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RE: Dismantling our Cherry Tree Part Four: Carpenter Ants
howdy sir ironshield! we haven't had them personally but being in the real estate business for 12 years it was a common occurrence to find them and have them taken care of by professionals, it's too important to try and do it yourself but you don't have that problem if they are just in the that one tree.
as long as you keep your eye out for signs you should be okay or if you want to make sure you should have the pros come out for an inspection if the tree is close to the house, they cost much, I think usually $50-$75 and can save your house.
I've been wondering if we should have the house checked once we get the tree down. I think all the flying ones pretty much got squashed, so I doubt we have new colonies going up everywhere; and I haven't seen any ants at all in the house this year though we used to see a few before I got rid of the dead wood on our tree in front.
howdy today @lturner! hey do you guys have a basement? that's the easiest way to check for carpenter ants and I can tell you what to look for if you do.
Yes, we do have a basement - what should we look for and thank you!
howdy there lturner! sorry I didn't get to my comments very fast today. what you do is walk around and look at the top of the basement walls, hopefully the basement isn't finished right?
It the basement isn't finished you walk around and look for any dust type material on the wood at the top of the wall or going down the wall, if there are any spider webs those are excellent to catch that dust like debris that carpenter ants leave.
If you didn't know what you were looking for you would just think it was dusty. You also take a good sized screwdriver and poke that wood at the top of the walls, if it's soft then you rip some off or dig some out and then you'll be able to see signs like you did out in the Cherry tree but you guys
aren't going to see anything I'm sure.
The chances of them spreading to the house are very small.
if you do see damage, call the pros, they charge about 80 or $90 for inspection and $250 or so for treatment.
Thanks for the advice, @janton! I'll check the walls, but I haven't noticed sawdust like I had at the foot of the cherry tree, so hopefully all is still well.
yes Ma'am I'm sure you don't have any issues.