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Kokua Line
Question: Recently, someone asked about the black ants problem. What we'd like to know is, doesn't anyone have problems with the bigger ants (carpenter ants, we think)? Our neighbors have only black ants. How can that be? Is it attracted to something we have on our house, our yard? We noticed the ants after my neighbor had his ground treated. Is it possible the ants came from there? Carpenter ants
difficult to eradicateQ: Readers called about black ants, but what about red ants? Not big carpenter ants, but red ants the size of little black ants.
Answer: The bad news: it's not easy getting rid of carpenter ants.
The good news: carpenter ants in Hawaii, unlike species in some other areas, do not damage wood. However, like termites, they are attracted to light.
Ant expert Neil Reimer, with the state Department of Agriculture, provided some interesting information and possible solutions.
You can tell a carpenter ant from a termite this way, he said: Although both have four wings, a termite's wings are all the same length. The hind wings of carpenter ants, however, are "much much shorter" than the front two, plus they have "waists," unliked the broad-bodied termites.
Carpenter ants are - to -inch long and come out at night. "You rarely see them in the day, unless you have a heavy infestation," Reimer said. They generally don't form a long line, with only a few to be seen at one time.
Unfortunately, carpenter ants "don't readily pick up all the baits that are available," Reimer said. "There is no one bait that works consistently right now," although he's heard of a new commercial bait that's supposed to work.
He usually recommends trying different baits, including the sugar-water-boric acid combination that works with black ants.
The other best thing is to find the nest. Carpenter ants "hide in just about any undisturbed place, like hollow doors, pots not being used in cupboards, pianos, whatever."
Once you find a nest, just vacuum or spray with a product like Term-Out, he said.
Although carpenter ants need water, he's never seen them in very moist habitats. "It's not like with termites -- if you have a leak, just fix the leak." As far as food, they're generalist scavengers, picking up whatever they can.
Usually, Reimer said, people don't know they have carpenter ants until they start swarming. "Like termites, they'll start coming out of a puka in the wall. You may see tens to hundreds of them coming out of one hole."
As for red ants, it's difficult to give an answer because there are more than 40 species of ants here and many are red, Reimer said. "They have different food preferences and different nesting habits and things like that."
But when people talk about red ants here, he said, they're usually talking about a stinging tropical fire ant, which is not the same as the red imported fire ant that's a big problem on the mainland. The one here "is pretty mild."
A granular bait called Amdro, available off the shelf, works well with that ant, Reimer said.
Mahalo
To the city bus system. My wallet apparently slipped out of my pocket while I was riding the University-Pearlridge express bus Saturday night, May 27. A passenger found it and gave it to the driver, who dropped it off at the Kalihi dispatch office en route to Pearlridge. I picked it up an hour later, with everything intact. -- Paul M.
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