Carpenter Ants - all black species ?

I was wondering, with all that use wood for heat, making use of dead or damaged trees, these ants are always present, well around here they are, what kinds of problems anyone has ever had with them.

I split a couple of logs awhile back, outside, when it was pretty darned cold, figured that would do em in, but there was handfuls of them, and now I see them in the house. Does anyone know if they will do that, migrate into a home say after it warms up and they were scattered on the ground in the snow piles of bark, wood debris, I saw they will live through that. I don't have any ant infested wood in the house. I know they need moisture in the wood, so I don't see them nesting in dry wood framing. Makes me wonder if I should be handling those kinds of logs further away from the house. Funny, they don't bother me, but I'd like to figure out what would draw em in and or know I don't have the potential for them to nest in the framing of the house, all of which is dry. I am getting rid of any logs with ants or old wood, possibly they are coming from that ?

I've seen where if I split a log open in the basement and there were these kinds of ants in the log, used to happen before I got the log splitter, you could put that piece of wood or log down and they will go right back to it, say overnight, then toss the log back outside, and you've got just about every one. I had this problem last year and they went away, seems it just took awhile for em to die off.

If you see just one carpenter ant in the house, there could be many more. Do not think that carpenter ants ONLY nest in wet wood. Wet wood is the easiest for them to go through. If you are dragging firewood into the house then get some good carpenter ant insecticide to kill them. Tempo SC or Demon Max works great. Do a search on the net for the stuff. I have not bought it in years. I have 3 bottles of it in the garage.

Instead of putting the log outside, why not put it in the stove?

Dead trees are going to harbor carpenter ants and other critters under the bark. I split quite aways from the house. When I encounter I knock the log around til most fall out, then smash them with my foot. If i think there are anymore I'll split that piece again. My cellar way is where I stack my wood. Dry but still cold, any left in the wood go right into the fire. I do spray insecticide around the door into the basement from the cellar way. Its worked for over ten yrs w/out a problem. gobble

Carpenter ants will inflict the same kind of damage as termites.
Carpenter ants will eat any wood but will prefer dry wood.
I don't use any wood with them in it unless it goes directly into the fire. If you see them in the house you need to spray, they are a major threat to your house. If they can eat the tree they can eat your house. There are many types of chemicals you can use, just follow the instructions on the label.

Thats the other thing, best product what have people used effectively and one of those I think, Tempo, I've heard of, will have to go find this or similar and see what happens, absolutely don't want them to get a foothold inside. It seems they prefer moist wood and is always where to find them, they like black cherry, live or dead, dead pine species etc. I can imagine they could get into dry wood, but I've never seen them in anything but moisture laden wood around here, well I assume once the remaining yard clean up, all habitat will be gone, I did have a lot of wood pile up here, most is gone now.

I'll heed that advice for sure, figured I'd ask here and see what people know about them besides what may be found on the web.

I used to split inside, or as needed, never had a log splitter before, and used to buck and just stack, so at least it would dry. I found that if by some chance I split one open where they were active, toss that log in the fire, all the remaining ants will be scattered around for quite awhile, let it sit undisturbed, any alarmed ants will return, then toss in the fire or back into the deep freeze, sometimes I'd have to bring an unsplit log in, to let it dry a bit, they warm up, and you hit the jack pot. I've had piles of black cherry, bucked and though its riddled with ant habitat, they will migrate to one unsplit log, you just have to make sure that log does not come in the house.

I've hit the jackpot before and they scatter so quickly, so I left that piece alone, they went back inside it, and I carefully put it back outside to freeze up, then split and burned it.

I use a lot of dead trees, or partially dead ones, don't cut many healthy ones, and black cherry does not seem to decay much or there is a lot of good wood to get from these kinds of trees, + all the organic material I harvest from them, for the garden and soils I make up for potted plants, which I do put vegetable plants in. I think that is where they could get in, probably a good idea to apply that along the garage doors and center door.

Carpenter ants only like wet wood. If your fire wood is cut and split and left to dry out side for a year all the black ants are gone. This past winter I probably went through 7-8 cords to heat the house. I never saw a single black ant on the floor. I have had some wet wood that was cut and split with ants. That wood went rite into the fire.
Brian

Where termites eat the wood carpenter ant pinch it and spit it out . If you see little sawdust piles beware. They ate half my back porch. Had Terminex come until they were gone years ago. Now my wife keeps telling me they are coming across the service cable to the roof and I have been meaning to put a blob of grease up there . They hollow out the oak trees too. Usually a downed tree from a storm reveals more.If you are splitting alot of wood and see any treat a perimeter around your house with chems. They S### !

Split the wood, and leave it outside for a day.
The Chickadee's and woodpeckers will clean the
ants up in a day!

Billy, I've used Surrender on the outside. Works good to create a barrier. It's not labeled for inside use, but in a little used space like the basement might be ok. Don't know for sure as there is no such thing as a basement in SE TX.

I would just burn it, it will kill them.

When I run into the black ants, I split the blocks and leave them lie or a month or so and generally they are gone. If still there, I leave the wood where it is. The wood is usually dosey and not much heat in it, and I don't need them in the house. firewood for the evaporators at the saphouse.
Loren, the Acg.

We burn softwood so see ants all the time, they will even get into my woodpiles if they get wet. I bring ant infested wood in only when it goes straight into the fire. My parents deck was destroyed by them a few years back from one year of softwood burning. We dumped insecticide into the framing all summer long with hundreds of dead ant falling out but when I ripped it down there were hundreds more inside the hollowed out 2x12"s. Rarely saw one in the house.

If one ant was in your house (any type of ant) others will follow... they leave a phermone trail - so follow by smell.

Carpenter ants nest in wood, but I believe eat protein. So if they have found a food source inside your home (like scraps of meat or grease thrown into an open waste basket) - they will keep coming back. Like I said if you have one, its buddies either have, or will, come into your home.

If you have an old home with any soft or damp wood, they will chew it up to make a nest in it, and infest your house - especially if they have a food source.

I have heard that sprinkling Borax laundry powder around your foundation, door thresh-holds and basement window sills will kill them... but don't know for sure. (Be sure to keep kids away from it - pets too, I would imagine.)

I think they supposedly carry the granuals of Borax to their nest and eat it and that is what kills them - but again, not positive.

I'm with you Brian,
Carpenter ants don't seem to be a problem for solid dry wood but as soon as it begins to get "punky" from dampness they will bore it full of holes building their nests.