CARPENTER ANTS

[inveresk]

Jinman and Soundguy, thanks for the tips on the cocktails, the orange oil mix and the boric acid compound. Both are new to me and both sound as if they'd do the business. I'll lay in a supply of whichever prices out to be the cheapest.

Once I test a sample, I'll post feedback . . .

 

[jinman]

Jinman and Soundguy, thanks for the tips on the cocktails, the orange oil mix and the boric acid compound. Both are new to me and both sound as if they'd do the business. I'll lay in a supply of whichever prices out to be the cheapest.

Once I test a sample, I'll post feedback . . .

For a more detailed discussion of natural remedies, go to:

Dirt Doctor

Type in "Ants" in the search box and you can read many natural rememdies including mine and Soundguy's methods.

 

[RedRocker]

I know for a fact they like railroad tie walls, they've played **** with mine.

 

[Harvster]

Don't get too caught up in the natural vs. man-made chemical issue. Just because something is "organic" or "all natural" doesn't mean it is any safer or less toxic than production pesticides. For example, things like snake, spider, puffer fish, jelly fish, and poison dart frog venom, are grade A 100% natural, organic and can kill you dead rather quickly. Natural products are also often a mix of many chemicals. Industrials pesticides can be specifically tailored to kill bugs. For example, some pesticides are chitin inhibitors. Chitin is what forms the exoskeleton in insects. Since humans don't make chitin these chemicals are quite safe for animals and people. You see this all the time when things are listed as all natural etc. Just like cyanide, arsenic, and strychnine are all natural. Chemicals are chemicals no matter what the source. Know what you are using and take appropriate precaution.

 

[Soundguy]

Neat website, I just bookmarked it. By the way.. i notice the orange oil remedies and the boric acid remidies are some of the most talked about ones. Pretty neat stuff on that website in the other areas too.

Thanks for posting that link.

Soundguy

For a more detailed discussion of natural remedies, go to:

Dirt Doctor

Type in "Ants" in the search box and you can read many natural rememdies including mine and Soundguy's methods.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Well I figured out what the scratching in my wall was. It only happened early AM. Like 4:00 AM till dawn. I set mouse traps in the attic with no luck. I sprayed Demon around the slab perimeter. Still no luck.

My house has vinyl siding over OSB. I started pulling the siding off at one corner where the scratching emulated. After pulling off one side, I could finally pull back the corner piece to find 3 bats. I shooood them off and got the water hose to lightly spray their stinky nesting area. I'm letting it dry today before I put it back together and plug it up at the bottom.

 

[forgeblast]

i use talstar granular, its great. After spreading it i actually had a line of ants leaving my house. The reason i picked it was that if my dogs walk in it or get it on their paws it wont hurt them.
I understand the organic vs chemical aspect but this product targets, lasts, and is safe.

a guy on ebay sells them--that who i bought it for just do a talstar search.

**i am just a satisifed user of it, not trying to sell you on it. It worked so great for me i tell everyone about it.

here is the write up on it.

TalstarOne™ multi-insecticide has a broad label you can count on. A true miticide, TalstarOne™ multi-insecticide controls over 75 different pests— everything from termites, spiders, mosquitoes, cockroaches, ticks and fleas to pillbugs, chinch bugs, earwigs and millipedes. It provides fast knockdown and long lasting control of even the toughest lawn and ornamental pests. Plus, it controls all species of ants targeted by PMPs and LCOs, knocking them out and keeping them out with long-lasting residual. TalstarOne™ multi-insecticide is water based and contains no alpha cyano group. That means you can use it inside and out. You can apply it to a larger perimeter area. It is non-irritating, non-staining and contains no odorous or plant-damaging solvents. It’s even labeled for food-handling areas. And it’s compatible with herbicides, fungicides, insecticides and liquid fertilizers. Plus, once it dries, it is virtually impossible to tell where it has been sprayed. So there are no unsightly residues and phytotoxicity.

For control of Termites, Ants, Carpenter Ants, Fire Ants, Armyworms, Bees, Beetles, Biting Flies, Boxelder Bugs, Centipedes, Chiggers, Chinch Bugs, Clover Mites, Crickets, Cutworms, , Dichondra Flea Beetles, Earwigs, Elm Leaf Beetles, Firebrats, Fleas, Flies, Gnats, Grasshoppers, Hornets, Japanese Beetles, Midges, Millipedes, Mosquitoes, Moths, Roaches (including Cockroaches), Scorpions, Silverfish, Sod Webworms, Sowbugs (Pillbugs), Spider Mites, Spiders (including Black Widow Spiders), Springtails, Ticks (including Brown Dog Ticks), and Wasps.

 

[dmccarty]

Boric acid works.

My grandmother used it all of the time for bug control and it seems pretty safe. It sure don't stink.

When I lived in S. Florida the inlaws came to visit for a few days. They had a dog. They dog picked up fleas outside. The dog brought fleas inside. We did not know this since we went on a trip shortly thereafter. We came back to an apartment covered in fleas. We had a container that had a bit of water in it and the thing was full of fleas!

I bought some spray that killed the fleas and eggs for up to three months which solved the problem. A year or so later we adobted a cat. Can you see what is going to happen? With the new flea infestation I bought a box of Borax which has boric acid. I put this on the carpet and raked it in with a plastic garden rake. Fleas be gone.

Now there is a problem with using Borax though....

A year or so after Cat 1. We get Cat 2 and then Cat 3.

And Fleas.

So I reach under the sink for the Borax and start pouring it all over the carpet. As I start raking the stuff, it ain't going down in the carpet it like did before....

Rake Rake Rake.

Its kinda clumbing up.

Rake Rake Rake.

Hmmm. Look at the box and it was dishwasher soap!

Vacuumed that mess up and put down the Borax. Fleas be gone.

So Borax will work for bug killing.

DONT store Borax next to dishwasher soap.



Later,
Dan

 

[inveresk]

I just had a visit from the pest controller I called and he inspected the ants nests in the woods. They are, he advises, from a different species of ant, not carpenter, and not a threat in any way to the buildings. They eat only old wood in the forest and are not a pest. They help digest deadfall and also pray on a host of real pests. Makes me pretty glad I called him rather than just got busy with the backhoe and torch.

As it happens, he took a look at our house which we've just begun to remodel. We moved it two hundred feet last autumn and have just started the process of anchoring the walls to the concrete kerb. This involves removing some wall boards and the bottom sixteen inches of ply sheathing. He spotted a couple areas where there was a gooey type substance that is, apparently, ant food of some sort and signifies that we have a presence of carpenter ants in the house. He pulled back the insulation in one area adjacent and, sure enough, there were a few of them wondering about, happily munching on mounthfuls of my studs. He's coming back this week to spray and is confident he'll eradicate them.

 

[Egon]

It surely sounds like bringing in an area professional was a very sound investment.

Will you be posting pictures of the move/moved structure?