Black Ants

This place has the living area raised on a stone and cement foundation, and the garage in front. When I started living here last year, the crawlspace was full of cave crickets. It's a dirt floor under there. I set off 3 bug fog bombs and that took care of them. Now just last week I found a dozen big black ants looking for water in the bathtub. I thought because I stopped a big leak in the garage roof they might have migrated looking for water. Then I saw a few smaller black ants with wings that really creeped me out. I think all the heat from the stove is waking them up out of hibernation.
The big ones were kind of lethargic; I put out drops of sugar water with boric acid in it and they went up to it but didn't seem to carry it off. I got ant baits and put them in the crawlspace, then let off a couple more bombs and went away for the day. Maybe I should have given the baits several days to work. Anyway, I've found a bunch of them done for so I hope that did the trick. I take no pleasure in this, but no bugs allowed here, period.
This flat roof has been a nuisance for 20 years. I should have used torch-down roofing.
What does a black ant with wings mean?

Here you go...

http://www.bugclinic.com/carpenterant.htm

Read the info on the link WNY posted. Make sure they aren't termites, although termites usually swarm in the spring, on the first warm day.

You have carpenter ants. We had them too. You need an exterminator to get rid of them.

Thanks! I vacuumed up all the winged ones, next time I see one I'll double check, don't think it's termites. The crawlspace is temperature monitored, it's 75 in here ( windowstat time...), 24 outside, and 50 in the crawlspace, which I'm happy about since this place has never had plumbing in it before this season. I'll have to get down there tomorrow and have a good look around. I'll blast it with Home Defense; I have a few pounds of boric acid powder too.

I am the kind of stubborn fool that will avoid hiring any kind of service person. I.E. my vision of an exterminator is some downtrodden soul in a thankless dead end job, who drags his ass out of a fleet truck and walks around with a spray can for a few minutes, and hands an invoice to you. Not that I don't appreciate the advice, thank you, I'm the one that asked for it! And will consider it if I can't blast 'em out of here with OTC products.

If you are in a wooded area you should be spraying every year anyway. I recently had a policyholder whose back wall nearly fell apart. The termites ate the sill and it finally pulled away from the ceiling. Not covered by insurance either. She bought it two years ago and the inspector didn't notice. I think she hired a poor inspector.

If you can check for any wet or damp wood while your down there, poke around with a screwdriver. Also if you spot what looks like sawdust anywhere then you probably have an active nest of carpenter ants. They can be as bad or worse than termits.

samhill wrote:If you can check for any wet or damp wood while your down there, poke around with a screwdriver. Also if you spot what looks like sawdust anywhere then you probably have an active nest of carpenter ants. They can be as bad or worse than termits.

And they nest in the wood, not in the ground like termites. they can do more damage in less time than termites but are ususally easier to get rid of.

I read an article some time ago about a person dumped citrus hand cleaner on a red ant mound and it killed them all. You can try using citrus spray cleaner and spray around where u think their coming in. It won't cost much to try.

Bill S.

Anybody got any Chlordane

If you can see where they are coming in, diatomaceous earth (not the pool filter type but the gardening type) combined with whatever you spray into their nesting holes will take care of those ants. The edges of the silica cut and destroy them and they track it back to their nest quite effectively.

I've had them twice in the house. First time I killed them with a bunch of bug bombs. Set 4 off in the basement and 4 off on the first floor. Second time they were under my front door sill. They like mositure. Tore the sill up and blasted them. Always watch the outside of the house and you will see them coming and going. Hopefully you can catch them before they get to be a problem.

In this neck of the woods we call them blackants with wings Carpenter Ants. They will destroy anything they decide to eat . they love soft woods. I think they are same thing as our southern cousins call "termites" just a lot bigger like on steroids!! I have seen then hollow out a 10x10 beam and a porch roof went down because of them. sawdust pile is a sign they leave where they are working the nasty little buggers.

"Anybody got any Chlordane"

shhhhh...

Thanks guys.
This building is over 60 years old, and it was constructed with used lumber in the first place. Its dry soft old pine of some kind. This place was built by just putting it up, a lot of odd spacing on framing members and studs.

The back foundation is constructed of rocks and mortar, a lot of spaces in there. Last summer I placed 1" foam panels on the outside foundation and they tucked under the siding all the way around. This gave me r 6.5 and makes the stone and mortar foundation somewhat of a thermal mass. I was really worried about the new plumbing freezing, I also sprayed Tiger Foam all around inside the foundation. The heat from the stove must be radiating very well into the crawlspace down through the floors, I just put in a tile floor in the kitchen area where the stove is, and refinished the hardwood floors in the living area last year. It's been holding around 50* down there.

I found a reproductive ant with wings and it's definitely a carpenter ant. The walls are only dead air space, they might be in there, sux.
Anyway, I just got out from under there, I'm not highly claustrophobic but it's nasty. I went around the perimeter and emptied 2 bottles of Home Defense juice; and gave them another fogger bombe surprise for dessert.
I have a few pounds of boric acid, I might hook up a shop vac with an exhaust port I have, and see if I can blast it all over the foundation down there somehow.
I'm still fighting with a few roof leaks, have to correct those problems in the spring.

Clordane???? Why do they take all the good stuff off the market......
Thanks again for the help!!!!!
Dan