How to Get Rid of Wood Ants

Hi I'm often asked how do I get rid of wood ants? Well I'm going to help you with that. I'm Michael Piacenza with Advantage Pest Control. Well wood ants are really just the broad category of a carpenter ant. Now there is a big misconception. Carpenter ants or wood ants do not actually eat wood, they live in wood so they will be digging and making their colony and you will see a lot of debris that looks like saw dust. Maybe a little sand in there. If you look real close you are going to see what looks like little shiny flakes. Those are actually the carcases of the other bugs that they eat. They are protein eaters. So if you are going to try to get rid with a bait you are going to have to make sure you are using a bait that is a protein base. Now they don't take baits very well so the best way to get them is with insecticides. Now there are a lot of safe insecticides that you can use mechanically based wettable powders and there are dusts and they work very very well. I have found that the best way to handle them is inside, treat around the baseboards and then outside use timed released granules around the outside of the house and that will get the ones that are coming in mostly. Now if you are having ones that are creating a nice little trail right up to the eaves you might need to get a synthetic pesticide and spray up underneath the eaves where the rain isn't going to wash it off. The other thing is prevention. Get rid of any rotting wood. Normally what you are going to find is that they are coming from a rotting tree stump or an old wood pile or they are into the baseboard, the door jam around the garage door or something that is actually rotting so clean that up, put in some fresh wood, get it painted and I think your problem will go away. Hope this has been helpful. I'm Michael Piacenza. Have a good day.