[SteveFord]

The plaster by my front picture window was always a little weird and bubbly but I just chalked it up to who knows.
Recently, it started bulging and spreading so I called up a window repair guy (who liked the stereo) but said that's not a window gasket issue.
I then called a local contractor (who told me stories about his brother's tube amp and blasting AC/DC when his mom wasn't around) and he said probably water damage as they didn't put some sort of upper shield on the vinyl siding.
Two of his guys came over and pulled off the siding and under neath there were thousands of carpenter ants in there and they had eaten away most of the outside sill and were working on the beams leading up to the ceiling.  They said I caught it just in the nick of time as the house was about to start sagging.
I guess the majority of the house exterior is cedar so they didn't go to town on that, thank God. 
This pic shows the finished work, they did a really good job.


I said I'd handle the inside section and ugh, what a horrible job.
Today I banged away the bubbled plaster which shows just how far they had gotten.
What I thought was crumbled mortarboard was actually brown, damp, disintegrated, vile smelling clumps of what used to be fiberglass insulation. It was horrible.
Inside the plaster was a colony of those little pissants running around with eggs in their mouths so I sucked those things up with a shop vac and after I got off all of the rotted plaster and cleaned it out I hit it with ant spray and am going to let it dry out for about a week.
Here's how the living room looks right now:



Those carpenter ants are bad news.

[ArthurDent]

Good that you found them when you did. Those suckers will reduce most any damp wood to swiss cheese & dust much like termites, though they don't eat the wood. I've used those shake bags of ant killer around the foundation for a number of years, which seems to help keep all types from invading the house.

Good luck with the restoration. 

[SteveFord]

Thanks, they're in the back sun room, too.
I'm going to try different types of poisons but I'm pretty sure the siding will be coming off sooner or later.
I didn't know it but they're really active at night: I got up at 4 AM and there were dozens of them going up the back steps.

[jtcf]

Carpenter ants only nest in water damaged wood,never in normal dry wood.You'll have to remove all of the wet wood and prevent more water from coming in.Good luck!

[SteveFord]

The contractor said whoever put up the siding neglected to install some sort of top and bottom bits which keep the water out. 
The carpenter who did the work said they probably got in through an old empty screw hole.

NOW they are making a beeline for the sun room on the back of the house so Terminex will be out Tuesday.
I'm going to poison their butts.

[JakeJ]

Sorry to hear about this.  I had an infestation of a south American grease eating ant that drove me nuts at a previous residence.  They got into the outside wall of my kitchen and then inside the house.  I would track them back to thier entry point ans seal it up with silicone caulk.  I went through a dozen tubes of silicone before I removed the siding and cut into the wall from the outside.  Under the siding was 10" wide tongue and groove boards.  I had done the flooring when I moved in and all of the floors are 10" tongue and groove.  When I had the place reroofed they found all the base was also 10" tongue and groove.  The entire building is tongue and groove on a stick frame!  It was govt housing so whoever got the contract to provide all that T&G for hundreds of homes made a mint!

Anyway, after I got all the ants cleaned out and sealed up every hole and crack I replaced all the T&G with a cut to fit piece of plywood which a screwed and glued everywhere it touched the framing,  sealed the entire edge with silicone, and reinstalled the original siding.  I never had another ant in the kitchen.  I will also give shout out to Amdro Ant Block, a similar product to what Arthur refers to.  Worked well to help keep them out.
https://www.amdro.com/all-products/ant-block-home-perimeter-ant-bait-granules

[WGH]

When everything is opened up you may want to douse the framing with Tim-bor.

"It may used as as a liquid, foam or dust, and provides long term protection against insects(drywood and subterranean termites, wood boring beetles, carpenter ants and decaying fungi."

https://store.doyourownpestcontrol.com/tim-bor-professional-insecticide?gclid=CjwKCAjwzruGBhBAEiwAUqMR8Out_HYTdssPnfh5Fpui3nPmsa341fnCppfj8uG4HMHYB371bugPQxoCCh4QAvD_BwE

[SteveFord]

So far, so good.
I don't know what they use but those ants DISAPPEARED.
He'll come back in a month for another dousing and some of their super toxic granules.

[S Clark]

I don't know what they use but those ants DISAPPEARED.

I think I'd ask. 

[djbnh]

So far, so good.
I don't know what they use but those ants DISAPPEARED.
He'll come back in a month for another dousing and some of their super toxic granules.

Steve, when working my way through college I got trained did pest exterminating in blocks of apartments in the University city area of Phila. I took those skills post-graduation with me, and have put them to good use when I landed years ago in the NH woods.

From early spring thru early fall I do preventive / prophylactic pump spraying monthly all around the exterior foundation of our rural NH home, starting from the ground about 2' away from the foundation and upward on the foundation / house to a height of about 3' above the ground (we have pine clapboards that all are above ground level, and I try to keep shrubs from laying on the house as they'll hold onto water for a while and can promote wood rot), as well as parts of our decks (wasps like to build nests underneath the rail cap between the tops of the balusters; ants like to climb support posts / woodwork). Applying the product every month very effectively keeps all kinds of ants / bugs outside. I use "Bayer 40oz Complete Insect Killer For Lawns", you need 3 TBSP/gallon of water, for foundation application, and I use about two gallons of water per application. So far so good.

For carpenter ants, Bioadvanced makes its CARPENTER ANT & TERMITE KILLER PLUS CONCENTRATE, about $20 for a 40 oz concentrate container. Might want to think about investing in a sprayer once your carpenter ant army is ousted / under control, so you keep the wee beasties on the run / in their graves. Good luck.

[S Clark]

keep the wee beasties on the run

A student of Von Leeuwenhoek, I see.   

[SteveFord]

I'm going to get that concentrate, thanks!

Went out there last night, they're not gone, still making a beeline into the siding around the sun room.

[WGH]

I was battling leaf cutter plants for years until I found Amdro Ant Block. Over couple of nights leaf cutter ants can strip a plant of every leaf. My neighbor has them too and we tried all types of sprays, we killed thousands of those ants by spraying their trails and mound but they would always pop up somewhere else.

Amdro Ant Block works by killing the colony, the ants carry it into the nest and feed on it. As ants die the survivors carry the dead out and drop them outside the hole, I have seen piles of dead ants from just a tablespoon of Amdro. The trick is timing, it doesn't work all the time. Leaf cutter ants are also called night ants, like your ants they avoid the sun. The Amdro has to be sprinkled around the nest entrance but not in it. The scout ants that are the first to come out at dusk have to find the Amdro, then the worker ants gather it in. Once the worker ants are on a mission they can't be distracted by a new food source so half the time the Amdro is ignored or pushed out of the way.

Good luck.

Controls acrobat ants, Argentine ants, carpenter ants, crazy ants, nuisance ants, odorous house ants, pavement ants, Pharaoh ants and 17 other species.

[richidoo]

Carpenter ants have two cravings at different times of the year:

Sweet- https://store.doyourownpestcontrol.com/maxforce-fleet

Meat/Fat- https://store.doyourownpestcontrol.com/advance-375a-select-ant-bait

I put them both down at the same time when I see them.

I had a nest under my gas fireplace bumpout, in the fiberglass insulation. The fireplace jutted out 2 feet over the foundation and had only vinyl siding eaves covering with vent holes in it, perfect for ant nest. I cleaned that all out, left out the insulation and sprayed it with ant spray. They have not returned.

I also have used sugar + borax 8:1 successfully. Thin syrup for ant line or dry candy crystals for random carpenter scouts. It works good.

[SteveFord]

The carpenter ants returned to the sun porch so I got some sort of carpenter ant granule stuff at Home Depot, hit the area with a garden hose and sprinkled the stuff down.
I do believe that finally polished them off but I'm not going to cancel my contract with Terminex quite yet!

They're still running up and down that one tree out front and I've got little carpenter ant poison traps out and those granules but no luck quite yet.  The numbers appear to be down but they're prolific little monsters.