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Re: GBlist: Carpenter ants
Ron Hughes wrote:
>
> Anybody have any ideas for least toxic strategy for dealing with carpenter
> ants that are starting to show themselves this winter a dozen or so at a
> time in the pantry of a five year old house built on a crawl space in
> southern Missouri.
My son keeps asking me why we don't smoosh bugs (an arbitrary rule that
I made) he says everybody else smooshes bugs. I don't have an honest
reason for him because I grew up smooshing bugs but I thought at some
point we have to form a decent relationship with other living things by
not smooshing them and maybe we might learn something. In this case, as
Terry pointed out earlier, the bugs are telling us something. There is a
nice moist area in the walls around that pantry. Cure the moisture
problem and when they grow wings they will probably not return.
We have a lot of carpenter ants in the area and I have looked at the
interior of walls from a number of houses built in the 30's that have
had major infestations at some point in their history. The ants only
create paths through the wood and nesting areas adjacent. I have not
seen any damage that I would consider structural as a direct result from
insect activity. The damage that is structural is more a result of decay
from fungal activity as a result from continuous moisture in the area.
Don't smoosh the messenger. Another sad result is workers having to be
protected from pesticide residue still contained in wall sections of
these old houses, not to mention what happens to the residual materials
taken out of these places, not to mention previous occupant health, soil
conditions, and the health of the ants.
John Salmen
TERRAIN E.D.S.
terrain@seaside.net
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