I recently discovered carpenter ants in our home that we purchased a
few monts ago and believe I have found the main colony. We live in a
heavily wooded area and in the living room have exposed pine beams that
still have the bark which the ants love I'm sure. It is in the end of
one of these beams that I've discovered the ants. When we bought the
home some of the oaks had grown over the house and were laying on the
roof which is probably how they got inside.

I've treated the heck out of this log when a poison that is indicated
for carpenter ants and it seems to be doing the trick. Throughout the
day and mostly in the morning I find dead ants that have dropped to the
floor. Sometimes I see some crawl out of the log alive, but they are
already convulsing and die within short order. This has been going on
for two or three weeks.

My question is how long should I expect it to take to completely kill
this nest. I've treated everywhere I believe there is an entry point
into the nest and have also treated the outside of the house. Also, I
believe the water source for this nest was the rain gutter that runs
along the backside of the house as the end of nest is only a couple of
feet from the gutters. The gutters were due for a cleaning--the excess
leaves were keeping the water in the gutter from drying out.

Thanks.
bwm

I seem to try to answer a lot of questions I don't really know the
answer to. Ants are insidious, I had this deal in a shed and was
amazed at how they just turned the whole thing into their habitat. I
ended up tearing down the shed and having it hauled away so I don't
know your answer but wanted to suggest that even if you think you have
them beat that you may want to have someone come out and inspect and
treat. they could be in parts of you house you can't even reach or
whatever.

i've had a wall full of bees one time too. could hear something
buzzing but could not figure out what it was for the longest time. it
was a giant bees nest between 2 studs in an exterior wall. bees were
coming in and out of a hole in the caulk outside that was a hair wider
than a bee. in the warm weather there'd be a big cloud of them and i'd
spray them and fog them and whatever and there were always more.
finally i had to put up a ladder (their access hole was 25' up) and
take a tube of caulk and a fire extingusiher up with me. hit those
suckers with the fire extinguisher, which rocked their boat, and then
filled up the whole with caulk. they all died inside the wall, i went
in from the inside to check later.

home ownership...priceless.