blueman writes:
We seem (like many in our neighborhood) to have a nagging number of
Carpenter ants around our New England house.

We bought Home Depot's "best" which supposedly "kills on contact",
however, the ants seemed to just swim through the stuff.

What are your recommendations for the most effective *consumer* spray
that effectively can be used against Carpenter ants? (both inside and
outside).

My perhaps faulty assumption is that anything sold nowadays to
consumers will be reasonably safe.

The trouble with this, and the lawn care industry it seems is that
they don't seem to let us consumers buy the crap that actually works
best.

Maybe I'm a leming, but after trying some consumer baits and such to
no avail, I called Terminix when I had a black ant problem, and I
haven't seen those arthopod sons-a-bitches since. The first year is
somewhat pricey, but you can negotiate witht he local provider after
that and get a substantial discount.

I'm not trying to steer you that way, but I wanted to share my
disappointment with a variety of consumer level stuff in trying to
deal with my own ant problem. Doesn't cost much to try that stuff
though, so have at it!

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/