Advice on carpenter ants
I’ve had a carpenter ant problem in my detached garage since we moved in. It was never absolutely terrible, but every spring they come back. Over the last few weeks I finally decided to go on the offensive before calling an exterminator because the estimates I got here in Northern NJ were in the $700 to $1000 range, which honestly feels insane for carpenter ants.
So far I’ve been using:
• Terro liquid ant bait stakes
• Terro perimeter ant bait granules
• Niban granular bait
• Fuse Foam in cracks/voids
For the last two weeks, the results have actually been pretty interesting. Almost every time I go into the garage now, there are dozens of the large non winged carpenter ants on the floor twitching, walking in circles, barely moving, or seemingly dying. That makes me think the bait is definitely affecting them and getting back into the colony somehow.
What changed in the last 48 hours is I suddenly started seeing winged carpenter ants. Some look normal, others are also twitching and acting poisoned. Today when I backed my car out, there were literally two clusters of winged ants hiding under where the tires had been parked. I leaf blew them all into the driveway and within seconds a bunch of robins descended on them like it was an all you can eat buffet.
So my question is:
Does this sound like I’m actually winning the battle and the colony is stressed/dying, or does the appearance of winged ants mean I’m losing and the colony is thriving?
I also tried a sugar/salt mixture after seeing videos claiming they carry it back to the queen, but I’m skeptical that’s doing much compared to the real bait products.
One thing that stuck with me was reading a Reddit comment from an exterminator who basically said he almost feels bad charging people huge money for carpenter ants because they’re usually pretty easy to get rid of if you stay persistent.
So with all that in mind:
Am I on the right track here?
Anything else I should be doing before spending a grand on exterminators?