carpenter ants in my wood pile!

[PapaDave]

Just went outside to move some splits off the ground. They were there from wood I had stacked 2 years ago, and didn't bother putting anything underneath.
I found 2 splits that had several tunnels where the carpenter ants had burrowed for the winter. This wood was pretty damp. I just banged them out of there and set the splits off the ground to dry. I'll keep an eye on 'em before they come in the house. Once the moisture in the wood goes away, these guys won't hang around.

 

[webie]

Go to HD and get yourself a big bag of diaznon. Get it in there lawn and garden department , I think its about a 20 lb bag the big size . I use a coffee can and drilled a bunch of 3/8 holes in the cover , I use this as a sprinkler . I have used it around my camper and around my wood piles and my home . It looks about like damp sawdust .

Diazinon has been banned for almost a decade. That stuff will mess you up.

Holy crap I am going to cherish the rest that I have left .

 

[TvSteve]

I found the box store bug sprays to be useless. The EPA made sure that we don't hurt ourselves. After moving to upstate NY 9 years ago I was constantly fighting carpenter ants. Lots of standing dead pine in the properties around our house. Tried everything but an exterminator. A friend told me to try a product called Talstar. Picked it up on ebay. That was 3 years ago, spray the perimeter every couple months and not a one inside. Now with the new woodstove I installed last year I keep the sprayer close by the splitter, just in case. Also spray around the wood stacks. Repair any water leaks, roof or foundation, cut overhanging branches and shrubs from the house and keep firewood off the ground. I have actually seen ants climbing a tree, over a branch and drop down to the roof. Guess they learned from squirrels.
BTW just about everything I learned about wood burning was from here. I started reading this forum a year ago after deciding it wasn't worth freezing all winter. Got a Lopi installed last August. Best thing I ever bought, and I'm 61.

Steve

 

[woodsmaster]

If the interior of the garage is not finished you can spray the wood with timbor. It's a borax solution that prevents all wood infesting insects from infesting. this is only for prevention and a more expensive solution
is used for an infestation. If I were building a new house I would use Timbor on the floore joists sub floore and at least 2' up the bottom of wall and anywere else that could see moisture.
I will be spraying the bottom of the walls on my new shop. ( floore will be a slab) Could probably do a whole house for a few hundred.

 

[JerseyWreckDiver]

Alright, don't go diving off a cliff to kill the spider on your shoulder... There's no need, at all, to go spreading poison all over your house. They're ants not the plague. If they've been in your garage and haven't woke up already they are probably all dead. Even if they're not. They are typical workers, they don't start new colonies. The swarmer's you see in the first warm days of spring, the ones with wings on them, are the ones that go out to start a new colony as a king/queen. Besides, even if all the previous was a lie, they only nest in, not eat, soft/wet/rotting wood. So unless you have leaks and water penetration into your framing they would not be able to do anything. The scouts people usually see walking around their houses are scouting for food sources, not new nesting places.

As has been said. NEVER store wood in, up against, or near your house.

 

[DiscoInferno]

They prefer wet wood, but they can and will nest in dry wood. Google suggests that the main nest will usually be damp, but that satellite nests might not be. So while a few ant sightings shouldn't induce panic, don't ignore a steady stream of them in your house either.