Getting Rid Of Carpenter Ants

It can be very difficult to find and get rid of a carpenter ant colony. In fact, there are frequently more than one nest (they are called satellite colonies), which makes getting rid of carpenter ants very tricky. If you are having trouble getting rid of carpenter ants, you may find that calling in a professional pest control company is the best solution. The technique that professional pest control companies use for getting rid of carpenter ants varies from company to company, so the cost of getting rid of carpenter ants is not easy to predict here either.

Getting Rid Of Carpenter Ants

The only really effective method of getting rid of carpenter ants is finding and destroying their nest. That means killing all the carpenter ants in the colony. I say colony, because carpenter ants often have more than one nest. A colony of carpenter ants can have several satellite nests or colonies.

These ants are usually large, between a quarter of an inch and an inch long and are usually black. They are attracted to damp and rotting wood and while they do not eat it, they will burrow through it to find food sources. This distinguishes them from termites which do eat their way up a length of timber. Carpenter ants will chew their way up a length of timber, but they will eject the 'saw dust', called fross as a waste product.

You can deter carpenter ants by curing any damp spots or leaks that you may have in your house. Furthermore, make a clear gap between low-lying timbers and the soil, because unlike termites, they will not construct galleries or tubes of earth to get to anything that they cannot reach.

So, you need to detect the nest and to achieve this, you will need to be patient and observant. Carpenter ants are most active between sunset and midnight, especially in the warmer months of spring and summer. You will need to trace the ants back to their nests in order to get rid of them. The easiest way of doing this is by putting honey on a piece of non-porous material where you see the ants congregating. They will come in their hundreds to take the food home.

You can poison this food supply or, better still, you can follow the ants home by using a flashlight with red cellophane over the front, because ants cannot see red light. When you have located their nest, or more likely, nests, put poison down outside each one.

This is the only sure-fired way that an inexpert individual can control carpenter ants alone. Trying getting rid of carpenter ants by spraying them is futile, because the colony will realize that several hundred workers have not returned home and the queen will step up her production of eggs to make up for the shortfall. It might be even worse than that, she may over compensate, so that your efforts at getting rid of carpenter ants has made the problem worse.

Sprays are ineffective at getting rid of carpenter ants, you have to take the longer term approach, but you will be successful, if you go for the nests.