Carpenter ants are eating my porch!
The ants are back at my house. Big shiny black ones that like to eat wood. They come in the summer, after the weather turns hot. Carpenter ants don’t show up uninvited; they’ve arrived to party down on the rotten wood at the bottom of the posts that hold up our porch roof. I know that I should fix the posts, but that takes a lot more time than stepping on the ants that move with amazing speed across the flagstone patio, trying to avoid my shoe. If you’re quiet, you can hear them pop.
I’ve spent considerable time sitting on the porch, thinking about what’s involved to fix the posts.
I’ll need a bottle jack to take the weight off, while I prop in some temporary posts made from 2x4s nailed together edge to face. Then I’ll have to slide in chunks of pressure-treated 6x6s set on metal standoffs that will keep the end grain of the pressure treated wood from sitting directly on the flagstone patio floor. I’ll need some 1x8 pine to trim out the new plinths, and then painting, then taking apart the temporary supports. It’s a lot of work.
In the meantime, I’m content to get up from my chair occasionally, walk over, and step on another ant. Pop.
(3) Comments
I have the same problem! Wow. I'd much rather sit in my chair, like this guy, and just THINK about it.
Something is leaving small debris behind on my window ledge in my lower level home & on my counter top. I see no activity of ants or termites. No tunnels, wings, or ants. What could this be. When I clean off the counter top the night before there is a good amount of debris on the counter the next morning. It is not mud, or wood shavings. Thanks for your help.
They are came from the soil. And I believe that they are Termites.