Ridgerunner
Garden Master
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2009
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- Location
- Southeast Louisiana Zone 9A
When in south Louisiana I had a carpenter ant infestation in the corner of the house (luckily the garage so repair was easy) where a juniper tree had branches touching the roof. The needles kept the area moist and kept piling up in the gutters. After that I made sure no trees were that close to the house. No limbs touching and no leaves piling up in gutters. That was an expensive lesson. Don't have any damp spots in the house, pretty much the same preventative measures as for termites. No limbs or anything touching the house they an use as a highway inside. Don't pile firewood or such right next to the house.
Bob, my strategy once they were in the house was call a pest control company. In that area with all the damp, termites were everywhere outside. It's a different kind of wet down there compared to Portland, but termite swarms would be unbelievable. The clouds of termites around the lights when we took the kids to the playground in certain times of the year showed just how many were around. There were so many I don't think a poisoning campaign would have done much good, though a pest control company would put traps in your yard for a price. I think the best strategy is to not give them a highway into the house and not have damp spots in the house for them to make a nest. From what I just read they will build satellite colonies in dry wood, but they don't hatch eggs there because it is too dry.
Carpenter ants do not eat wood, they just build nests in wood. They are attracted to sugar and such. If your friends want to bait them to reduce the numbers I'd think they could use sugar to attract them, just don't put the sugar that close to the house. It sounds logical if you reduce the numbers in the yard it would help, but if it is anything like those termites in south Louisiana it's more a of a feel-good thing than that much of a preventative.
Bob, my strategy once they were in the house was call a pest control company. In that area with all the damp, termites were everywhere outside. It's a different kind of wet down there compared to Portland, but termite swarms would be unbelievable. The clouds of termites around the lights when we took the kids to the playground in certain times of the year showed just how many were around. There were so many I don't think a poisoning campaign would have done much good, though a pest control company would put traps in your yard for a price. I think the best strategy is to not give them a highway into the house and not have damp spots in the house for them to make a nest. From what I just read they will build satellite colonies in dry wood, but they don't hatch eggs there because it is too dry.
Carpenter ants do not eat wood, they just build nests in wood. They are attracted to sugar and such. If your friends want to bait them to reduce the numbers I'd think they could use sugar to attract them, just don't put the sugar that close to the house. It sounds logical if you reduce the numbers in the yard it would help, but if it is anything like those termites in south Louisiana it's more a of a feel-good thing than that much of a preventative.
