[sjbrian]

found an interesting surprise this evening. i recently sealed some oak log end grains. tonight i went to my shop and noticed an ant trail leading to my wood. seems the ants decided to make a nest in one of the logs. never saw that before. they went in right where a knot was. has anyone seen this before? got rid of that wood right away.

[EdO]

They'll do that. See it quite often in standng trees in this area. Fire ants in particular.

[Lynn O. Doughty]

My property is full of oak trees and they're all full of ants. Black ants! When a tree dies around here it's usually because of ants. However, a few ants in the wood shouldn't be enough to ruin the whole log. Sometimes they charge extra for those holes.

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

All you need is a pet ant eater! lol

[AlArchie]

Ants' huh? We don't have termites around here, but do have "carpenter ants". They are nearly as destructive as termites but not quite so prolific. These guys are about an inch long, dark brown in color, and have a pretty impressive set of pincers, although they are not very aggressive toward people...just wood. You may see them swarming anytime during the summer......large number of medium sized ants with wings taking to the air. Most of these are about half an inch long, but the queens will be 1" or even larger.

If you find these guys in your wood pile, start to check around your homes foundation for signs of their activity. What you want to look for are little piles of "sawdust" emanating from behind siding, support posts or anwhere wood touches or is near the ground. If you catch them early enough, you can treat the entrance points with a good soaking of insecticide...there are some around now that are fairly safe, but be careful handling them anyway, and particularly around any place kids will be playing.

They do take quite a while to cause major damage (several years if undetected), but I've had them totally devour two sections of 4x6 headers above my detached garage's doors and both outer 2x8 stringers behind the fascia on my front porch, and the support columns and rafters on my back porch. This was on an old home we purchased and re-did, so it had been unnoccupied for many years and neglected for most of those. Still I keep an eye out for these destructive little boogers now, and have caught them before they get started on our house and outbuildings now.

so, if you find these guys in your woodpile, start checking your own house, before they do.

Al

[susieq]

Lord how I hate ants!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They are a scourage (sp?) here in Florida. We have all of the above mentioned. Many of the older homes in the state are invaded by something the pest control peopel call "crazy ants" because they (unlike other ant varieties) never seem to be organized. They mill about wildly, going every which way with no plan. Little black ants. They are not biters thank God, but they settle and live in the walls of the home and it is very hard to get rid of them because you cannot get to them to kill them. Our home is nearly 40 years old and about 5 or 6 years ago, the crazy ants arrived. I am constantly doing battle with them.

Before that, we had carpenter ants in the house. Huge devils. I got rid of them with a product called "Terro". It is a thick clear sticky sweet liquid with a poison in it. Boric acid, I believe. And it is fairly inexpensive. The pest control people recomended it for all the other ants we have. Said it wouldn't work on the carpenter ants but they were wrong. Those are the only ants I have been able to get rid of so far.... They were very active on the outside of the house at night. I discovered them by accident out there when I took the dog out for the last time at night before bed....all over the eves of the house and the roof.
So I got the ladder out and just put a few drops of Terro out for them to see what would happen. Boy did they go for it. When I saw them go for the Terro, I was up there for a few minutes every night, putting out fresh Terro for them. They came to collect it and carry it back to the nest and before long, they were completely gone.

Then we were invaded by a nasty, mid sized red ant that I know to be a biting ant. I am still doing battle with them and the crazy ants. I have access to proffessional pest control products and sometimes I think I am gaining ground but I can't quite get rid of them. I hate ants worse than any other bug, even spiders and that is saying something!

That Terro is great stuff and a lot of hardware stores carry it. I was buying it at Ace Hardware here locally. It is probably the least expensive and least toxic to humans of any pest control product you can use that actually works.
susieq