As is usually the case, the best way to protect your home from carpenter ants is to prevent them from entering your house in the first place.
Here are some preventative measures you can take: 1.
Patch roof leaks, plumbing leaks and other moisture problems which will attract carpenter ants.
2.
Eliminate wood-to-ground contact by keeping soil and mulch away from the wood siding of your home.
3.
Trim tree branches and vegetation touching the roof or siding of the house.
Limbs and branches serve as "bridges" between carpenter ants nesting in a dead tree limb and the structure.
4.
Seal cracks and openings in your foundation, especially where utility pipes and wires enter from the outside.
5.
Stack firewood away from the foundation and elevate it off the ground.
Never store firewood in the garage or other areas of the home, as firewood is a prime nesting area for carpenter ants.
6.
Keep your house, especially the kitchen, very clean.
Remove any clutter that may create shelter for the ants, fix leaky faucets, and keep the floors clean.
If you've discovered that you do indeed have carpenter ants, you will want to get rid of them as soon as possible to prevent further structural damage to your home.
Carpenter ant colonies continue to expand outward, producing what are called satellite colonies.
These satellite colonies will eventually mature into hundreds of members and will seek to create more satellite colonies.
Carpenter ant extermination is best left to professionals.
Spraying ants directly yourself can be ineffective as well as harmful to pets and children.
If you're a homeowner, you should schedule an initial inspection to make sure they can detect the location of the nest, a second to treat the nest, and a third inspection within a month or during the following spring to ensure they have gotten rid of carpenter ants for good.
But before the exterminator arrives, it's important to make an initial inspection trying to detect the exact location of the nests.
Carpenter ants follow scent trails between the satellite colonies and the parent nest.
They also rely on these scent trails to direct other ants to food.
You can use this trailing behavior to locate and destroy the nests.
Feed the ants small dabs of diluted honey placed onto the non-sticky side of pieces of masking tape.
The best time to do this is late at night since this is when carpenter ants are most active.
After the ants have fed on the honey, follow them on their journey back to their nest.
Be patient-- eventually the ants will disappear behind a baseboard, cabinet, or into some other concealed location such as the hollow space (void) within a wall, door casing, or porch column.
A good pest control professional will do a very thorough examination of your home.
Having all family members present may help the agent pinpoint the location of the nest more easily, so be ready for questions about sightings and recent ant activity.
Once the nest is located, the pest control agent will drill holes, and treat the surrounding wood, moving outward from the nest's location, eventually finishing the job with a residual insecticide spray of the perimeter of your home.
You can temporarily treat the ant infested areas while you wait for help.
Boil some water and pour it over the mounds and into the cracks and other suspected areas where the ants may have their nest.
As noted earlier, carpenter ants seen in the home may actually be nesting outdoors, foraging indoors for food and/or moisture.
Consequently, the homeowner may end up following the ants they have baited with honey out of the house and into the yard, possibly to a nest located in a stump, or under a log or railroad tie.
If outdoor nests are suspected, the homeowner should also inspect around the foundation of the building at night with a flashlight, especially around doors, holes and openings such as where utility pipes and wires enter the structure.
The baiting approach using honey can also be used to trace carpenter ants which are foraging outdoors back to their nest.
Here are some preventative measures you can take: 1.
Patch roof leaks, plumbing leaks and other moisture problems which will attract carpenter ants.
2.
Eliminate wood-to-ground contact by keeping soil and mulch away from the wood siding of your home.
3.
Trim tree branches and vegetation touching the roof or siding of the house.
Limbs and branches serve as "bridges" between carpenter ants nesting in a dead tree limb and the structure.
4.
Seal cracks and openings in your foundation, especially where utility pipes and wires enter from the outside.
5.
Stack firewood away from the foundation and elevate it off the ground.
Never store firewood in the garage or other areas of the home, as firewood is a prime nesting area for carpenter ants.
6.
Keep your house, especially the kitchen, very clean.
Remove any clutter that may create shelter for the ants, fix leaky faucets, and keep the floors clean.
If you've discovered that you do indeed have carpenter ants, you will want to get rid of them as soon as possible to prevent further structural damage to your home.
Carpenter ant colonies continue to expand outward, producing what are called satellite colonies.
These satellite colonies will eventually mature into hundreds of members and will seek to create more satellite colonies.
Carpenter ant extermination is best left to professionals.
Spraying ants directly yourself can be ineffective as well as harmful to pets and children.
If you're a homeowner, you should schedule an initial inspection to make sure they can detect the location of the nest, a second to treat the nest, and a third inspection within a month or during the following spring to ensure they have gotten rid of carpenter ants for good.
But before the exterminator arrives, it's important to make an initial inspection trying to detect the exact location of the nests.
Carpenter ants follow scent trails between the satellite colonies and the parent nest.
They also rely on these scent trails to direct other ants to food.
You can use this trailing behavior to locate and destroy the nests.
Feed the ants small dabs of diluted honey placed onto the non-sticky side of pieces of masking tape.
The best time to do this is late at night since this is when carpenter ants are most active.
After the ants have fed on the honey, follow them on their journey back to their nest.
Be patient-- eventually the ants will disappear behind a baseboard, cabinet, or into some other concealed location such as the hollow space (void) within a wall, door casing, or porch column.
A good pest control professional will do a very thorough examination of your home.
Having all family members present may help the agent pinpoint the location of the nest more easily, so be ready for questions about sightings and recent ant activity.
Once the nest is located, the pest control agent will drill holes, and treat the surrounding wood, moving outward from the nest's location, eventually finishing the job with a residual insecticide spray of the perimeter of your home.
You can temporarily treat the ant infested areas while you wait for help.
Boil some water and pour it over the mounds and into the cracks and other suspected areas where the ants may have their nest.
As noted earlier, carpenter ants seen in the home may actually be nesting outdoors, foraging indoors for food and/or moisture.
Consequently, the homeowner may end up following the ants they have baited with honey out of the house and into the yard, possibly to a nest located in a stump, or under a log or railroad tie.
If outdoor nests are suspected, the homeowner should also inspect around the foundation of the building at night with a flashlight, especially around doors, holes and openings such as where utility pipes and wires enter the structure.
The baiting approach using honey can also be used to trace carpenter ants which are foraging outdoors back to their nest.