. In these small holes you’ll pump the Drione and when you hit the nest, you’ll likely see 25-50 come out and die. Within an hour the problem should be resolved and handled.

Next spray the foundation with some TERMIDOR we have listed and this will take care of any stragglers that may have been away from the nest when you dust it. By getting the stragglers, you’ll insure the nest won’t come back.

Give us a call if you have further questions but really, this is a pretty easy job to do when you know where the nest is located like you do. Here are direct links to the information and products listed above:

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

Hand Duster: http://www.bugspraycart.com/equipment/dusters/crusader

Termidor: http://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/liquid/termidor-sc-20-oz

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