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I’m a renovator located in Toronto and I’m about to build myself a cottage north of Toronto in an area known as the “Muskokas”. I know there are carpenter ants in the area and worry about infestation. Does anybody out there have any advive for building defences into my design? Also, while we’re on the subject, how about getting rid of them once you do have an infestation? Any help would be greatly appreciated. -Art
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Art, any house that is built right won,t be a home for carpenter ants. just obey all good building practices and you will discourage them. the only infest when wood has enugh moisture so there needs to be a problem like a leak or condensation for them to get started.
Actually i have certain fondness for them being a contractor that has done much renovation work over the past 20 years. i call them "money makers"
*Art, any house that is built right won't be a home for carpenter ants. just obey all good building practices and you will discourage them. they only infest when wood has enough moisture so there needs to be a problem like a leak or condensation for them to get started.Actually i have certain fondness for them being a contractor that has done much renovation work over the past 20 years. i call them "money makers"
*Ditto. They don't eat wood, they just make their home there. The presence of carpenter ants indicates (and accelerates) and existing problem. We are surrounded by carpenter ants, but they all moved out when I located the two nests, fixed the leakage/rot problems, and, uh, put out some poison bait.
*Ensure no debris is buried when the foundation is backfilled.Some suggestmixing a bit of boric acid in with the backfilled earth, especially in the top few feet.Use PT for your mudsill and put a termite shield there as well.Ensure the foundation has proper drainage piping installed as well as gutters/downspouts.If a poured foundation, keep it sufficiently moist the first 7-10 days of curing to minimize cracks.When fraiming, sprinkle some boric acid in the exterior wall stud cavitities as the insulation is being installed.
*OK, what I want to know is why these SOBs are called CARPENTER ants! They don't build anything! I'm gonna start referring to them as DEMOLITION ants! - jb
*It's true they don't eat the wood. But they do chew it, turn it into sawdust and destroy its structural properties in the process of building their home galleries.
*Jim you crazy fool,They're called carpenter ants because of their love for wood.Besides if you would pick up after yourself, they would never be able to read the How To Books you leave lying around and they would never learn to be carpenters. They would just remain uneducated ants, with no future.(I guess they would end up working for the government at a higher rate of pay and a fat pension, wait a second, whose the dumb animal here?)Gabe
*Sorry, I didn't mean to defend this critter too much. But compared to the termite they are relatively benign. If the wood is that damp it's not going to last long anyway, but finding all those gigantic ants makes it easy to blame them. Their damage usually results when the CARPENTER didn't do his or her job right -- maybe that's why they're called carpenter ants, they're the ants that annoy carpenters.Boric acid does appear to work, as does fixing the framing. What I bought is marketed mostly as a roach-killer.
*Where do you buy boric acid? Northern California
*I'm on the "right" coast, in NE, but here it's available in several hardware stores. One lumberyard also carries it as well.
*In Seattle, for what it's worth, boric acid can be found in K-mart-type stores in, of all places, the contact lens cleaning solution aisle. It's also wonderful for keeping bugs at bay in old, poorly maitained apartment buildings inhabited by at least one carpenter who can't seem to pick up after himself.
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I'm a renovator located in Toronto and I'm about to build myself a cottage north of Toronto in an area known as the "Muskokas". I know there are carpenter ants in the area and worry about infestation. Does anybody out there have any advive for building defences into my design? Also, while we're on the subject, how about getting rid of them once you do have an infestation? Any help would be greatly appreciated. -Art