Posted by Billy NY on March 12, 2014 at 11:20:32 from (66.67.105.23):
Well I see a small contingent of all black, (not the red middle) carpenter ants on the kitchen counter, so I figured I'd ask what people use or do to get rid of them.
I do burn firewood, in the basement, this year all my wood was split and about 1 year seasoned, no insects except those hibernating jumping spiders. No punky wood with any nests or what have you. The house being of late 70's construction, seems to be dry all around the sill, I can't find any wet areas that would attract these kinds of ants, based on my understanding they need moist wood, I've never seen them in anything but old soft wood lumber or logs, or logs, utility poles that are compromised, I've even seen them in new high voltage line poles, one pole, that was installed in '06, creosote treated, brand new and they are still in it, unbeknownst to the power company, darned thing will probably break off someday while I am near it LOL ! They seem to like black cherry trees too.
I did find some fine sawdust in the track of a sliding door, old though and no other signs any where in the house. In a log, they will leave fresh piles easily spotted. I will look further there, check the header etc. clean it up and see if more appears.
I have in the past, split wood like cherry and opened up a nest, log was warmed up, so they scattered, and I'd have them around for awhile, then they would be gone. I am wondering given I cannot seem to find any area that would be wet and allow these ants to nest in the framing of the house, I will keep looking, I wonder if its just an isolated case. When that did happen, I noticed that the dry, firewood dust on the concrete floor and overall dry conditions would cause these ants problems, they don't last all that long, when dispersed, but do that outside in a wet bark pile, even with snow, frost, come spring they will recover easily and move on somewhere, so its best to kill em off when possible.
I am wondering what would be best to use, Diatomaceous earth being inside and dry ? Or something like a poison that they take back to the nest with them, if in fact there is a nest. Mind you they are on the counter, specifically one area I did not wipe clean yet, so as to keep em occupied. I've had them in logs before, in the house, and learned that if I disturbed them, leave that log where it is, they will settle down, return to it, at that point take it outside, burn it or what have you, they seem to return to any former/current home quickly. I also wonder, maybe vacuum them up and see what returns, suck those up too, see what comes back, if more, then a more serious problem ?
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