How to get rid of carpenter ant infestation

What Are Carpenter Ants?

Carpenter ants are common, wood-excavating insects that sometimes invade homes. They’re occasionally very large, and often black, making them pretty easy to distinguish from other types of ants, including innocuous sugar ants and aggressive fire ants. They can cause significant damage to structures with their nest-building activities.

There are several different species, but the most common home-invader in most areas is the black carpenter ant, Camponotus pennsylvanicus.

How to Identify Carpenter Ants

What Do Carpenter Ants Look Like?

There are many different species of carpenter ants, so they can vary greatly in appearance with sizes ranging from 1/8 inch to 3/4 inch in the largest species. Carpenter ants range in color from red to brown and black. They also have large, strong mandibles for excavating wood, and reproductive males and females will have wings during their breeding season.

What Are the Signs That You Have a Carpenter Ant Infestation?

It may be difficult to tell if you have a carpenter ant infestation, but if there are significant nests inside your home, you’ll almost certainly see carpenter ants out scouting for food (they do not eat wood, contrary to popular belief). You may also find piles of discarded wood material that looks a lot like coarse sawdust near where you suspect a nest may be located. This is from excavation activities.

Depending on where the ants are in your home, you may be able to detect them by tapping along wooden surfaces, including trim, with a screwdriver handle. You’ll notice a more hollow sound where nests may be. If ants are in the wood you tap on, they may respond with a sound similar to crinkling cellophane.

What Damage Can Carpenter Ants Cause Your Home?

Although small carpenter ant colonies will cause minimal damage, it’s always difficult to know how many ants are actually present in a colony. Larger colonies are capable of structural damage, but carpenter ants are still not as damaging as termites. You won’t really know how bad it is until you locate the nest or nests in your home.

Because carpenter ants are drawn to moist wood, caused by things like leaking water or improperly sealed siding, people often think carpenter ants do a lot more damage than they’re owed credit for. Many times part of the damage associated with them is due to rot from moisture.

How to Get Rid of Carpenter Ants

Carpenter ants can be difficult to get rid of entirely, since they tend to build a central nest and several satellites. The central nest is often outside somewhere, like in a wood pile or old tree stump, with the indoor nests usually being satellites. If this is the case, removing the ants entirely is going to be a challenge.

Often, your best bet is to eliminate the source of moisture that’s drawing carpenter ants to your home, as well as sealing any sources of food that might keep them coming back. Like other ants, they use scent trails to return to food and nests. If you can clean these thoroughly with ammonia, the carpenter ants may not be able to find their way.

If you’ve located an actual nest in your home, you can treat the wall void or other area by drilling ⅛-inch holes along the nest and puffing boric acid inside. This will dry the ants out as they move through the nest. Drill holes and puff boric acid at regular intervals at least three feet on either side of where you suspect the nest to be for best results.

How Much Does It Cost to Remove Carpenter Ants?

Carpenter ants can be very difficult to permanently remove, since you’ll need to locate each of their nests and completely destroy them. That’s why carpenter ant treatments can cost much more than they do for other types of ants. In general, according to HomeAdvisor, carpenter ant removal will cost from $250 to $500, but this doesn’t include any repairs to your home or repeated barrier treatment along your home’s foundation.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the fastest way to get rid of carpenter ants?

There is no fast way to get rid of carpenter ants. If you need them removed quickly, it’s best to call an exterminator who is familiar with their behavior.

Can you get rid of carpenter ants on your own?

You absolutely can, but it may be a long process, since carpenter ants tend to have multiple nests and may have multiple points of access to your home. It’s a bit like playing whack-a-mole, except the mole is an ant.

How do you know if carpenter ants are in your walls?

It’s difficult to know for sure if carpenter ants are in your walls, but if you see carpenter ants in your home and they constantly go into the wall at the same point, that’s a strong sign. Another trick is to tap the wall where you suspect a nest and listen for them to answer with a rustling sound.

How do you find a carpenter ant nest?

The easiest way to find a carpenter ant nest is to follow the ants back to their homes. By providing a sweet treat like honey, you’ll be able to watch as they collect the food and take it back to their nest mates. You will want to repeat this experiment to ensure you’ve found all the nests.

When should I worry about carpenter ants?

Carpenter ants aren’t necessarily as dangerous as people generally think, but having carpenter ants indicates that you’ve got moist wood somewhere, which is a serious problem. You definitely want to evict them when you see them, but by correcting the moisture problem, you may well discourage future ants, too.

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