Carpenter ants

[Bruno of NH]

In New Hampshire we have carpenter ants .
I run into them a lot in my contracting jobs .
I read on post here about carpenter bees are they the same thing ?
Jim  / Bruno of Nh

[Magicman]

No, not at all.  Carpenter ants live in moist decaying wood.  Carpenter bees look like bumble bees and love to bore holes in Cedar.  They will bore in other species, but in my area, Cedar is preferred.  Their hole is usually about ½" in diameter.  They lay their eggs there and will reuse the holes each year.

[StimW]

If you have a dwelling that gets infested a bug man told me the secret to treating the wood. You mix the pesticide with mineral spirits and it will soak into the wood.
Of course that was back when you could still buy Chlordane.  :(
Now not sure what you would use?

[dboyt]

I'm never happy to see ants (and the feeling is mutual, I'm sure), but they're part of the natural decay process.  You have to be very careful about pesticides for wood used inside homes.  Heat treating is the way to go.  Then you know you've got 'em.  This is especially important if you are selling the wood.

Sometimes the ants create a work of art that rivals what any woodworker could do!



 

[Chuck White]

A few years back, I found a bunch of them in a White Pine tree that I sawed up for a customer!

Up to a half inch long and scrambling everywhere when the log is opened!




 

[Magicman]

And they will also bite you.     :-\

[Nomad]

And they will also bite you.     :-\

     Yup.  Real common in the ERC I usually get, too. :

[backwoods sawyer]

Started off this last job with a log full of the little biting ants, they just poured out of that wrc log and took over the mill. By the end of the week they had five collums coming and going from the mill, one to the tailing pile, two to the lumber pile, one to the log pile and one right under my feet.
Split another log in half and it had another collony in it so I set both halves aside and they will be the last logs milled on this job.

And they will also bite you.     :-\

That they do, like 100 plus so far Nothing like sawing while doing the ant dance :

[Scott Sawdust]

So, if I cut up a log and it has carpenter ants, should I try to kill them? They should not attack wood in good fresh condition? Saw some today in a nice cherry log I was cutting.

[Magicman]

I just knock them off onto the ground.  They will crawl under and hide among the debris under the sawmill. 

Wasp spray will kill them which reminds me to pick up a can.  I am not concerned with carpenter ants, but I occasionally have a run in with Fire Ants.   :-\

[Chuck White]

A few years back I ran into lots of them in some White Pine at a customers site!



 



 

We just sawed around them, more or less!

They didn't bother us, they were just trying to get away.