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Small Cabin Forum / Nature / Freaking Carpenter Ants!!!
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yankeesouth
Member
# Posted: 1 May 2013 10:10
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Sorry for kind of a redo on this topic but there are many new folks cruising this board and some old dogs that may have learned new tricks, so I am asking for help. Carpenter ants!!!! How do you get rid of them? I mean for good! They are colonizing somewhere in my rafters, NOT GOOD, around my chimney. I reflashed the chimney to stop moisture from coming in. I know folks say get the debris away from the property, old wood, leaves, etc....but this is a cabin in the middle of the words......that just "ain't gonna happen"!!! Does anyone have a sure-fire or goto method for getting rid of carpenter ants! Those little buggers are pretty darn destructive!

trollbridge
Member
# Posted: 1 May 2013 10:31
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Oh, sorry!
This means war!!!
I just know you have to find the nest and destroy from there!
Best of luck to you.

hueyjazz
Member
# Posted: 2 May 2013 12:01
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Basically you have to kill the queen. You can kill thousands of the soldiers and she will keep making more. The worst thing you can do is spray quick kill pesticide.
What you want to use is a bait they want to eat and then bring back to the queen. These baits are slow acting but do the job. One such product is Optigard ant gel bait and I've had great results. My job is managing large industrial properties so I get some practice in.

This is a great website for products. http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/ants-c-1.html

yankeesouth
Member
# Posted: 2 May 2013 13:15
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Thanks Hue!

Grandma Off Grid
Member
# Posted: 2 May 2013 18:08
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you can use red pepper also. sprinkle around where they are.

Smawgunner
Member
# Posted: 2 May 2013 21:21
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I think they like moisture...check for this.

toyota_mdt_tech
Member
# Posted: 2 May 2013 22:04
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Use Drione.

TheWildMan
Member
# Posted: 5 May 2013 08:39
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red pepper is a nusance toi them where they walk, but they will just walk around it (only ggood if your cutting off travel routes from a nest outside when they enter the house for food).

you can use a boron poison, boric acid (a natural compound used in borax soap) is a time consuming way to kill them, it dries them out inside and they die horribly over an hour or two, you can get a product called terro (corn syrup and boron premixed) and put it in a bottle cap an place where you see them, they drink and take it back to the nest and poison the others, several die from this and when they eat the dead they keep poisoning themselves again and again, and new workers will keep bringing poison back from the bottle caps. a good size nest will be wiped out in a week or two.

you could also make a mix of this stuff yourself with borax and breakfast syrup and make a lot for next to nothing.

I have dealt with infestations several times before, this works well if you can wait a week or two and keep feeding the stuff to them (and resist the urge to crush them on sight). since boron is a natural compound this is also a green pest control thing for those tree huggers that care about that.

rayyy
Member
# Posted: 6 May 2013 17:39
Reply 


This year I'm trying that liquid ant killer.Didn't have to great of results with that sprinkle around stuff last year.Spraying worked better.We'll see.

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