Community Chat

[BigOrangeKitty]

My neighbor has found 7 or 8 black carpenter ants in her house and is terrified now and wants to call an exterminator, like Orkin, I suppose. She lives in an older home. Has anyone had experience with this sort of thing and can you give me an idea of the cost for such an inspection? Thanks.

[WaJa61]

Hi, BigOrangeKitty. I'm sorry your friend has carpenter ants. We've had to go to battle with those pests, too. It's good that she's spotted and identified them, hopefully before they have caused much damage to her home. They can be as destructive as termites. The typical rule of thumb is, if you see a few, you have many. The cost for the initial inspection is usually not too bad. She can call around locally to ask. Then the cost to treat will depend on how much area must be covered and how bad the infestation is. We had plugs bored into the ground around our home's foundation that protects from most ants and some other crawling insects for up to 12 years. Less danger to our pets and so far (3 years now) so good. Good luck to your friend!

[RedTop]

I agree that your neighbor needs to call in a professional exterminating company to deal with her problem. This is not something she can take care of on her own; she needs professional help to protect her home.

We have termite protection on our home through Dodson Pest Control, and have been dealing with this company for about 27 years. We contacted them after finding the beginnings of a termite infestation in our crawl space. We were not charged for the initial inspection, but just paid for the actual termite treatment, which meant treating the wood where the termites were found, saturating the ground in the crawl space, drilling holes in our basement floor to treat that area, and treating the entire perimeter of our house. The initial treatment cost about $700. When we added on to our house, Dodson came out to treat the addition for about $250. Our annual renewal fee for lifetime termite protection on the house is $80. Five years ago we found termites in the ground outside the house, and Dodson came immediately and treated that area at no charge. We have found this company to be very reliable and helpful, and they are the first company I refer people to when an exterminator is needed.

Wishing your friend well with whatever decisions she has to make to protect her home.

[BigOrangeKitty]

Thank you for the replies. And here's a funny story. I googled best ant baits to see what I could recommend for her and found pages of reviews for Torro liquid ant baits. People raved about them! The only things that work, like a miracle! However, what sounded bad to me was that as soon as you put these things out, hundreds - milliions - of ants come out of everywhere to them, and you can't kill them, you have to let them feast and carry the stuff back to their nest. Reviewers claim that in a couple of days no more ants. I told her about them and she went and bought them, but was afraid to set them out so as not to see the horror show reviewers described. So she initially saw the 7 or 8 black carpenter ants, then nothing for a few days then maybe 3 or 4 more when she turned the kitchen light on one night, which freaked her out. She opened the bait traps and put three of them outdoors around the foundation (one reviewer said why put them inside the house and attract more ants, put them outside). She also put two in the house, one under the kitchen sink and one in the kitchen. Afraid to go to sleep, she tried, with the light on! The next morning she was terrified to look at the traps but when she did .... she found nothing. They were empty. The ones outdoors were empty also. She hasn't seen any more ants YET and now wonders if these bait traps perhaps don't work or what is going on.

[chickenbutt]

We use a local company (well, plus my husband knows the guy) once a year and that has been working well. I didn't have the best luck with Orkin but I get that experiences with different locations probably vary.

Thankfully, we don't have bugs in winter. But during the season we mostly would have these teeny tiny little ants. He gave me some gel that is awesome to kill off all the ants once and for all, for the year anyway.

One thing I found is that those ant bait things you can buy in the store did absolutely NOTHING for these little bitty ants. The exterminator gel - just a dot of that and it will attract them all, they take it back, and within a day they are all gone.

He only charges us $80 for spraying around the house and fully under the house. I cannot have spraying INSIDE the house because of me and the bird for, probably, obvious reasons.

Other than that, I just see the occasional spider or earwig. Ugh - cannot stand the earwigs. Since I've put the baggie with water and a penny on all entrances to my house I don't get a single fly in the house. I'm super glad for that as flies are just almost the grossest thing ever.

[BigOrangeKitty]

Update - neighbor found ONE black ant in the bait trap under her sink. She went into a panic, set out 10 more bait traps in the house and went to her daughter's for the weekend! We'll see what happens when she returns. Chickenbutt, what is this baggie with water and a penny all about?

[chickenbutt]

Kitty- What you do is take a quart size ziplock baggie (I use the freezer ones, as they are heavier) and half-fill it with water. Then put a penny in there and zip it up. Put it at entrances or areas where you don't want flies. It works like a charm!

I've heard of people putting them around the area when they have outdoor parties to keep the flies at bay.

When I first read about this, several years ago, I thought - 'well, this sound like hooey'. But it works better than I ever would have imagined.

I guess the combination of the water and the coin cause some kind of phenomenon that is extremely irritating to all those eyes that flies have so they don't want to come near.

Whatever it is - I've had 3 flies in my house in the past 3 years and two of those were because I had carpet installed two years ago and the guys left my front door open for a couple of hours.

I never had a HUGE fly problem but, for me, one fly is a big problem.

[Lagan]

We had a dreadful problem with carpenter ants a few years ago. No amount of indoor/outdoor spraying helped much, until I suggested to the exterminator that he might drill some small holes in the drywall under the picture window and spray in there. He did, and it worked! It is just so hard to get to the nest sometimes. They are scary - some of them looked big enough to saddle, lol!

[SelahG]

We brought them in with the firewood one year. Luckily, we caught them early and DH was vigilant about spraying and then using gel bait and wiped them out.

[BigOrangeKitty]

Thanks, Chickenbutt, these things are good to know! Update on the neighbor. She set out all those ant bait traps and went away for the weekend. Came back and they were all empty. Doesn't know if ants visited them or not. No sign of ants anywhere since she returned 3 days ago ......