For the past three years, I have been waging a battle with carpenter ants. Just about this time each year, the devils wake up from their winter hibernation with an insatiable appetite. They head straight for my kitchen. They know exactly where the garbage can is located. You would think there is a flashing neon sign on the exterior of my house that says "Eat at Tim's."

My 3-year-old daughter Kelly has become an excellent defender. She will readily attack the ants and step on them with her bare feet. The only problem is they keep coming in wave after wave, especially under the cover of darkness.

Different Divisions

Carpenter ants belong to the biological genus Camponotus. There are quite a few species that live in various parts of the USA. They can be found in well hidden beach heads in Florida and the Gulf Coast or in mountainous terrain as high as 9,000 feet above sea level.

These insects are one of the largest ants found in the USA. An average size worker ant is usually 1/4 inch long. Mature queens, the head of the colony, can be as large as 3/4 inch in length. Most species are predominantly black in color. However, it is not at all unusual for you to see ones that have yellow, brown, or red coloration as well. All of the ants have pinched waists.

Carpenter ant infestation? Pick the best exterminator using my Termite and Carpenter Ant Checklist. I offer a 100% Money Back Guarantee.

There are a minimum of 9 different species (divisions) that are heavily entrenched throughout the countryside. The ones found in colder climates hunker down (hibernate) for the winter. Those located in warmer climates can and do continue offensive operations throughout the year.

Threat - Perceived or Real?

Carpenter ants pose a real threat to us. Although they do not eat and digest wood like termites, they do "bite" or excavate it as they enlarge their nest sites. Nests can be found in a variety of locations: logs, living trees, firewood, dead tree roots, stumps, any interior or exterior house lumber (framing, siding, doors & trim), etc.

The sites are usually started in wood that is decayed, wet, or rotten. However, once they have started a nest, it is not uncommon for them to attack perfectly dry and sound wood. In the wild, the ants are very beneficial. Their wood excavation work helps to create topsoil. They also protect trees by eating insects that would otherwise defoliate healthy trees. They are only a pest when we invade or or come close to their territory.

Carpenter Ant Camps

The typical carpenter ant colony is a very structured environment. It is ruled by a queen who does nothing but lay eggs.

Each spring special male and female reproductive ants emerge from all existing nests simultaneously. These winged reproductives mate. The male reproductive ants die soon after mating, as they are weak. The female ants who were fertilized look for new colony sites.

Once a fertilized female finds a nest location, she enters and seals off the door. She is now the queen of the new colony. She lays the first eggs of the new colony. These eggs hatch and out pop the first workers of the new colony. They immediately get to work gathering food for the queen. In addition, they start to enlarge the nesting location for future generations.

Super House Cleaners

Carpenter ant workers are unbelievable house keepers. As they excavate the nest, they keep these passageways (galleries) immaculately clean. In fact, the excavated galleries are perfectly smooth, as if sanded. This, in essence, is how they derived their name, carpenter.

The worker ants carry the dirt, debris, and wood shavings out of the nest. This wood debris is sometimes evidence of their activity. You may see wood dust in a room, basement, or attic area. If so, it may be a sign that you have got a problem. However, it is possible to have a nest in your house and not see any wood particles. The ants may deposit these bits of wood and debris in an interior hollow spot such as a wall cavity, soffit, or some other hidden location.

Spread Out!

Carpenter ants don't always live in just one camp. These ingenious insects often develop satellite nesting locations that are connected by a trail network to the parent colony. The ants from one nest may bivouac at another nesting location for several days. The ants communicate with one another as to food source locations.

Their survival instinct is strong. In an effort to mask their feeding and foraging, they conduct most of this important activity under the cover of darkness. Just after sunset, ants emerge from the hidden nest locations in an effort to get food. Often they end up at my house. I intend to win the war. I wish you luck!

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Carpenter Ants Inspection & Chemical Control Methods

Indoor Inspection Procedures

The first place to look for carpenter ants are locations where you might expect to find moisture. Wood in contact with damp foundations, timber near bathrooms, kitchens, or plumbing stacks, crawl spaces, are the first place I would inspect.

Look for wood dust piles. Remember, the ants clean house every day and sometimes dump it outside of the nest.

Inspect cracks or small holes you find in wood. These may be the entry locations to a nest. The ants carve "windows" (small holes) between galleries in the wood to connect passageways. These windows are sometimes cut into an outside wood face as a dumping site for wood scraps.

Check hollow doors/walls by tapping. If a nest is present in a hollow door or wall cavity, the ants will become agitated and make a lot of rustling noise. You can hear this activity if you put your ear to the door or wall.

Check spider webs. Winged swarmers may become trapped in a web. Look often before the spider has the ant for dinner!

Inspect trouble areas at night! Ants are most active at night. Turn out the lights and wait for them to appear. Use a flashlight or quickly illuminate an area and watch them scatter!

Carpenter ant infestation? Pick the best exterminator using my Termite and Carpenter Ant Checklist. I offer a 100% Money Back Guarantee.

Outdoor Inspection Procedures

Look for damaged or rotten wood. Any damp wood such as fence posts, log piles, firewood, screened porch trim, porch posts, etc. are likely nest locations.

Inspect and remove branches / bushes / limbs that touch the house. Ants use these "bridges" to get onto and into your house. Do not allow any landscaping materials to touch your house.

Look in the lawn for established trails. Ants will often create distinct trails between the parent and satellite colonies. Watch for ant troop movements along these trails.

Inspect old stump areas for ant hills. Look for the telltale dirt hills indicating an underground nest. The ants will invade old tree roots to make a fine nest.

Chemical Control Methods

There are several off the shelf insecticides that are effective in controlling carpenter ants. Licensed pesticide applicators have an even greater chemical arsenal at their disposal.

The key to total elimination is finding the parent colony with the egg laying queen. Once this is accomplished you can treat this nest, if it is outdoors, with Diazinon crystals. Dusting chemicals such as Ficam (bendiocarb) 1% and 99% Boric acid dust work well indoors in hollow spots and cavities. The dust gets on the bodies of the ants. They spread it to other members of the colony. Dust works best when dry. If it becomes wet, the ants can't get it on their bodies too well.

Outdoors the Diazinon crystals work well on the ant trails or as a perimeter barrier. In other words, create a Diazinon "minefield" that the ants must cross in getting to your house. An 18 inch wide strip of poisoned soil at the edge of your foundation should do the trick. They will get the chemical on them and eventually succumb. It is also possible that they will take it back to the nest to poison the queen and other workers.

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Carpenter Ants Literature

The literature is bursting with references, stories, articles, etc. concerning carpenter ants. Some excellent information is available from:

• National Pest Control Association
  8100 Oak Street
  Dunn Loring, Virginia 22027
  800-678-6722 (NPCA)

This association will most likely refer you to a local exterminator. Ask if they have any free literature that will help you with your pest problems.

Give them a call and ask for any and all pertinent information regarding carpenter ants and their control.

If you like visiting libraries, especially ones that have a decent periodical (magazine) collection, then you will be amazed at what you will find. Several magazines have had excellent feature articles on carpenter ants. If your library is like mine, it very well may have these back issues on microfilm or on a computer disk. Both would allow you to print out a specific article in a flash! The magazines are:

• American Entomologist
• Pest Management
• Pest Control
• Pest Control Technology

Carpenter Ant infestation? Pick the best exterminator using my Termite and Carpenter Ant Checklist. I offer a 100% Money Back Guarantee.

The Winter 1995 issue of American Entomologist had a great article. Check out the May 1991 issue of Pest Management as well.

Finally, contact:

• Washington State University
  Cooperative Extension Service
  College of Agriculture and Home Economics
  Pullman, Washington 99164

Search their web site for Extension Bulletin 0818. (http://cru.cahe.wsu.edu/CEPublications/eb0818/eb0818.pdf)

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The Chemical Barrier

Termite control in the past took advantage of the worker termites' need to return to the nest for water. Chemical barriers were used to surround the food source so that when the termites left the nest for another feeding, they would run into the chemicals.

This would work, as long as every possible pathway into or around your home was blocked. The other problem with this method is that only the worker termites who came into contact with the poisoned soil would die. The remainder of the colony would not get poisoned. The other worker termites would become aware of the poison and then rely on the other food sources (wood pile,tree roots, etc.) to make up for losing your house as a food source.

However, poisoning the soil had other consequences. The chemical poisons, especially those used more than 10 years ago, were extremely effective. In fact, the EPA found them to be too effective. Some of the chemicals simply wouldn't break down. They would pass through the soil into water supplies and then contaminate areas no where near the termite colonies.

People who used well water were at risk, as the chemicals could migrate into drinking water supplies.

Other wildlife, which was beneficial was indiscriminately killed. All in all, the chemicals, when used in unskilled or untrained hands could be highly dangerous.

Termite infestation? Pick the best exterminator using my Termite and Carpenter Ant Checklist. I offer a 100% Money Back Guarantee.

Total Colony Elimination

Several years ago, a very close friend of mine decided to play an adult game of capture the flag. There were 20 adults on a side and we used eggs as ammunition. I was the leader of the Rebel forces. My plan was simple. Attack and eliminate the Imperial Force command post. It was the heart of their operation. It worked.

Dow AgroSciences, a company which has been waging the war against termites for years, decided that it was going to adopt a similar strategy. They developed a termite control system called Sentricon.

This system is designed to take advantage of another weakness of the worker termites. When termites get back to the colony to share food, they compare travel stories with their other worker friends. My guess is that it goes something like this:

Hey Fred, I just got back from the Jones house. Man, do they have some tasty 2x4's! I also got a salad of drywall paper there too. You should check it out.

Fred responds: I'll do just that, but first I'm going over to the Yablonski playset. Can you believe that those nuts built the playset and didn't use treated lumber? The only thing missing on the playset is a neon sign saying Termites Welcome - Apply Within.

Well, knowing this is their modus operandi (MO), Dow AgroSciences developed a very tasty slow acting poison that is incorporated into feeding stations around your home. Here is how it works.

Plastic monitoring stations containing wood are installed at various locations around your house.These stations are checked regularly for termite infestation. When termites are found in one or more of the stations, the wood inside the station is switched with a look alike substitute.

The substitute is actually a tasty poison which the termites eat. They tell other workers about this new food. Well, within several weeks, the workers begin to get sick. The phone begins to ring in termite headquarters, as many workers call into work sick.

Then the sick workers begin to die. As you might imagine, this has a major impact on the rest of the colony, since food is not being brought back to the other termites. Within six months, the entire colony is eliminated.

This system is a huge advancement for termite control. It is environmentally friendly, as the soil is not poisoned. Give it serious consideration for your home.

Author's Note: We've received other emails with similar problems or questions. Here's one from Aaron S. of Los Angeles, CA, regarding termite fumigation.

"My house was fumigated for termites covered with a tent etc. After removing the tent two days later, we entered our house but there was no odor of gas at all.  A while later, we saw insects, spiders, roaches etc. moving around. The fumigation company claims that they mix a substance with the gas so that it will not have an odor. My question: Shouldn't there be a gas odor and dead insects? We can't see the termites inside the wall, but we feel that if all the insects are still alive, probably the termites are not dead either. Please, let us hear you opinion. Thank you very much!"

Doing a little online checking, the chemical used during termite fumigation is targeting only termites. It will not kill spiders, ants, bed bugs or cockroaches. So Aaron, you may still see other insects moving around.

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Smack! That's the sound of the termite lips as they feast on a delectable buffet of spruce, Douglas fir, pine, oak, or whatever your house may have to offer. Oh, you say you don't have termites in your home? Well, just wait.

Termites cause enormous damage to structures each year in the United States. Believe it or not, these varmints cause more damage to houses and buildings than the combined losses of all annual fires, storms, and earthquake damage. Would you like that in dollar figures? No problem, but be sure to sit down. Termites are responsible for $1,000,000,000 in damage every 12 months. Termites damage nearly two million houses a year. In this same period, only 400,000 house fires occur.

Run Silent, Run Deep

The novel/movie Run Silent, Run Deep would be a great motto for termites. At their best, they are virtually undetectable. They eat wood structural members from the inside out. Termites sense when they are near the surface of a piece of wood. They make the necessary adjustments to their stabilizing fins and yell: Dive, dive...!

Because they are so small, their munching and crunching can't be heard by human ears. As you might imagine, they use their size to their advantage. Termites can squeeze through a crack as small as 1/64th of an inch!

Termites build nests in the ground, as they love moist soil. The nests can be just below the surface or they can reside as much as twelve feet below the surface.

Termite infestation? Pick the best exterminator using my Termite and Carpenter Ant Checklist. I offer a 100% Money Back Guarantee.

Class Distinction

Termites live in very organized societies. Each grouping of termites is called a colony. These are similar to our cities. Each colony is ruled by a king and queen termite.

Within the colony are four other types of termites: workers, supplementary reproductives, soldiers, and reproductives.

The workers are the trouble makers. These guys are both sterile and blind. They are responsible for providing food for the entire colony. Some workers are delegated to stay in the nest and care for the queen, baby termites, and soldiers.

The supplementary reproductives have the easiest job. They merely hang out around the nest and do nothing. If either the king or queen dies or gets sick, they step in to make sure termite eggs are produced on a regular basis.

The soldiers are the termites that protect the colony. They develop armored heads with strong pincer jaws. Ants, you see, are a major enemy of termites.

The final group of termites are reproductives. I guess you would say that these are the princes and princesses of the termite society. At given points of time, these termites develop sexual organs and wings. Then one day they decide to take off. They swarm out of the nest, pair off, and fly to other sites to start new colonies.

What Termite Workers Do

As we just discussed, the worker termites are the ones we are concerned with. These are the only ones who leave the nest on a daily basis. They go out and hunt down various sources of food. A single colony of termites will fan out and rely on several sources of food.

For example, your house may be one food stop, the roots of a downed tree in your back yard could be another, your neighbor's wood pile, etc.

The termites build a well-developed underground roadway system between these food sources. Furthermore, the worker termites will visit each of the different food sites. They don't always go back to the same spot to eat.

This foraging for food takes place on a nonstop basis. The worker termites must constantly bring chewed up wood products back to the hungry colony. Each colony is like a miniature New York City, the city that never sleeps.

The weak link in the termite scheme of things is the worker termite. You see, this little devil must get back into the soil or into the nest (colony) every 24 hours or so. They simply get thirsty. By returning to the moist soil around their nest, they get filled back up with water and are ready to go out again.

This dependence upon water and the need to get back to the nest for water and to deliver food is how we can defend ourselves against this pest.

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Termite Facts & Tips

Termites are found in every state in the USA. Hawaii has the highest concentration of infestation with 15.1% of the houses being victims. Georgia tops the list in the continental US, where 5.5% of residential homes are affected. The national average is 2.3%. It has been said that there are two types of homes in the USA: Those with termites and those that will have them.

The termites love to live in warm, moist soil. Because we heat our houses in the wintertime,termites will construct underground networks that enable them to eat at these heated restaurants year round.

Termites construct airtight mud tunnels when they have to leave the soil to get to a food source.These mud tunnels are thin (about the size of a cocktail straw). The mud tunnels will be attached to concrete or concrete block walls, over and around metal termite barriers, plastic, etc. Believe it or not, they can actually construct these mud tunnels as free standing structures from the ground to a wood food source!

Termites will eat wood or anything made from wood. My sister had an infestation in her house.The termites found her boxes of Christmas decorations. They ate the cardboard boxes, some wrapping paper and other cardboard decorations! They have even invaded steel commercial buildings. What might they eat there? Well, the paper on the drywall, of course! A major international corporation with headquarters in Cincinnati had a major infestation in their new steel and granite buildings not too long ago. It seems that termites had some deep nests in the ground below the old buildings that were torn down to make room for the new buildings.

Termite infestation? Pick the best exterminator using my Termite and Carpenter Ant Checklist. I offer a 100% Money Back Guarantee.

Houses built of concrete or on concrete slabs are inviting targets. Termites can enter a house through tiny cracks, 1/64th of an inch! They can also enter along side of pluming pipes or where underground wires enter a house. Any place a wood wall sits on top of concrete can be a problem as well. Treated lumber doesn't always stop termites. They will build a mud tunnel right over the treated lumber to get to the regular 2x4 or 2x6's.

If you are building a new home, and can't obtain the new system, give serious consideration to pretreating your house with the barrier type chemicals. Newer, safer chemicals are now used that will work until such time as the monitoring system is available in your location. Pretreatment is quicker that treating after a house is built. It is also more effective and costs less. Simply tell your builder about this before any concrete slabs are poured.

Need more info? Go to the National Pest Management Association Web site. (http://www.pestworld.org).

Author's Note: We've received other emails with similar problems or questions. Here's one from Aaron S. of Los Angeles, CA, regarding termite fumigation.

"My house was fumigated for termites covered with a tent etc. After removing the tent two days later, we entered our house but there was no odor of gas at all.  A while later, we saw insects, spiders, roaches etc. moving around. The fumigation company claims that they mix a substance with the gas so that it will not have an odor. My question: Shouldn't there be a gas odor and dead insects? We can't see the termites inside the wall, but we feel that if all the insects are still alive, probably the termites are not dead either. Please, let us hear you opinion. Thank you very much!"

Doing a little online checking, the chemical used during termite fumigation is targeting only termites. It will not kill spiders, ants, bed bugs or cockroaches. So Aaron, you may still see other insects moving around.

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Termite Treatment: Baiting/Elimination Systems

Following is a listing of some of the companies that are currently marketing total termite colony elimination baiting systems. Dow AgroSciences introduced the first colony elimination system in 1995. The other players will enjoy success if their systems are effective at killing the worker termites.

Your biggest problem may be finding an authorized pest control company that can use the system on your house. Only one company at this time allows you to install the system yourself - that being Spectracide. Their product was introduced in the spring of 1998. The other systems must be professionally installed and monitored. Contact the companies below. At the time of this offering, several were offering free videos and other nifty information! When you call, you will be given the name(s) of local pest control companies.

FirstLine

FirstLine is the only system in the industry that includes termite baits, liquid termiticides and software for complete control. There are three major components of the FirstLine Termite Defense System:

• FirstLine GT Plus Termite Bait Station with SMARTDISC locator and Monitoring Station
• Talstar Termiticide/Insecticide
• SMARTRAK Series of Software Solutions

Termite infestation? Pick the best exterminator using my Termite and Carpenter Ant Checklist. I offer a 100% Money Back Guarantee.

Sentricon
Dow AgroSciences

Sentricon was the first termite baiting system. This system employs a chemical called hexaflumuron - a growth regulator. This chemical prohibits the termite from molting or growing a new outer skin. Without a new skin, the termite basically "bursts" as it tries to grow. Death can occur within one to two months after ingestion.

The Sentricon System provides property protection through a three-step process: detection of termites, elimination of termite colonies and preventive protection against reinfestation by regular monitoring for new termite activity.

Exterra Termite Interception & Baiting System
Ensystex

Spectracide Terminate
Spectrum Brands

Spectracide Terminate is the only system that is sold directly to homeowners! It is a temporary treatment to prevent infestation and is not intended as a substitute for soil or other treatment to control termites underground.

Author's Note: We've received other emails with similar problems or questions. Here's one from Aaron S. of Los Angeles, CA, regarding termite fumigation.

"My house was fumigated for termites covered with a tent etc. After removing the tent two days later, we entered our house but there was no odor of gas at all.  A while later, we saw insects, spiders, roaches etc. moving around. The fumigation company claims that they mix a substance with the gas so that it will not have an odor. My question: Shouldn't there be a gas odor and dead insects? We can't see the termites inside the wall, but we feel that if all the insects are still alive, probably the termites are not dead either. Please, let us hear you opinion. Thank you very much!"

Doing a little online checking, the chemical used during termite fumigation is targeting only termites. It will not kill spiders, ants, bed bugs or cockroaches. So Aaron, you may still see other insects moving around.

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