We have an invasion of those large, fat black ants running around our yard. I can't see where they are coming from but they show up everywhere. I think they came originally in a bag of mulch I opened up in the spring. Does anyone have any experience with them and know how to get rid of them? I am even finding them in the house!
Black Ants
Those big black ants are carpenter ants and they do as much damage to trees as termites. A few years ago I had a wild willow on the shore line that had a branch hanging back towards the shore and it kept getting lower and lower so finally I decided to cut it off. When the chainsaw got around 1/3rd of the way through it, it looked like an old SiFi movie there were thousands of them comming out of the limb so I called my wife to come with the spray and she sprayed as I cut. They also killed a weeping willow a few years before that. So kill them suckers.
We've been fighting carpenter ants for many years at our place. Professionals didn't seem to have any more success than I do. I buy only cedar mulch because I've been told it doesn't attract carpenter ants like other mulch does. Also, cleaning rain gutters is a MUST because they love tree debris in the gutters. Firewood stacks are a problem. Any cured wood that has been wet also a problem. Trim shrubs and trees so they don't touch the house and give the ants a "freeway" into your attic. Professional exterminator told me to go out at night with flashlight and maybe I could find where their nest is because they work at night. I spread ant bait between the house and where I thought they were coming from. Put ant bait in the fork of trees where there was debris. For now, they seem to be gone. BUT I'm not getting very excited because I've thought I got them before and they eventually appeared again.
Bummer! Sounds like I have a battle on my hands. Gonna have to get up there and check out those gutters and start spreading the ant poison. Just when you think you have things under control. I hate it when this happens!!!!!!!! :0)