Remedy for carpenter ants in the home

September 14, 2014 3:42 PM

I've been watching build up of moop from ants dining on my carport for a few years now. What can I do to remove these critters as they've seemed impervious to my attempt to remove them so far.

The main place I see this is along the back wall of a carport where the dross seems to drip down the wall and collect along a brick siding.

I've seen the big classic carpenter ants occasionally inside the house. The ants I typically see in the carport are smaller. I've tried baiting with various potions and noxious serums to no real effect.

Here are some images. The single shots are of a winged ant I caught in an adjoining studio a couple of years ago.

Stuff I've tried: KVM ant exterior bait stations, boric acid, Orange Guard, ant motels, and some other more toxic stuff I purchased on line. My next attempt would probably be this stuff unless I get some tips to try something else. I'm not really wanting to pay for an exterminator so thinking there should be some way to delete the critters from my house.

posted by diode to Home & Garden (8 answers total)

I don't think those are ants, based on that first picture. They look like termites to me.
posted by desjardins at 3:48 PM on September 14, 2014 [4 favorites]

If they are carpenter ants you have to fix the moisture problem. But desjardins may be right about them being termites. Whole different issue.
posted by BillMcMurdo at 3:51 PM on September 14, 2014

My understanding is that with carpenter ants, you just need to fix the problem (generally moisture) that's damaging the wood, and then replace the damaged wood, so that they don't want to live in it. Poison doesn't really work.

But yeah, I am also pretty sure that photo is a termite.
posted by Lyn Never at 3:53 PM on September 14, 2014 [2 favorites]

Looks like you have both ants and termites. My experience accords with Lyn Never's, i.e. you've probably got a problem with moisture infiltrating the structure and providing a nice, damp environment for the ants. My parents' house had carpenter ants for years when I was a kid. They found one colony inside a kitchen cabinet, under a lazy Susan, but eliminating it didn't keep ants from appearing regularly. The main colony was in the siding of a 3-season porch. On one very messy day my dad stripped off all of the paneling from the exterior walls of the porch, and sprayed vast quantities of poison on thousands of ants as they ran hither and thither. Then began the somewhat slower process of caulking joints in the aluminum siding that had admitted water, replacing damaged wood, and coating all the inside surfaces of those walls with a creosote mixture of some sort. With all of that done, he nailed the paneling back into place and it's been fine for the last few decades since.
posted by jon1270 at 4:20 PM on September 14, 2014

Also, you'd be foolish to spend too much time trying to eliminate the termites by yourself rather than calling an exterminator. The termites are much more destructive than the ants.
posted by jon1270 at 4:21 PM on September 14, 2014

Call an exterminator. Yesterday!
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 4:39 PM on September 14, 2014 [2 favorites]

First pics are definitely termites during breeding season.

"I'm not really wanting to pay for an exterminator so thinking there should be some way to delete the critters from my house."

How do you feel about the critters deleting the house from you? That is what is taking place.

Call an exterminator.
posted by vapidave at 4:46 PM on September 14, 2014 [3 favorites]

For carpenter ants, this stuff worked for us. Probably won't work on termites, though.

It looks to me like you need an exterminator as recommended by the folks above. They are crumbling the structure. You will probably also need to get someone to inspect and fix the structure.
posted by AllieTessKipp at 11:32 PM on September 14, 2014