UGH: Carpenter Ants

[Typ0]

Cutting through my log load I hit a spot in the center of some ash that has been rendered dust where a carpenter ant colony lives. Surely we have to deal with this sometimes.

I put some tarro (the good stuff) in the spot but still fear I will wake in the morning and my entire pile of wood will be gone....and half of my house too! Help I am scared!!

 

[Bret Chase]

Every time I come across an ant colony in a round..... I carry the splits to my chicken run and bang them together.... the chickens LOVE it.... and the ant colony is well.... gone.

 

[fossil]

They need water.They used to get it wherever the host tree got it No water around, they move on and/or die

 

[Typ0]

I don't have a chicken run and it's been a very wet summer.

 

[turn_n_burn]

The tarro stuff is just boric acid (borax), best stuff ever. Buy a box at the grocery store and sprinkle it around the pile. And all over the bastards.

 

[Dix]

Just let the splits lie, the birds will come.

Or the ants will move away not a problem.

 

[Typ0]

The tarro stuff is just boric acid (borax), best stuff ever. Buy a box at the grocery store and sprinkle it around the pile. And all over the bastards.

I don't know man. Mom moved out of her house in to an assisted living home this year. In all the stuff that came here was this little bottle of tarro that looks like it's from the 1950s. I have always had ants here .... and I put a little dab on a piece of cardboard in my kitchen and haven't seen an ant since. No lie!

I just put a little bit on an index card inside that log....I don't want them to start colonizing here that would suck.

 

[Bret Chase]

The tarro stuff is just boric acid (borax), best stuff ever. Buy a box at the grocery store and sprinkle it around the pile. And all over the bastards.

Boric acid and Borax are not the same thing.... Boric Acid is H3BO3

Borax is Sodium tetraborate Na2B4O7...

 

[turn_n_burn]

I got owned on that one. I guess I thought they were the same thing. I'm not much of a chemist, but thank you. I don't wanna be spreading a bunch of incorrect BS. I suppose it's probably alkaline too. Adding my own insult to my own injury. I'd make a good chemistry joke, but all the good ones argon.

 

[mwhitnee]

I got owned on that one. I guess I thought they were the same thing. I'm not much of a chemist, but thank you. I don't wanna be spreading a bunch of incorrect BS. I suppose it's probably alkaline too. Adding my own insult to my own injury. I'd make a good chemistry joke, but all the good ones argon.

 

[turn_n_burn]

I hope that didn't come off sarcastic in a negative way. I'm making fun of myself here, exclusively. I really did appreciate the correction to my incorrect info, Bret. No joke.

 

[mwhitnee]

I liked the joke lol...

 

[Wood Duck]

If I find pieces with Carpenter ants I split the pieces small, to open up most of the ant tunnels, and spread the pieces around the lawn. I leave the pieces out for a couple of days, kicking them around a time or tow to dry all sides. The ants leave as the wood dries, and don't seem interested in my wood piles which are also dry or at least drying. Woods surround my yard, and those woods are full of Carpenter Ants just like all woods in the eastern US. If the Carpenter Ants that leave the firewood add a little to the ant population in the woods it is just a drop in the bucket. No need to go out of my way to kill ants, although I do have chickens which eat them.

 

[Fred Wright]

Yup, carpenter ants are a part of wood cutting along the Eastern seaboard. Red maples are especially susceptible. Some were so bad there was hardly any sapwood left. It's easy to get a barber chair or pinched bar when ants have hollowed out the base.

We leave ant infested rounds at the woods edge for a couple weeks and split 'em later.

 

[Buzz Saw]

I typically segregate the ant pieces and put them directly into the fire.

 

[Babaganoosh]

I try to split on my driveway because it's easier to clean up the mess. I spit off the ant infested crap and put it into a tub to take to the dump. I leave the rest of the ant stuff on the edge of the driveway for a few days where the sun heats it up really nicely. That takes care of any stragglers.

 

[firefighterjake]

When I find carpenter ants I give them all tiny little hammers, saws and a level and put them to work . . .

 

[Typ0]

Interesting responses people. Thank you!

 

[HisTreeNut]

I just get my pastor to come by and baptize all the ants. Then I never see them again except for maybe on Christmas or Easter...

 

[mwhitnee]

I had a few cherry rounds that had hundreds of them as many were half dead.

They abandoned the wood (on the hot driveway) after splitting within a day and haven't been to my stack at all as far as I can tell. Many felt the wrath of my shoe though...

Unfortunately I had my bag of sugar open in the kitchen cabinet (usually the Ziploc bag holding the paper bag of sugar is sealed) and they traveled 75 feet or so right into the kitchen. Once I got the sugar out I had to vacuum them up for a few days, and the buggers did not return. In other words, they argon lol

 

[sportbikerider78]

I burn any rounds with ants right away.

Soak in kero and torch them.

Good time to drink a beer and have a sadistic laugh or two.

 

[jatoxico]

After a recent storm took down a bunch of trees, some of which had ants, I re-treated the perimeter of the house and sheds with Home Defense. Figured a lot of critters would be on the prowl looking for new digs.

 

[turn_n_burn]

I just get my pastor to come by and baptize all the ants. Then I never see them again except for maybe on Christmas or Easter...

They will show up more often. Just tell them that you are having a big potluck inside the tree trunk.

 

[turn_n_burn]

If it makes anybody feel better, I just sawed thru a big rotted cherry round and found a bunch of little blue robin eggs my chain went to town on. By the looks and smell of it, they had been there awhile. Do they make a smiley icon for vomiting?

 

[HisTreeNut]

That's not eggsactly what you want to find in a round either...