GETTING RID OF CARPENTER ANTS AT THE COTTAGE

For cottagers in Ontario, carpenter ants are almost a given inside and outside your cottage, from spring to fall.

Indoors, these ants seem to be everywhere, coming in an endless parade - scurrying across the floor, beds and furniture, hanging out around garbage bins and sinks and crawling on uncovered food or bars of soap.

For many, seeing these larger ants inside, and in large numbers, can be alarming. It makes them wonder how they got inside, how many more are there, and how to get rid of them. 

Are Carpenter Ants Really That Bad?

Yes. These cottage pests infest wood, and depending on their infestation size, can cause mild to severe structural damage. 

Carpenter ants are often mistaken for termites who eat the wood they infest. Carpenter ants don’t eat wood, rather they live in moist or rotten wood, which is easy to burrow through and build their nests and colonies in. As their colonies grow, they infest dry, undamaged wood, like load bearing beams or foundations. They will also eat Styrofoam, stucco and insulation.

While their ideal habitat is outdoors nesting in damp and decaying wood like logs, stumps, wood piles and dead trees, they are attracted to wood, plain and simple. And if the wood in your cottage foundation, floors, walls, windows, doors, deck or dock is deemed inhabitable, they will invade, nest and build their colonies. So, if you’re seeing a large number of carpenter ants outside or inside your cottage that is a sign that there is decaying wood in or around your cottage.

Unfortunately, all too often the damage carpenter ants cause goes unnoticed until it’s severe and costly.

How Can I Tell if I Have Carpenter Ants?

The first and most important thing to do is to determine if the type of ant bothering you is in fact a carpenter ant. Ants have been around since the dawn of the dinosaurs and there are around 13,000 different types of ants in the world. What works to get rid of some ant species, does not work on other ant types, so it’s imperative that the ant type be identified correctly.

Carpenter ants have distinguishing features that make them easy to identify:

• They are much larger than other ants, about ½ inch or greater in length.
• They have a shiny black body.
• They have an evenly rounded outline of their thorax when viewed from the side.

Visit our pest library to learn more about ants and the most common types in Ontario.

Once you have confirmed you have carpenter ants, the next important thing to do is to try to find their nest. Finding the nest will give you a better sense of any damage already done and the severity of the actual carpenter ant infestation. 

Here are tips to help you locate a carpenter ant nest in your cottage:

• Observe any indoor ants to see if there is any pattern of movement, specifically are they moving in and out of the cottage or moving around inside the cottage.
  • If they are moving in and out of the cottage, they are likely nesting outside, but coming inside for a snack or meal.
• Carpenter ants are more active at night so wait until dark and use a flashlight to locate and monitor them.
• Focus on areas inside your cottage where there is or could be damp wood and moisture, like around sinks, doors and window frames and ceilings.
• Look for small piles of sawdust inside the cottage, which are remnants of the wood they have already tunneled through in building their nest(s).
• Look for a high concentration of ants in a single spot, which may be at or near their nesting site.
• Check to see if the ants are carrying anything, like food (dead or living insects or food crumbs) or whitish-coloured eggs.
  • If they are carrying food, and moving it out of the cottage, their nest is likely outdoors, but if they are carrying food around inside, the colony is likely inside.
  • If carrying eggs indoors, this is often a sign that the colony is being moved, either from outside to inside (as it is more habitable with lots of food and water), or it is being moved to a new location inside, which could be a sign of a much larger infestation.
• If it is springtime, and you see carpenter ants flying around inside your cottage, that is almost always a sign that a nest is inside. When carpenter ants fly, they are mating, and when done, the female will land, discards her wings, and proceed to find a favourable nesting site nearby.

How to Prevent Carpenter Ants at the Cottage:

To prevent carpenter ants from infesting your cottage, follow these tips which help prevent easy entry indoors and create less favourable living conditions for them:

• Seal all exterior cracks and crevices.
• Use door sweeps and weather stripping on doors and windows.
• Regularly repair or replace damaged or damp wood on the inside or outside of your cottage.
• Fix any leaking faucets and hoses.
• Trim back all tree branches, bushes and foliage so these do not touch or brush up against your cottage’s exterior.
• Clear damp and decaying wood piles or debris from around your cottage’s exterior.
• Remove decaying tree stumps that are close to your cottage.
• Move wood piles, like firewood or construction materials, away from your cottage and store them off the ground and covered to keep dry.
• Avoid storing firewood piles inside your cottage.
• Keep your cottage floors clean and dry with regular sweeping, mopping and vacuuming.
• Keep counters, sinks, and eating areas sanitized, dry and crumb-free.
• Store dry goods, including dry pet food, in tightly sealed containers.
• Put away food items immediately after meals or snacking, making sure to take the time to wipe clean high sugar or greasy condiments containers, like jam, syrup, salad dressing and BBQ sauce.
• Avoid leaving out uncovered food, especially proteins and sugary foods.
• Don’t leave out filled or dirty pet dishes, as ants are attracted to their protein-rich food. Feed your pets at designated times, and immediately wash their dishes.

How Do I Get Rid of Carpenter Ants?

Carpenter ants, and ants in general, can be very difficult to get rid of once an infestation has taken place. This is because their nests are challenging to locate, whether inside or outside your cottage, and by the time an issue is found, the population has reached infestation levels.

If carpenter ants have nested outside your cottage but are coming indoors it’s likely because they are finding a readily available food source, which they are bringing back to their nest.  To keep them from coming back in, make your cottage less inhabitable and accessible by implementing the carpenter ant prevention tips above (which will also help you keep other cottage pests like mice, wood cockroaches, spiders and mosquitoes).

If a nest is found indoors, you can try to use a vacuum to suck up the ant population. Depending on the size of the ant colony and how elaborate and extensive their nest is, this may not help eliminate all of the carpenter ants infesting your cottage. Overall, DIY methods are all too often not successful and off-the-shelf ant bait traps (liquid or powder) are often ignored by carpenter ants and ineffective in eliminating them.

While prevention is key, in some situations you may take all the preventative measures possible and still find you have a carpenter ant infestation and ongoing issues, which can never be able to 100% resolved. Do take comfort in knowing that there are effective ways to control and manage these pests so that your cottage is more protected, and your cottage living experience is more relaxing and stress-free.

If you think you have a carpenter ant infestation, your best course of action is to call a trusted professional pest management company who specializes in cottage living pest control, like Environmental Pest Control. We’d be happy to help you address carpenter ant issues (and other common nuisance pests), so you can focus on enjoying your summer at the cottage.