Carpenter ants can damage your home, including the structural integrity of your building. If you notice a carpenter ant in your home, it’s essential to get rid of the individual ant, and the rest of the nest before the ants cause significant damage.
To treat carpenter ants, you should first ensure that the pest you’re looking at is a carpenter ant, not a termite. Once you have confirmed the type of pest, the next step is to find the nest using bait and then take the necessary steps to remove the entire ant population.
If you need to get rid of carpenter ants on your property, keep reading for tips on how to do so.
Learn To Identify Carpenter Ants
Carpenter ants can be challenging for non-professionals to identify, so the first step to ridding your property of these pests is to ensure you know what you’re looking at.
There are many types of carpenter ants found around the world. However, in the US, the most common carpenter ants are black or red, have six legs, and may or may not have wings.
Carpenter ants are most commonly confused with termites. However, termites are lighter colored with two body segments (rather than three) and have straight antennae.
A termite infestation is far more serious than a carpenter ant one. If you think your property has a termite problem, you should contact a professional as soon as possible.
See our guide on How To Identify Carpenter Ants.
Inspect Your Property
If you notice a few carpenter ants in your home, the next step is to look for where their nest is located.
To do so, you should first check around wooden structures in your home, especially ones that hold moisture. This includes places like door and window frames, wooden furniture, and any wooden support structures in your home where carpenter ants build nests.
When inspecting these areas, you should look for frass. Frass is essentially wood dust created when ants bore through wooden structures – it can also contain microscopic ant parts. Not only is the presence of frass a sure sign that you’ve got an ant infestation, but it’s also a sign that the nest is nearby.
Set Out Bait To Prevent Carpenter Ants
Once you’ve confirmed you have a carpenter ant infestation, the next step is to confirm you know where the carpenter ant nest is.
The easiest way to find the nest is to set out some bait and follow the ants back to their nest. You can set out an organic bait like a few pieces of sugary fruit. See What Do Carpenter Ants Eat?
Whatever you choose, make sure it won’t kill the ants. Remember, you want them alive so you can discover their nest.
Once the ants have taken the bait, the next step is to follow them back to the carpenter ant colonies.
Kill the Ants
Once you’ve traced the ant nest, the next step is to kill the ants. There are several ways you can do this, depending on what you’re comfortable using on your property. Some options include:
Insecticides
Insecticides are the easiest and most common way to kill carpenter ants. Specifically, you should look for pyrethroid insecticides, as these are most effective against carpenter ants.
Insecticides are generally available as a spray or dust, and you will need to get the insecticide into the ant nest. You can’t just spray around it.
Once you’ve found the nest, you might have to drill holes into the wood to make the nest accessible. While this may seem like you’re only compounding the problem, it can’t be helped and is the easiest way to eliminate your carpenter ant problem so you can focus on repairs.
Once you have the insecticide of your choice and have gained access to the nest, the next step is applying the chemical. To do so, follow the instructions on the packaging and make sure you’re actually targeting the nest. Killing individual ants won’t help with your infestation problem.
Bait
Aside from laying out sweet bait to follow the worker ants to their nest, you can also lay out poisonous chemical bait closer to the nest. The ants will bring the bait back to the nest, killing them upon consumption.
You should use bait that has been specifically formulated to attract carpenter ants. Bait for regular ants is often ineffective against carpenter ants, so using specifically designed bait will ensure the ants take the bait!
The biggest challenge with this method is that it can take some time to work. However, if you’re okay with waiting a while, this is a pretty effective method of eliminating your ant problem.
Natural Solutions
If you’re not keen on chemical solutions to your ant problem, there are several natural options you can try as well to kill carpenter ants. These include
- Diatomaceous earth (DE): All you need to do is sprinkle some DE in the ant nest and let it do the rest.
- Boric acid powder: Like DE, boric acid powder simply needs to be applied directly to the ant nest. There, it will kill the ants as it comes into contact with them.
- Boiling water: If you don’t have DE or boric acid powder and want to deal with your ant infestation immediately, boiling water should do the job.
All you need to do is bring a few liters of water to a boil, add a few drops of essential oils or soap to the water, and pour it over the nest. Repeat 2-3 times to ensure you’ve eliminated all the ants, and remember to be careful that none of the water splashes back onto you.
- Soap and water: Create a mixture of one part dish soap to two parts water and spray it well around and in the ant nest. You should also spray this mixture over any pheromone trails you may have identified.
Final Thoughts
Carpenter ants can be challenging to deal with if you’re not using a pest control professional because the only reliable way to get rid of them completely is to find and eliminate their nests.
However, once you’ve managed to find the nest, you can deal with them relatively easily. There are several substances you can use to kill the ants, so choose whichever you prefer!
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