Nothing like coming home from elsewhere for a few days and seeing that tell tale sign of a perfect wee pyramid shaped pile of sawdust right on the floor in my living room,in front of my recliner.
They swarm every May and my chickens patrol the grounds like guard dogs eating every one they find.
Ive never had them in the house before.
Well they found a way up the wall to a massive tamarack tree trunk beam that spans the whole living room. The ends are inside the wall resting on the wall foundation,with the wood ceiling meeting nicely around it.
Its part of the "log home look" and the tenants are not paying rent.
The beam had a check crack partway down on one end,and in attempt to fix it,I filled it with that spray foam.I painted over that to have it look like part of the beam.Its been fine for years,till now!
I didn't realize ants love foam till Ken (White17) kindly informed me,so I promptly tore it all out,much to the dismay of the ants who angrily tried to thwart my progress. Its amazing how fast they suck down into a vacuum...I did get an amount of them right then but I fear there are more that wont show up in the crack check now.
The check has been left for a few days and every morn I listen for noise of ongoing party,and look for more sawdust.
So far I haven't heard much,and theres a few ants in the house roaming here and there.There is no food or water leaks inside or outside the cabin that is attracting them. They just seemed to take a liking to my big tamarack beam!
I dont trust that they're gone from my beam despite no more signs or sound from there, and Ive been looking into an effective way to get rid of them or at least to convince any others against moving in for the future.
Ive done research and learned a lot so far,and I think this may be whats called a satellite colony.
Ive learned they like basically two kinds of food,protein based and honeydew sugar based. Depending on what they want most at the time...
I would appreciate advice from you ADC folks please!
Advance 375 A ,a protein based bait, and Optigard Ant Killer Gel,a sugar based bait has been suggested ,along with a few other similar baits so far.
I would use bait carefully so that my chickens wont find it,or any of the other songbirds for that matter.
The forests around me are vast and the ants just can't be controlled there,but I can make a "fence" against them around my place.
Since I know where they are trying to nest,I plan to put a ladder up against it and drill a few holes partway into the beam from the very top (where they can't be seen) and put something in there to crash the party permanent.
Evergreen Dust applied with bellows has been suggested as a vey effective killer for them,as was Termidor Foam. I dont think I like the foam idea as any ants that may come out of the holes will be foamy and a mess to vacuum up.
Diatomaceous earth sounds like a great idea too.Also Seven dust....
After crashing the party,I would caulk up that check crack and paint over that to simulate the log and leave the holes for future access if they try that ever again.Or I can cork them up like a big oak barrel of whiskey,lol
Any ideas I would greatly appreciate help with before I actually order something.
I can't think of any better place to ask than here!
Thank you so much for any help advice you can muster.