best way to get rid of ants

[homersipes]

we have big black carpenter ants this year, didn't have them last year or the year before.  whats the best way to get rid of the little bastages without an exterminator?  we vacuum the floor everynight upstairs and down, clean hard floors also and still have them   I know that they will destroy the house in pretty near no time so I want to get rid of the asap

[SAJ73]

Ants don't like diesel.. 
But the best way to get rid of them is really to get rid of their queen, then they will most likely go away by themselves.
 

[Midway]

http://voices.yahoo.com/natural-ways-rid-carpenter-ants-5738974.html

[Curval]

Terro liquid ant killer is excellent.  It takes about 2 to 3 weeks to completely rid yourself of the problem though.

If you want to make a homemade ant killer, take some peanut buter and mix boric acid into it.  Put the poisoned peanut butter in a jar with the top off and leave it near their trail.

Both of these solutions conceptually work by getting the ants to take the "food" back to the queen ant.  Once she eats it (and that is why it can take 2/3 weeks for her to "get to it") and dies the colony dies off too.

[Dragon]

Windex kills ants on contact.  Every year we get 1 or 2 invasions into our back room and they congregate on the raised shelf where we feed the cats.  Windex kills and cleans and makes watching the cats jump onto and slide off the shelf a lot more fun.

[smoe]

Boric acid works well and does seem to reduce an ant population. I had a problem with the big black ants and was lucky enough to find where they were breeding. I had a sliding closet door with a hole at the top and bottom. I would find 2-3 ants underneath this closet door multiple times per day, plus everywhere else throughout the house, those things really know how to make their way around. What I didn't know was they were breeding inside this closet door. Just out of luck I was tired of sliding all three of my closet doors from left to right to access my clothes inside. I decided to remove one door because it was a big pain. The door that I removed was temporarily placed near my bed. I noticed the ants were still present on and around this door by my bed. While lying in bed I could hear faint scratching sounds and it took a few days to put two-and-two together and discover that the ants were living and breeding inside this closet door. I then pumped a little ant killer spray inside the door, just enough to kill the ants, but not stain the door. My ant problem went away over night. Man, what a super relief to get rid of those things.

I would suggest going around your home with some type of stethoscope and listen for the ants. You need to be very quiet because they seem to stop making scratching when other noises are present.

Also, I would suggest placing a few mouse sticky traps throughout your home and garage. They work great for catching all types of insects as well as mice.

[Hajo]

We've had to deal with carpenter ants twice and got an expert to deal with them both times successfully.  First carpenter ants like wet, damp damaged wood.  That is how they get attracted and enter your house.
Have mulch against the house?  Do you have large trees that overhang your house?  They usually enter through the eaves of your roof where the wood can become damaged from plugged rain spout or simply during the winter ice building up in the gutters when going through freeze at night, thaw during the day, freeze at night cycle.  They during the summer just simply fall onto the roof and hunt for spots such as these.  To ensure that you get rid of them completely sometimes the walls have to be drilled and ant poison injected into your inner walls.  During that summer while sitting in the living room we heard a crash.  A huge Oak tree in our neighbors yard fell and crushed part of our shadowbox fence.  Upon examination the center of the tree was completely hollow because of an enormous carpenter Ant colony. The Ants caused the collapse of the tree.  If you are messing with them every year....best to get an expert in to deal with them on a more permanent basis....basing this on my experience.

[mbailey]

Exactly what Hajo said, you have wet wood somewhere that is attracting the ants. Do yourself a favor and go around the 4 corners of your home and look closely......you may actually see what looks like sawdust, that will give you a hint as to where the colony is..... Seal up any entry into the home thats big enough for an ant to enter thru, expecially where the homes framing meets the foundation. If you have a basement check the pockets between the 1st floor....floor joists, they love to live behind the insulation in those pockets.( regarding filling in areas, Dont fill in areas that are ment to allow airflow into the structure, your home does need to breath or it will rot )  I fight the battle every year with them, and find the liquid baits work best.

As a property insurance adjuster, ive seen thousands to tens of thousands of dollars of damages done by these ants......An exterminator may be a good investment

[Triton28]

I've dealt with with carpenter and the small (pissants, sugar ants, whatever) variety and found a professional exterminator to be the best route.  I keep a can of Raid Ant Killer in the kitchen for a temporary flare up, but for long term control I've found the exterminator to be worth his money.

[Curval]

An exterminator will put down a boric acid type substance and charge you for it.  No need, do it yourself.

[Masherbrum]

We've had to deal with carpenter ants twice and got an expert to deal with them both times successfully.  First carpenter ants like wet, damp damaged wood.  That is how they get attracted and enter your house.  Have mulch against the house?  Do you have large trees that overhang your house?  They usually enter through the eaves of your roof where the wood can become damaged from plugged rain spout or simply during the winter ice building up in the gutters when going through freeze at night, thaw during the day, freeze at night cycle.  They during the summer just simply fall onto the roof and hunt for spots such as these.  To ensure that you get rid of them completely sometimes the walls have to be drilled and ant poison injected into your inner walls.  During that summer while sitting in the living room we heard a crash.  A huge Oak tree in our neighbors yard fell and crushed part of our shadowbox fence.  Upon examination the center of the tree was completely hollow because of an enormous carpenter Ant colony. The Ants caused the collapse of the tree.  If you are messing with them every year....best to get an expert in to deal with them on a more permanent basis....basing this on my experience.

Exactly what Hajo said, you have wet wood somewhere that is attracting the ants. Do yourself a favor and go around the 4 corners of your home and look closely......you may actually see what looks like sawdust, that will give you a hint as to where the colony is..... Seal up any entry into the home thats big enough for an ant to enter thru, expecially where the homes framing meets the foundation. If you have a basement check the pockets between the 1st floor....floor joists, they love to live behind the insulation in those pockets.( regarding filling in areas, Dont fill in areas that are ment to allow airflow into the structure, your home does need to breath or it will rot )  I fight the battle every year with them, and find the liquid baits work best.

As a property insurance adjuster, ive seen thousands to tens of thousands of dollars of damages done by these ants......An exterminator may be a good investment.

Yep on both.   We had two colonies.   One originating in a neighbors tree that rests on our backyard fence.  They went on the top of the fence, over the gate, on to the brick and into a crack in the caulk.    The other was in a tree in our front yard.   We tried for two weeks to rid them.   We finally called Orkin and both queens were killed in each Colony.   We were lucky, but it was worth it.   They never had a chance to destroy any wood.   

[mechanic]

Fire. Burn down your house. It's the only solution

[Barrett]

a teaspoon of boric acid, a teaspoon of sugar, a few drops of water and stir till it dissolves into a paste, put into a milk jug cap - place where your animals won't get at it - repeat as necessary

[pembquist]

The reputation in New England for carpenter ants was that they were a sign of decay and if you fixed the decay problem you fixed the ant problem. The way it was explained to me was that unlike termites which eat up good wood, or powder post beetles whose larvae like to snack with no tell tale bug trail, carpenter ants only eat or chew up already rotting wood. Don't know if this applies in your area but I'd be on the look out for dry rot.

[homersipes]

well, been through the attic, basement, and all outside.  Cant find where they are and don't see any bad timbers anywhere in the house.  it doesn't seem as though there are a whole lot of them, killed about 10 or so in last week.  Only thing I can think of is the trees behind the house which somewhat over hang the backside of garage.  maybe I will be cutting them down.