How to Get Rid of Carpenter Ants in Walls

We’ve all heard of having ants in our pants, but ants in our walls? That sounds like an enormous problem, especially when the ants in question are half-an-inch long.

Carpenter ants are known for taking up residence in your home, and slowly helping that home collapse. The only way to get rid of them is to destroy their nest, and often those nests are buried deep within the walls of your home.

Let’s find out how to get rid of carpenter ants in walls!

How to Get Rid of Carpenter Ants in Walls

As we mentioned previously, the only way to eliminate carpenter ants from your home is to get rid of their nest.
Unfortunately, carpenter ant nests are a challenge to locate. They are often found in the most out-of-sight areas of your home, such as the empty pockets between your walls.

Carpenter ants hide their nests here for two reasons. Firstly, it’s unlikely that any predators will come upon the nest if it is deeply nestled within the walls. Secondly, the ants have immediate access to the internal wooden structure of your home.

Though carpenter ants don’t eat rotting wood, they do use it for building their nests. Over time, this can result in some pretty severe damage, so you’ll want them gone as soon as possible.

This leads us to the first step in getting rid of carpenter ants in walls: Finding them!

How to Find Carpenter Ants in Walls

One way to find carpenter ants in your walls is to tap along the wall and listen for a hollow sound. Hard, un-splintered wood will give a thick, robust sound in response to a knock. But damaged wood will produce a far lighter, more hollow tone.

Unfortunately, this is not a sure-fire way to locate nests. For the best and most efficient carpenter ant eradication, it is vital to contact a pest control specialist.

If you have already located a nest or several, proceed onward for tips on how to kill the queen.

How to Get Rid of Carpenter Ants in Your Walls

After you’ve located the nest or nests in your home, getting rid of carpenter ants is actually quite straight-forward: Insecticide.

However, there are many different types of insecticide from which to choose. Some contain many harsh and dangerous chemicals, while others are relatively non-toxic to humans. The choice to either go natural or go chemically is entirely dependent on you and your preferences.

Perhaps the most effective of all the non-toxic insecticide options for carpenter ants is boric acid. While boric acid should not be ingested or inhaled by any person, it is far less harmful than alternatives such as bleach or poison-laden sprays.

Boric acid, when applied in powder form, coats the legs and bodies of the ants. When the ants clean themselves off, they ingest the boric acid. This powder hits their stomachs hard, poisoning them immediately. A large amount of boric acid can be sprinkled throughout the walls, making it more effective.

However, a boric acid solution or powdering may not be as effective as professional pest control management techniques and practices.

This is especially true for homes with multiple nests in difficult-to-reach areas. You may be able to find one, or several carpenter ant nests in your home without assistance. But you may also want to have a little backup when treating them.

Getting rid of most, but not all of the nests ensures that you’ll soon have to deal with your pest control problem again. A professional service can quickly and efficiently help you locate and destroy any nests in your home, or on your property.