Once you find out carpenter ants in and around your house, make sure you are in deep trouble!
In this section, we will guide you to choose between the best carpenter ant removal products out of the top 5 products assessed by us. You will get to know about the characteristics of carpenter ants and how to recognize them, various carpenter ant killers available in the market and which one is suitable for you along with some DIY home remedies to kill carpenter ants.
Quickly jump to our recommended top 1 product.
Meanwhile, let us make a quick overview of the products we recommend:
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A normal ant-problem can be resolved by using a Terro product generally but while reviewing the Maxforce carpenter ant control kit we found that this product can’t be ignored at all as the same product can be used outdoors (granular baits) as well as in indoors (gel tubes) to get rid of carpenter ants.
The combo-product can also guide you to route towards a DIY method. The product ideally removes the source of the problem first and then concentrate on different methods to do the rest and that is the success story behind the product.
Carpenter ants reside in moist wooden constructions, dead trees or stumps outside your house or in old, unattended and cracked wooden structures inside your house. It is advisable to heal these places and then apply baits.
All the products we suggest are capable of killing carpenter ants but they differ in their own ways. Go through the items and find out which one is perfect for you.
It is very important to take immediate action when you identify carpenter ants inside or outside your house. These species of ants literally damage your home, particularly if the foundation is made of wood. Once damaged, the repairing cost of the house reaches a limit uncontrollable.
The ants initiate with a simple nest in the old stumps or in mosied wooden structures in and around your house and then gradually expand to numerous networked nests to look for food. Carpenter ants do not eat wood (termites eat wood), instead, they dig tunnels through them making the structures brittle.
Carpenter ants (Camponotus spp.) are larger ants (0.76 to 2.54 cm) comparing to other species and the reason they are called carpenter ants are they make their colonies in various wooden structures, provided they are decomposed, moist, soggy, unnoticed (primary nests) and are in close proximity to food and water.
The secondary nests are built nearby where the winged ants carry the larvae and pupae. The queen ants live longer in the primary nests and the worker ant lives for 12 weeks. Carpenter ants are subdivided into 24 species and have color variations, they are generally black in appearance but can be brown, red and even yellow-tinted.
When you disturb their colonies, be it primary or secondary, the carpenter ants bite you with their firm jaws and because of their sizes, the bites are painful. They also spread a formic acid when they bite you which makes the stings itchier. They infest wooden structures but do not feed on them like termites but the infestation causes major harm to the wooden structures, especially inside and outside your home. Just remember, they invade your house only to look for food!
The carpenter ants nest inside or nearby the wooden structures they have made tunnels into. Compared to other species of ants, carpenter ants cause serious damages to the wooden structures. The indications of ‘a carpenter ant infestation’ are huge masses of frass (wood shavings) near their nests.
They are comparatively large insects and can easily be noticed by naked eyes. If you see a large number of worker ants and swarmers (winged ants) in and around your house, that is also another clear indication of ‘carpenter ant infiltration.’
Moreover, it is quite possible that the said colony is matured and is ready for reproduction. People tend to confuse between carpenter ants and termites. Carpenter ants burrow through wooden structures while termites feed on them.
Always remember that ants, be it of any kind basically enter your house in search of food. If you wish to restrict carpenter ants to enter your house, get rid of the food they like to eat. Carpenter ants prefer food which is rich in protein (living and dead insects, meat, pet food, etc.).
They also prefer sugary liquids like honeydew (produced by aphids and some scale insects living in trees, shrubberies and other vegetation). They are adaptable to various diets and so any particular bait can’t harm them severely. Does the question lie in how to restrict carpenter ants to access the above-mentioned food sources?
You can vacuum the dead insects, use powerful insecticides for the living ones, take special care of the meat and pet food so that they are not left unattended even after they are partially eaten. But what next? A good gardening technique (regular cutting and cleaning the vegetation that could be possible living places of aphids and scale insects) is a probable solution.
Insecticide sprayed on trees can deter the ants (you can’t keep planted trees away from your home once they are deep-rooted). The point is, you should act seriously as soon as you find that you have a carpenter ant problem. While treating a carpenter ant-infested area, be careful (always use gloves) as their mandibles are capable enough to bite you along with ejecting formic acid.
If you find a carpenter ant infestation, using baits is the best solution as a treatment. Destroying a carpenter ant colony.
Along with other preventive measures, destroying a carpenter ant colony is a must for a complete removal procedure. Follow the steps:
Watch this video to know more about controlling carpenter ants:
The carpenter ants cause grave harm to your property. It is advisable to take serious measures to kill them as soon as you find them near your household. You can use professional products to terminate them or can opt for homemade remedies.
Since these ants are adamant insects and can easily pass through the homemade products, it is always a better choice to go for professional products. Let us have a glance at both the products.
There are 2 homemade remedies to get rid of carpenter ants. The first is the common vinegar (acetic acid being the major component in it) which deters ants because of its acidic composition. 50% water mixed with 50% vinegar is a good homemade remedy to deter carpenter ants and a lot of people who wish to ignore fatal chemicals to get rid of ants use this.
The end result of using this particular ant killer is debatable. The second remedy is mixing boric acid (hydrogen borate) with sweet products like jellies or honey (carpenter ants are attracted to sweet stuff). The acid kills the ants on contact but this remedy does not have a long term solution as carpenter ants don’t carry the baits to the nests to kill more ants.
As a result, you kill the carpenter ants you see and the huge number of ants whom you can’t see (hiding in the nest) get spared.
You may find baits and sprays a bit expensive than homemade products but if you add the damages the carpenter ants cause to your property, the cost is quite comparable. Baits, as mentioned earlier are the best solution to carpenter ant infestations.
Major ingredients being borax (in most of the baits) act slowly, giving time to ants to pick them up and come back to the nests. In the process, the bait is ingested by other worker ants including the queen and kills them gradually.
Once the queen feeds on the bait it hampers the reproductive process restricting the queen to lay eggs. The only thing to keep in mind that while placing the bait, you should not disturb the natural movements of the ants including the colonies because once these creepy insects find a hindrance in their normal actions, they move away from their trails.
As a process, ants start burrowing new tunnels that may hamper your homefront more. Aerosol repellents are the other alternative ways to get rid of carpenter ants. But a combination of both sprays and baits are a perfect solution.
Please find below our assessed best carpenter ant products. You can quickly click the links and have a full description of the products, their good and nor so good attributes and finally decide, which is the correct product to solve your kind of problem. Our top 5 products are:
Description
The gel and granule baits target different species of ants with various food habits. The sweet ingredient along with protein and fat-based bait are applicable to all kinds of carpenter ants who have diverse diets. The kit works within 3 to 5 days.
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Description
Terro has been a household name that delivers results for ages. The bait containers are weather-proof and can be stationed anywhere. The sugar-based bait uses borax as the major killing agent to get rid of the carpenter ants. Borax, being a slow agent allows ants to carry the bait to the nest killing worker ants and the queen ant too.
This is the best long-term solution for carpenter ant problems. A pack contains 6 bait straps that you can spread anywhere you wish around your home. Some traps come with small stairs or ramps which allow ants to climb to the bait, collect them and leave.
Click to know more about Terro ant bait traps.
Description
The ant gel bait attracts carpenter ants and eventually, they spread the insecticide in the colonies. The small 27-gram tube makes it easier to spread the gel even in minimal cracks and holes inside your property. The additional feature of this product is it also works as a boundary for more ants to enter the territory.
6 tiny drops (1 gram per drop) of the gel can eradicate a whole colony of ants. The perfect indoor product does not emit any bad smell. But the product is expensive and can attract pets too.
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Description
A perfect product for carpenter and other ants which may disturb you both indoors and outdoors. The product kills on contact and hence a perfect product when you have already identified the nests in cracks, holes, crevices inside your home or in wooden stacks, stumps, and gardens outside your home.
Remember, the product kills on contact and does not work on the ants which are hiding. So, this is a quick and short time solution that does not work for the long term result. It is advisable to use the product along with ant traps to get a complete solution. Consulting a professional exterminator is always recommended.
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Description
It is a protein cum fat-based bait having the active ingredient abamectin in it. The comparatively non-toxic bait is capable of taking care of carpenter ant infestations outdoors only.
Spread the bait granules near the suspected areas and once you find dead ants lying there (wood stacks, dead trees, unused stumps), your job is done.
It is a complete product that works efficiently for indoors (gel bait) and outdoors (granule bait). The 375 A Ant Bait contains Abamectin B1 (0.011%) which kills ants in a delayed mechanism, targeting to destroy a whole colony of carpenter ants and the Maxforce Carpenter ant Bait Gel contains Fipronil (0.001 %) which targets the carpenter ants that destroy the house structure.
It is advisable to lay various types of baits for the ants to fall for (because of the diet characteristics) while they infiltrate your home. Terro products are popular and they produce liquid sugar-based baits to attract carpenter ants. But you should keep in mind that the shrewd carpenter ants have distinguished diet preferences which they tend to change while adapting to adverse conditions.
A licensed exterminator is always a better choice to look for, particularly if you are confused about which product to choose to get rid of your carpenter and problem. You can click here to get a free quote along with a list of expert ant exterminator. Lastly, do not ignore a product that guarantees you to kill carpenter ants either by gel baits (indoors) or by granule baits (outdoors)?
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