How to Get Rid of Carpenter Ants

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Mark Govan with ABC Pest Control in Largo, Florida and one question that really gets people mad is, or gets people upset is what do I do when I find carpenter ants in the home and I want to get rid of them. Well let me tell you there's a couple of good things that you can do here that's going to help you get rid of some carpenter ants. First of all you need to find out where they are. Carpenter ants can either nest in tight spaces such as the wall voids or up in the attic below insulation so sometimes it's very, very hard for you to go ahead and find out where they are. Well I got a little trick for you and you can use this at nighttime. Head out at night with a flashlight and just as the sun is setting and that's when carpenter ants tend to forage and trail. You can follow the trail and see exactly where the carpenter ants are getting up inside the home. Now remember, carpenter ants like those tight places which could be a wall void or up in the attic underneath the insulation. If you find those carpenter ants and you have a good area where they're at, you can go ahead and just treat that wall. Sometimes you'll need to remove the receptacle plates inside the home where the switch plates are. Remove that plate and there's a dust that you can apply inside the wall. I always try to recommend professional application for carpenter ants because they are kind of tough to get rid of and they could have multiple satellite nests in and around the home. So taking that into consideration, if you are going to go ahead and treat it yourself, find the right product, find out, try to find out where they are and you can go ahead and treat that. Remember carpenter ants may also nest outside the home so for those of you that have gone outside and they say hey maybe I found this carpenter ant nest and you see a big boulder or something, if you lift up that boulder you may indeed find the nest of carpenter ants right there. If you do, that's the easy way to go ahead and treat. You can just go ahead lift up the boulder, use a regular contact insecticide and you may be able to kill the entire nest. If you keep seeing carpenter ants, you may have a satellite nest problem inside the home and again that may require you to go ahead and dust inside your wall voids and inside your attic. Trying to keep you pest free, you're listening to Mark Govan from ABC Pest Control in Largo, Florida."