Re: FLORIDA CARPENTER ANT problem on outside of house

Jazz wrote:
The issue is that I never see them on the ground.

Was just cleaning my gutters today. I saw them just sitting ont eh
gutters or facia board doing nothing... like they were sleeping! There
is no water in teh gutters, but I can tell some of my facia board (due
to improper gutter installation) is rotting..

Went to a farm supply store with a few of the carpenter ants in a
ziplock thinking they could prperly identify them, no luck, he just
offered me somethign that killed them on contact and no bait..

Even if I had a bait, where would I place it? In my gutters? There is
supposed to be rain here for the next 3 days starting tonight... is
there a bait that can stick to the side of facia board?

Do I just need to cave in, call my exterminator, remove my gutters,
and replace rotted facia board?

Forget about the ants .. fix the rotted fascia and make sure roof and rafters are dry and sound. Termite inspection a good idea. I will repeat .. the ants arent the major problem. The rotted fascia is the problem. If you feel you really MUST put out bait, then wait for dusk and place the bait on their trails .. easy to trail them. Hubby and I spent a good deal of our time watching various insect pests when he was condo building manager. Disturb a carpenter ant nest with a hard stream of water from the hose and they come pouring out, carrying their babies.

They also nest in rotted limbs and cavities in trees .. one good reason for keeping tree limbs off the house/roof. They occ. come indoors for food, but only when access is easy. We had rotted limbs in hedges, rotted fence, rotted wood trim on building 8 yrs. ago, so had loads of carpenter ants. When we got things cleaned up and repaired, the ants were gone. They like leaf and vegetable debris, so sometimes the palms are full of them, but that is a problem for the tree trimmer.. he can move very fast when he must :o)
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