Ants in my boat shed!!

[CK 17]

I did a search on ants and came with lots of posts that didn't seem to have anything to do with ants.

Any way, here's the problem: I have noticed over the last week since the tempurture around here went from 50 degrees to 80 degrees that these big black ants (about 1/2 inch long) are crawing around the gravel floor of my shed. They are also in and around the stack of plywood and also the work bench. Again, just 3 or 4 ants over the last week. They seem to be loners, not in swarms.

Are these things going to eat my project?

Should I spray raid or put out ant traps or both?

How do others with outside projects deal with wood eating critters?

Thanks

Joe Schena

[dmede]

3 or 4? When it first starts to warm up out here I get swarms of ants coming right up out of the cracks in my garage floor and in the driveway. Were talking many hundreds into the thousands! And they fly!

I went into the garage one day to find a highway of them running up the leg of my work bench, into the drawer and into a pencil case full of cedar pencils they seemed to like.

I say you kill the first three and send the fourth guy back as a "warning" to the others :D

[ 06-07-2005, 12:48 PM: Message edited by: dmede ]

[james burt]

boric acid. dust it everywhere you see them.
they'll take it back to the nest and spread it around, sorta like a dirty bomb, just enough to
make them sick or dead.

that, or we would put scotch tape over one.
always worked, maybe it was the warning that worked.

[shadow99]

My garage was a horse barn, so 1/2 the floor is wood. Every spring those ants chew everything wood.
So hence every spring I use (diazinon?) powder & crystals around the foundation, then brush it between the floorboards. No more ants, at least not in my garage, they moved over to my neighbors shed (tasty spruce 2x4's & texture 1-11 :D ).

Rick

[Jay Greer]

Call an exterminator! Those are not ants, they are termites, looking to have big "cow cow" on choice wood, like your boat!!

[Bruce Hooke]

Originally posted by Jay Greer:
Call an exterminator! Those are not ants, they are termites, looking to have big "cow cow" on choice wood, like your boat!!They sound like carpenter ants to me, but it would certainly be a good idea to make certain of which they are. Termites are a MUCH bigger deal than carpernter ants. Carpenter ants mostly go for wood that is already soft...

[hikingchrs]

The termites we get here in NH are white and travel aboveground only in mud tubes but by all means catch one or two to show to an exterimnator.
Chris

[Tristan]

If they're black they're probably ants. Some ants (carpenter ants) will get into wood. I've had ants swarm almost every year, in several of the houses I've owned in s. Florida. Also had termites swarm a couple times (now that's bad do-do). The ants never seemed to do much damage, if any. The termites had to be killed, had a couple houses tented, also had subterranian termite treatment, not so radical.

[CK 17]

Thanks for your advise. I put out ant traps along the ant trial. The tiny ones were coming up out of the ground along the pt 4 by 4's which hold up the strong back. I then sprayed stuff inside and outside along the perimeter of the shed.

Found 5 more big black ones that seemed to be coming up out of the gravel, around the perimeter.

We'll see what happens.

Joe Schena

[Ken Hutchins]

I've got a good crop of them also. Where I knw the dogs can't get I use a chemical killer. In other areas I use a mixture of corn meal and yeast, the eat this mixture and the yeast is supposed to blow them up after they eat it. :D

[abe]

Joe, do you think them ants are attracted to douglas fir? ;)

We now have a large mound of fir wood chips in the compost pile around the back of the barn. I had better check for ants.

BTW, I did have carpenter ants between the timbers and siding in the shop last month. Agway folks sold me a quart bottle of "Bayer Advanced Home Power Force Ant and Termite Killer Plus". With a product name like that it has to work!

Bayer Web Page (http://www.bayeradvanced.com/home/products/details.cfm?id=22)

Works great. About 1 ounce in a gallon of water in a sprayer. Keeep away from pet areas. No evidence of any activity for 30 days.

abe

[CK 17]

Originally posted by abe:
Joe, do you think them ants are attracted to douglas fir? ;)

Abe, Did I tell you I'm naming her "Fir Ball"

[Dave Gray]

You have to be careful with things like Diazinon and other products. On hot days the undissipated chemical can create gas spots that are quite toxic to be around.

That said, I got so tired of the highway ants had created between the outdoors and my upstairs I poured a good amount of Malathion onto their nest, just outside the backdoor. I did this a number of years ago, no highway no more!

[Domesticated_Mr. Know It All]

Carpenter ants can be very distructive if you ignore them. :eek: :mad:
I've used a liquid called "Taro ant killer" with much success .......after I had to replaced a section of the roof on our house. :rolleyes:
Like other ant death products they take it back to the nest and BAM! :D

[ 06-07-2005, 11:52 PM: Message edited by: Mr. Know It All ]

[PatCassidy]

In 1992 I was in Guatamala at the ancient Mayan city Tikal (really fantastic). We stayed at a place called the Jungle Lodge. About 10:00am I hear this shreik and there in our room was a literal highway of ants - maybe two inches wide - like the painted lines on a road - that ran in a wandering fashion through the sleeping area, through the bathroom and then out through a crack.

We got an employee to come over who did not speak English. We laughed when we thought he said they would be gone in 20 minutes. Twenty minutes later they were gone. We made sure we were somewhere else the next day at 10:00am so we would miss the "march of the ants!"

[ 06-08-2005, 01:41 AM: Message edited by: PatCassidy ]

[Jay Greer]

We have carpenter ants in the north west and they are big and black. Then we have termites in California that are big and black and have wings. The grubs are white.