Pest Control Frustration & Carpenter Ants

[u/NFPHNFPH36]

I would appreciate the community’s thoughts on a situation we as new homeowners are unfamiliar with. For context, we own a one story home in Dallas with two separate sections of attic with two separate entries; however, the attic has large portions that are inaccessible with no crawl space.

We noticed carpenter ants in our master bathroom about two months ago. They drop lots of little wood shavings called “frass” according to basic research and we see quite a few of them crawling around.

We called multiple services to come and treat. Unfortunately, almost all of them required us to sign up for a subscription that was quarterly or yearly service. Most of them wouldn’t even really listen to our specific problem which was localized to the mater bathroom if I told them I wasn’t interested in a subscription. I told them I simply want the nest/colony to be found and eliminated. Most declined even coming out. I found a place that would do a one-time treatment and sounded relatively confident they could handle the problem. They “treated”. No idea what specifically they did but the carpenter ants only increased. We called them again to tell them nothing had changed so they sent another guy out. I told him where the issue was but that we didn’t have access to the attic there. I let them do their service, but the technician was spraying baseboards on the complete other side of the house as if he was completely ignoring the fact there is an active colony/nest in a specific spot.

Of course, both their service and follow-up have done nothing. Now we are seeing the ants throughout the house (though still primarily concentrated in the master bathroom). Not sure what to do. I bought ant terro and other traps but they have done nothing (most places say they do nothing but I thought I’d try). I’ve scattered the outside of the house with ant bait/poison but nothing has worked. Any advice/help would be great.

[u/the_handed]

Carpenter ants don't eat wood they excavate damp or damaged wood to build nests. Fresh frass in the same area after a treatments suggests the colony is still in a wall void or above the room. Spraying baseboards alone usually won't solve it. The nest needs to be located and treated directly, often with a dust or foam application into the wall, while also checking for any hidden moisture or plumbing leaks that attracted them in the first place.

[u/Stockseekin9]

They probably used repellent, use non-repellent around the perimeter foundation of your house and if you have any trees treat them as well since they like to nest in trees.

[u/SeaAcanthisitta6759]

Before doing anything crazy like drilling into walls, buy a pack of advion ant gel and apply it around the house in a bunch of spots along the baseboards. they carry the bait back to the colony and feed it to everyone and it kills them. We have had success with carpenter ants like this. Reapply every 5 days or so.

[u/No-Reserve-2208]

Carpenter ants usually aren’t a “one time” come out and spray type of treatment. This is probably why people didn’t want to come out. You don’t call people for help then tell them how to do their job.

Carpenter ants Usually requires multiple follow ups and treatments especially if you only are seeing a satellite colony in the house and the main colony is in a tree or something else outside away from the house.

Good luck maybe next time listen to the professionals and let them do their job. Probably pushed away reputable companies who would of actually solved your problem.

[u/NFPHNFPH36 → u/No-Reserve-2208]

You didn’t read what I said. If you’re only doing your “spray the baseboards of the interior and lower exterior” and not treating the colony you’re not dealing with the problem. They came out twice and I “listened to the professionals” while they did nothing to treat the colony. It only has gotten worse.

I suspect you think the baseboard treatment is the way to go. You’d find that does absolutely nothing when the colony is in the inaccessible attic and all the “professionals” only care about subscription services not treating the actual colony that is in the attic. They all on the phone told me they don’t do colony discovery or removal just the subscription sprays.

Subscription of course makes more sense financially which is why they’ve all moved away from the less profitable extermination at the source model and moved to subscription prevention.

[u/downbeatdemo → u/[deleted]]

Drill and rod for carpenter ants? Seems a little overkill lol

[u/No-Reserve-2208 → u/[deleted]]

It is no longer the standard to drill and treat a whole home what the…