Carpenter Ants!!!

[El Tejon]

This spring (April) I found a few carpenter ants in the kitchen at Alcazar del Tejon.  They were around an open jar of Royal Jelly that I used in a smoothie.  I had an exterminator out in May and he could not find any other sign of a nest in the house and told me that it might have been scouts from a colony in the large, older maple and beech trees in my 'hood.  

Today I had another exterminator out to spray the foundation and curtilage and he advised that if I found carpenter ants in my kitchen it was more likely than not that I had a nest in the Alcazar.  Oy veh!

Is there any way the lay badger can spot a nest?  What signs do I look for and what gun for ant?

[cfabe]

We've got carpenter ants in the area, and usually get a few scouts in the house in the springtime. This spring, though, they must have liked what they found because they defiantely established a nest. More ants than I've ever seen. We had an exterminator out, and he applied a gel poison bait which the workers were supposed to take back to the nest. Worked like a charm, in less than a week no more ants.

[Guest]

Is there any way the lay badger can spot a nest?  What signs do I look for and what gun for ant?

Little critters prefer the ballistic nylon tool belts, with carbon fiber handles on hammers, 501 britches...
... older Carpenters prefer the leather tool belts , and oak handles on hammers ...Carpenter pencils sticking out of Tuff-Nutt 'alls ...

Look for itty bitty piles of sawdust - akin to termite damage under sinks, behind kitchen cabinet drawers, in corners of hall closets and such.  If Pier and Piling foundation check under house , slab foundation, check shady corners and edges where landscape hides the little nests.  Dunno about up there - down here the "ant piles" ( dirt mounds) appear dove gray. Same soil fire ants appear more reddish, " road ants" ( regular ants) appear more brown . Don't ask me why the dirt in same soil does this with different ants...

Gun:  That is what nephews with new .22 lr rifles are for...."Uncle Tejon".  

[Warren]

If they are unionized carpenter ants maybe you can file a grivience.

[Azrael256]

If you find a gallery, tap the wall and listen for a rustling sound.  Carpenter ants do not eat wood like termites.  They nest in it.  As a result, their galleries will be completely spotless and look like somebody went at it with a flexible drill bit.  They even carry away the sawdust.  By contrast, termites will leave messy galleries full of dirt.  This makes carpenter ants easier to spot.  They will leave little piles of sawdust at the entrance to their nest.  If you find one, you need a gas or vapor product to ice them.  Drill a small hole in the wall a few feet up, insert crevice tool, and toast 'em.  Repeat on the other sides of the studs.  Do NOT do this sort of thing if you find a group of them running around the house.  Use bait for that.  Only use a quick-kill product on the colony itself or you'll create new ones.  Use plenty of poison on the colony or it will just split off and make ten more.  Let no ant stand alive, and leave no fleck of wood on another.  Complete annihilation is the only option.  I recommend flying a red flag and playing "El Deguello" before the assault.  I know I'm getting silly here, but I really mean it.  Not one ant left alive.  Any forager can, and will, create a new colony if the main colony is threatened.

If you found just a few of the larger ants in the house, I wouldn't worry too much.  They're probably just foragers.  I would, as a precaution, pick up a couple of gel baits at the local home improvement store.  As cfabe said, the gel baits work wonders.  Even if you've only got five ants in the house, their chowing down on a gel can kill an outdoor colony 50 yards away.  You can also use any barrier product (gel, spray, granules) to create a poisonus barrier around the house.

[El Tejon]

Az, yeah, I found just a few and there were around the Royal Jelly.  Have not seen any since I threw out the jar and cleaned up the cupboard.  (I now keep the Royal Jelly in the frig).

The exterminator put down that gel bait and advised that they have received excellent results with it.  Have not seen any ants but my inclination is to kill something, sooner rather than later.

Steve, it's a ranch with a basement built into the side of a knoll so no slab, but I will search about, will give me an excuse to use those high speed flashlights I seem to collect.  I am one well-equipped yuppie scum, but now I have a purpose--the ant!  If you see me muttering to myself and walking around like Bill Murray in "Caddyshack", you'll know what's happening.

To destroy the ant, the antcong, you must think like the ant.

[Guest]

To destroy the ant, the antcong, you must think like the ant.

I suggest a Sony Walkman , Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb"  cranked up  as you look for the Queen Young Nubile Carpenter Ant...
I hear they swoon for Bagels and Royal Jelly...

Surefire - they make a attachment for bagels?

Coming to a Theatre near you..."Tilecrawler vs the Carpenter Ants".

[Guest]

http://www.firearmsalliance.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=687&start=0

Nothing to do with ants, but other animal misadventures..

[Guest]

Gillette, AR every Jan has the Coon Supper.
One has to get tickets real early, one really needs to know someone to get tickets.
All the politicians show up and the Prison Rodeo Band is there .
BBQ Coon is served - so is everything else one can imagine. Catfish, Duck, venison, ...homcooked veggies and desserts to fistfight, wrestle, knife , or shoot for...

Yep...even had chocolate covered ants one year...

[Nathaniel Firethorn]

We had an infestation of them a couple of years ago. Found 'em because there was a clicking sound coming from the ceiling. Turned out it was the little pismires banging their heads.

Exterminator finished 'em off for a couple hundred bucks, and now I get the annual inspection and treatement. I also trimmed some spruce branches away from the house that they'd been using as a ladder.

- NF

[InfidelSerf]

I noticed a decent ant problem in the masterbedroom located above the garage 10 or 12 feet above the ground in the south east corner of the house.
They had a train of them along the wall and a bunch of them around a pile of cat puke that I had not seen.
I went outside the house and that corner had a train running from the ground up to the base of the 2nd floor.

I didn't have any bug spray of any kind so I grabbed the best bug killer of all  Carb and choke cleaner
I sprayed along the base of the wall and all of them I could see on the floor.. I love the sight.. dead ant bodies everywhere.. now granted it stank up the house.. I had to run the attic fan and open a few windows for awhile... but eventually it dissipated.

I have not seen a single ant return anywhere inside the house.   And I checked outside a day later and not one ant was there.  I didn't even spray outside.. since I didn't want to kill the ivy that klings to the foundation.

So if you can handle a day of smelling like the garage I suggest just using carb & choke cleaner... it sure ran them all off.

[grislyatoms]

Carb 'n' choke cleaner works insanely well, so does brake cleaner.

At the gas station I used to worked at, we would use brake cleaner on all the creepy crawlies everywhere. That stuff will knock a housefly right out of the air, stone dead.

Stuff gives me the willies now, I won't use it unless I am wearing gloves and a respirator. (Probably should have been doing that anyway around brake dust, but I was early twenties and knew everything about everything and nobody could tell me anything.)

[Fly320s]

They were around an open jar of Royal Jelly that I used in a smoothie.

If you're eating Royal Jelly, ants are the least of your worries.

From which Royal was it made?

[El Tejon]

Fly, the Queen (bee), of course!