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
New Hampshire

[hikingchrs]

We get those every year about this time they live in the ground the rest of the year I have not seen any in my garage eating wood or in the wood pile, I think they will go away by next week. I also heard that with all the rain we got it is driving them out of the ground.
Chris

[Stargazer14]

"I think they will go away by next week."

It was written that the native Indians said the same thing
as they sat down for the first Thanksgiving dinner with the Pilgrims...

[hikingchrs]

ROLF I am no insect expert BTW just noteing personal exp. I do have an exterminator that comes by from time to time to treat for termites. maybe they don't like the taste of my wood smile.gif
Chris

[brian.cunningham]

Carpenter ants ate two sills on my mothers house :mad:

We had to rip both sills out. When we took the siding off we were pulling them out of the in handfulls. :eek:

Wound up calling an exterminator.

[ 06-07-2005, 01:22 PM: Message edited by: brian.cunningham ]

[Paul Scheuer]

By chance, I just had an experience with 1/2 inch black ants. The exterminator identified them as "carpenter ants". A noble name for the pests.

It turns out that, according to Orkin, they don't actually eat wood. They construct hollow galleries in wood and may move into buldings in search of food, a variety of both plant and animal food. Foraging ants will travel up to 100 yards from the nest.

Their nests are usualy built in easy to work, rotting and damp wood. The pro used some kind of non-toxic-to-humans powder in the areas where they were foraging and some kind of tasty meal on the ground nest.

[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

[Tom Robb]

When those carpenter ants tunnel they leave piles of sawdust outside the tunnel. Got any sawdust in yer shop? Probably not a very good predicter, I guess.
They do have a really big head and impressive mandibles. If your ants don't have those you can relax. Unless you just have a thing about bugs.

[Jim Budde]

I found a few carpenter ants in my shop last spring while preparing to re-side. Forget the idea that they are attracted to damp wood. Just poking around very dry and dusty overhanging door headers and discovered the little buggers had removed (remember they do not eat wood) about 90% of the header .. across a double garage door! Have no idea what kept the door in place. Interesting thing is that I never noticed any unusual sawdust build up nor had I noticed any damage to the outside of the header nor had I seen them climbing up or down .. but when I pulled what was left of header away, must have had a least a thousand ants fall on me and everything else around!Anyway, if you see the little buggers, do a quick check

[MarkC]

Catch and put some in a old film roll-holder and take them to your nearest natural history museum. For the cost of an entrance ticket you can have a Prof. of entomology?.. positively identify them and have their life habits explained.

[Alan D. Hyde]

Jim, I'd replace that header with a treated timber.

Alan

[Jim Budde]

I did, and used enough chemical spray on every piece of exposed wood in the shop to kill most anything moving with 20 miles of Lincoln .. I heard the gesse going north changed flight patterns and flew over Iowa just to avoid the toxic build-up I created .. or so they tell me