srt101fan

I'm no expert, but I believe termite colonies are established outside, not inside a house. They have to return to the soil every day. But, I've been known to be wrong on occasion......🙄

CindyHouk Loc: Nw MT

He does a heck of a job too....love his work!

Mark Sturtevant Loc: Grand Blanc, MI

It will be difficult to track the nest, especially since there are probably several satellite nests and mature colonies can have several queens. So killing "a" queen does not do much. The cedar siding is a possibility to explore, as they may have a satellite nest there, but the main nests are generally deep in rotting wood. They can also keep nests in the soil. They absolutely do require moisture, so indoors you should look at (and treat) any areas where there could be moisture. That being under and behind sinks, around window sills, and behind the tank of toilets and a basement cistern if you have one.
Outdoors, if you have any large, mature trees or woodpiles, I would look at those as major nesting sites. Although now in the winter, assuming its cold where you are, they will be pretty well hunkered down outside. But of course they might then want to move some satellites indoors, hence your problem.
Here is Wikipedia which provides information that might might help you to understand and so kill the b*stards: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpenter_ant.

We've had this problem off and on for years. We've had several treatments by exterminators. I think they did their best, but I doubt it amounted to much since any "dent" they had was only temporary. We were told that indoor ants are more frequent in the winter, but during the summer they concentrate outdoors. Indoor carpenter ants does seem to have a seasonal ebb and flow. One thing we did was put down boric acid powder along the edges between walls and floors, and in places where we would see ants That stuff actually helps. It kills them but also repels them so we wouldn't see them as often. We also put down lots of those syrupy liquid ant traps in areas where we saw ants. -- those promise to get ants to carry poison bait back to the nest. Any actual effect in that regard must have been only temporary. But the baited traps did attract them and it killed a lot of workers. It turned out that the baited traps were additionally useful since over time they sort of concentrated around the traps and so I could follow ants wandering in the area to see some places where they were coming in and out. Those sites could be poisoned and plugged. It took time, though. I honestly don't think we have it licked since its been maybe 10 years, and we still see indoor ants off and on. Probably new nests. I do tell myself that it would be worse without all the treatments.

alberio Loc: Casa Grande AZ

He's hibernating at the moment. ❄️❄️❄️

CindyHouk Loc: Nw MT

Thanks for the info Mark! Here is a shot of the house and on the right side of the picture is where we had to replace a lot of planks and beams on the desk, the basement is concrete up to the deck and there is rock underneath the deck around the house. We have been in the home for over 20 yrs and never had any water damage anywhere in the basement nor anywhere else in the house. I have only seen the flying ants in the basement this year, especially the laundry room and the laundry room is on that side of the house. So that's where I think we will concentrate our effects....at least to start with!

CindyHouk Loc: Nw MT

Dang it!!

CPR Loc: Nature Coast of Florida

Call the pros and set off a few bug bombs while you wait for the pros to get there.

Drbobcameraguy Loc: Eaton Ohio

My grandfather always said termites eat slow Carpenter ants are a bigger danger. Look for sawdust anywhere it should not be. You really need to get rid of them asap. Sorry for the lack of suggestions.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

We got rid of all the bugs, varmints, ants, mold, and everything else in our old house. We sold it and they tore it down. That's one solution.

worldcycle Loc: Stateline, Nevada

An easy fix actually. I live at Lake Tahoe and deal with these all the time. Carpenter ants fly when looking for nesting areas. Then lose their wings. To really deal with them, sprays and bait are really not enough. Problem with bait is that you can use a sweet liquid almost syrupy thing such as ADVION Ant in a syringe or a fatty/protein granule such as ADVANCE 375a is that depending on their nesting cycle they will only be attracted to one or the other and it must be placed in areas they frequent (ant trails) so they will take it home to the queen. Get rid of the queen and you get rid of the colony. You can also sprinkle Borax powder around where you see them a lot and (hopefully) enough sticks to them that they take it home to the colony where eventually it makes its way to the queen. The best way that I have found, also a way that a friend professional exterminator uses it this.

Use a Permethrin Concentrate. I use this from Do My Own Pest Control.com. Good site with lots of advice.

https://www.domyown.com/permethrin-sfr-368-p-445.html

Look carefully everywhere for signs of a nest. Best clue is not necessarily where they are entering the wood but really fine almost dust consistency wood dust piles on the ground or ledges. Get a 3/8 inch super long auger drill bit (at least 12") Drill into the wood (or wood behind wall, 3/8 is not a big hole to patch if exposed). Go deep enough and in a couple of places to make sure you get into the nest. Then get a garden sprayer with the nozzle on stream setting and just spray a bunch in there, make sure you spray enough to saturate to the end of the holes you drilled. Termites where I live, live in the ground, not in the wood so if you see and mud columns going from dirt to wood, that is where you have a "mountain" termite. Get a 1/2 rebar a couple of feet long and drive a hole in the ground about every foot. Fill with Permethrin. Doing this will get the poison into the colony and kill the queen. Spaying the ants themselves can be fun because you get the satisfaction of watching them immediately wither up and die but it does not kill the queen so the colony sticks around.

Permethrin is a fairly safe insecticide, dissipates very quickly so not a huge danger to you or your pets. Problem is, is that it will kill all your beneficial insects as well if you are not careful.

ORpilot Loc: Prineville, Or

I was a former Pest control inspector. Make sure what they are..... Termites have straight bodies. Ants have "barbie" bodies. Generally termites "fly" before 2 in the day. Ants generally fly in the afternoon. You can apply anything with then chemical Termidor in it. It is what most Pest control companies use. In any case, termidor will work on either ants or termites. It also works very well on Fire ants. If you want to environmentally safe.... and you have fire ants...Take a shovel of fire ants and put them on the hole where the flyers came out. Fire ants favorite food is termites. They will track down all termites and eliminate the hive in a day. But then you need to terminate the fire ants,, happy DYI terminations.

CindyHouk Loc: Nw MT

We have been looking ...just haven't found anything YET!

CindyHouk Loc: Nw MT

I kinda like my house...so I will just have to put up a fight!

CindyHouk Loc: Nw MT

Thank you for the information! Very very helpful!

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

Canonclicker, you know me quite well..! Various magnified views using a variety of lenses and techniques along with different poses. And...yes, they preserve quite well in denatured alcohol.

The only time that the ants produce wings is when the females leave the nest, lose their wings, and start new colonies. This typically occurs in the spring.

Carpenter ants gnaw out cavities in wood to build their nests. They eat just about anything but their destruction to wood is to build and expand their nest. They prefer moist wood so anywhere that may be damp in the home would be a good indication of where to look for them. Power boric acid is a good way to eradicate them and it does not contain the poisonous chemicals that commercial ant sprays do.

The trick is to FIND the nesting place. This takes a bit of investigative work including following them back to the nest. An often-used trick is to place a dab of honey on the floor when seeing one and it will lap it up and take it back to the nest which will more than likely be around the bathtub, kitchen and bathroom sinks, showers, laundry areas, etc. where the wood will be moister. They are not like termites which will digest wood regardless of where it is. Once you have an idea of where they are nesting is where you will dust the area with boric acid.