How Do I Get Rid of Carpenter Ants? How To Kill Carpenter Ants
Have you noticed a stream of large black ants somewhere in your home? Perhaps you may have noticed some sawdust around your baseboards in the same general area as the ants? Odds are you have a carpenter ants problem and you need to take care of them immediately as carpenter ants can cause quite a bit of damage in a very short amount of time, and what’s worse is they multiply quickly. So now t hat I have your interest let’s take a look at how to kill carpenter ants and keep your home in one piece.
Carpenter ants tend to build nests in damp areas of your home, which means there is a good chance of you noticing them around your foundation, in or around your bathroom, near any roof leaks, or anywhere water could pool in your home. They are very adaptive but you will likely see more of them in warm weather than in cold.
It’s a common misconception that carpenter ants eat wood, but that is false. They actually tunnel through wood, pushing it aside as they borough through it which is why you may see traces of sawdust around the area where they appear.
The best way to start to kill carpenter ants is to determine where the nest is. Typically this will be within a short distance of where you see them most. Usually they live in walls, ceilings or floors in the area and the carpenter ants you see are gathering food for the rest of the ants in the nest including the queen. While you can kill the ants you see outside the walls, your main objective is to find a way to exterminate the entire nest of ants, especially the queen who lays the eggs that create more of these little pests.
First things first you want to make sure you dry up any damp areas near where you spot these ants, and you want to make sure there are no sources of food or crumbs laying around for them to eat. Failing to clean up food or crumbs around will only make more carpenter ants appear.
The next thing you want to do is lay some traps for them. One of the most effective methods of killing carpenter ants is to use a liquid ant bait. A liquid ant bait is a liquid poison that you leave in the area where you see the ants. They think it is food and they eat it and bring it back to the nest to share with the rest of the carpenter ant colony. Liquid ant bait doesn’t kill the ants immediately, but it works slowly over time. After a week or two the rest of the carpenter ants in the colony eat the bait and it taints their food supply eventually killing off the entire community.
If liquid ant baits don’t work for you it’s probably best to call an exterminator who can come in and take out the whole colony from the inside. Carpenter ant exterminators will find the location of the colony and either simply remove it or infiltrate it with poison directly, rather than waiting for ants to bring it back for them. Calling an exterminator may cost you a few hundred bucks to kill carpenter ants, but it’s well worth it and better than having your home destroyed.
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