Carpenter ants

[fred1949]

Almost anywhere on my deck I can find Carpenter Ants. The do not seem like they are going anywhere specific. There is several nests in the ground outside. Should I be concerned?

[mrcaptainbob]

You bet! Hopefully your deck is made of treated wood. But the fact that they're roaming around so close to the house is cause for concern. There are several good carpenter ant remedies available. One that I'm a believer in is a syrup type stuff inside a packet on a flat 3" spike. Place one at either end of that deck and space a couple around the exterior perimeter of the house. That will take care of them. You may need to do this a coulple times a year. My house was BADLY infested. I set only three down in the area of infestation spaced about 15 feet apart, with one of them up in a second floor room. A future remodeling job showed what they did, but there was NO EVIDENCE OF ANY LIVE ACTION! Not even any dead bodies!

[HayZee518]

A house that I owned in Massachusetts - the porch - was infested with them. I was rebuilding the porch and when I opened up the front railing there was sawdust over 18 inches high inside the railing the full length of the railing! The railing cap was a two X twelve. They hollowed out the whole length of it.

[fred1949]

Thank you for the advise. Where can I find & buy these stakes with the syrup on them? What is the brand name?

[mrcaptainbob]

Grants is the brand name and my wife gets them at Wal-Mart. I've even set one at the base of an apple tree that was infested. Wanted to save it. Well, they're gone from there, too! I can sympathize, HayZee. I was removing the halfwalls from a back porch slab at a house in another life. Saw the 2x's were fastened with rusty bolts. Backed up to the 2x and figured I could drive the claw hammer in there and rip the wood away. Good thing nobody was around, that hammer went through the shell of the 2x4 and went almost to the fence! Too bad we can't train these little guys for as hard as they work. Tiny Makita's, tiny tool belts, tiny butt cracks....

[fred1949]

Thank you so much for your advise. I really apreciate it.