# Termites and Carpenter Ants DIY



## Doug Locke (Aug 31, 2017)

My garage had 3 ten+ year old termite treatment drill holes in the floor.
Exterminator just checked everything out. He said no evidence of termites in the house.

1)BUT since the holes are there, is there and termiticide I can pour into the holes before sealing them up. (kind DIY of a precautionary treatment).

2)He said there is evidence of carpenter ants, quotes me $400 to spray around, said I should take care of it within the next year. I feel like if it was a bigger deal hed push to get it done ASAP. Is this something I can do myself for less?

3)He said for peice of mind I can do a sentricon system outside my home system in the future to make sure termites done get in. Again, is there a DIY'er cheaper alternative?


p.s. I just got laid off, for now I have time, I do not have extra cash. I prefer cheap and slow. over fast and expensive.


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

The suggestion of the Sentricon system would have been my first red flag, in my opinion it's a scam for many reasons.
If there's carpenter ants then some place there's an issue with wet wood.
Post a picture of the outside wall of the garage, no close ups needed.
Most often the siding is not high enough above grade, it should be 6" minimum, or the slab sticks out beyond the bottom plate.


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## Doug Locke (Aug 31, 2017)

joecaption said:


> The suggestion of the Sentricon system would have been my first red flag, in my opinion it's a scam for many reasons.
> If there's carpenter ants then some place there's an issue with wet wood.
> Post a picture of the outside wall of the garage, no close ups needed.
> Most often the siding is not high enough above grade, it should be 6" minimum, or the slab sticks out beyond the bottom plate.


^^^Doesntanswer my questions but if it helps Ill answer yours.

I do have termites in the back yard. We pulled out a stump that was pretty badly eaten up. Hence the Sentricon... he did say theres no evidence of termites (I wanted out the baseboards so he could thoroughly look in) 


I had found frass behind the toilet, the guy said it looks like there was an outter post beattle and they die out on there own so not to worry about that. 

BUT behind the same toiler also found a bunch of spider webs he said some of the little black spider dropping was carpenter ant remains. Also said there was some evidence of carpenter ants having damaged the shelves right by the inside of the garage door. 

I personally have seen exactly 3 carpenter ants in the house in the past 10 months



Photo of the garage wall, drill holes are inside, but arrow marks where they align to, garage is bone dry always









P.S. Does NOT need to be readTheres is a long thread regarding the holes in the garage, termite dude things the owner got a partial termite treatment but admitted only a shady company would only treat 3 holes.


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## Dave Sal (Dec 20, 2012)

Ref the carpenter ants, I'd recommend picking up some Terro liquid ant killer.
http://www.terro.com/terro-liquid-ant-killer
I had a problem with large black ants for the last few years, though they were mainly outside. I'd see them walking along the fence on the horizontal rail, back and forth, all day and night. I started putting a few drops of Terro on about four separate one inch square pieces of cardboard placed along their path and they would come and drink this stuff up till it was gone. I did this for a couple of weeks and all of a sudden they just disappeared. I've checked numerous times and there is no trace of them. This stuff works like a charm.


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