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lisa_h_gw

Please tell me these are ants....

Lisa_H OK
11 years ago

My house as been invaded by what I think are ants. I finally gave in on Sunday and sprayed along the inside wall of my living room. I had already sprayed on the outside of the house when I spotted the army of ants trying to invade my door frame. I swept up a bunch of insects yesterday. Today I noticed more dead ones had gathered, so I swept them up again. This time I noticed the wings...and it gave me pause...ants or termites?

I made an album with more pics...none are great, sorry! My camera really doesn't like closeups.

Here is a link that might be useful: More pics of Lisa's mystery insects

Comments (11)

  • slowpoke_gardener
    11 years ago

    I think they are some type of ant because of their thin waist.

    We have really had a bunch of them this year. Madge finally mixed up some boric acid and sugar and they are gone now, maybe they went to your house.

    Larry

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    11 years ago

    I think they might be black and red carpenter ants. Not all carpenter ants have wings, but some do. They come in different sizes too. There's lots of kinds of carpenter ants, so you might not find a photo online that exactly matches yours.

    They often swarm at this time of year.

    I've linked an image of one kind of winged carpenter ant to see if you can find a resemblance between your ants and the ants in the photo.

    Here is a link that might be useful:

  • Lisa_H OK
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Okay, I have been way more up close with those ants than I really wanted to be :) , but I think both of you are right. I do see a waist on them. My house had termites at some point before I owned it, but it was treated with the truly deadly stuff, so I have pretty much assumed it was all taken care of.

    Larry, please take back your ants!!!

    I just had my outside windows painted and the painter caulked up the joint where I saw the ants trying to get in, may be these are the ones trapped inside. Ewww.

  • helenh
    11 years ago

    I think they are ants.

    Here is a link that might be useful: termite or ant?

  • oklahawg
    11 years ago

    Related questions, but first the facts (so apologies for hijacking the thread!): the exterminator came by this week for his periodic visit. I have a lot of raised beds in the yard, and an arbor that has lost some slats over the years. Some of the wood has deteriorated and I was not surprised to hear from the exterminator that there were some termites in the back part of the yard.

    My wife is a total wreck now because the exterminator is hitting us up for a $1200 termite treatment plan. I don't see anything inside, and removed the affected wood that could easily be removed without major reconstruction of the bedding areas. The house is less than 20 years old. I do not have any raised beddings areas that touch the house.

    My questions:
    1. should I treat the yard area and then see if there is evidence of critters around the house at a later date?
    2. should I dismiss this as an exterminator trying to get to us for $1200?
    3. should I treat the house and take the $1200 hit?

    I am open to a good education as well as other advice!

  • Lisa_H OK
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I'm not an expert, but I have had termites in my yard before and they didn't come up to the house. I googled it back then and it seems like the general wisdom was that termites live in the environment, unless you see them at the house, I wouldn't worry about it. It is important to not use wood mulch next to the house. You don't want to invite them in :)

    I'm sure someone will come along with greater wisdom than mine!

    By the way, the pest control people are coming by next week to check the problem out. I suspect I have them in the wall. The guy didn't seem overly worried about it, didn't think they could have done as much damage as I was hyperventilating about. :) We will see. I had a water leak in that area last year and I am guessing that was the genesis of the problem.

  • helenh
    11 years ago

    I would expect wood on the ground in an area where you water to have termites. I would expect them to eat up the wood in a few years unless it was cedar or something like that. If you haven't seen swarms coming from the house and everything is dry under your house, I would not treat for termites. You can crawl under the house yourself and look for the mud tunnels.

  • helenh
    11 years ago

    Carpenter ants make tunnels in wet wood. If you have a leaky area they may make their homes there. They are bad but not as bad as termites.

  • oklahawg
    11 years ago

    I haven't seen anything in the house or garage. I need to make sure my wife and I can ID carpenter ants vs termites.

    Maybe a competing exterminator to give it a look see???

  • OklaMoni
    11 years ago

    Folks, does this picture help?

  • oklahawg
    11 years ago

    Hard to mistake them with that picture - thanks!

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