Laurie Forbes wrote:
(...)
What are the best ways of controlling carpenter ants?
(...)

I don't have any pets or kids, so I mixed up a gallon of boric acid 'ant food'
and left it in several glass jars (punched lids) around the property.

Worked a treat.

Boric acid is a poison. Don't use eating utensils to mix it.

Snap on your face mask.
Funnel 10 teaspons of (99%) boric acid powder into a one gallon *plastic* jug.
Add 2 cups of sugar and one drop of liquid hand soap.
Add a quart of hot water. Cap and shake the jug.
Add hot water to make one gallon of solution.
Cap and shake to mix.

Empty and wash several glass jars with screw top lids.
Punch or drill many holes in each lid.

Fill the jars about halfway with the ant poison and place them around
the outside of your property. Also place jars where you see ants entering
the house.

The ants that don't fall into the jars will return to the nest with a load
of the solution, eventually killing the nest. The soap solution lowers the
surface tension of the solution, causing some of the floating ants to sink.

As a result of this operation, you may see one or more winged female ants flying
around your property in an effort to establish a new nest.

Punch them in the nose.

Hard.



Best of luck.

--Winston