Carpenter ants???

Those Palm logs I have drying in my back yard, one of them seems to be infested with carpenter ants, is there any way to save this log or should I just start carving now and see what happens?? Any help out there would be appreciated.

I would remove it so they don't infest anything else. Hope it is not close to a building. Tapping away on it with them inside might make them come out.
Are you ready if they do?
Have a torch nearby...

A non-toxic ant remedy is that powdered bakers yeast. They eat it, can't digest it and then explode. Try sprinkling it near the log and see what happens.

I understand your concern because I had to fight them during a tiki restoration last fall. I could not tell how bad an infestation it was, but I figured that even if I had only seen a few of them, 2 ants will eventually lead to thousands so I decided to act a little radically. It was a tank sprayer and plenty of wood preservative applied and allowed to soak in real good that killed them.
If you have a good source for more palm logs, I would say just get rid of that one and replace it with another. You probably should apply something like the yeast to the area where you store the logs to reduce the survivors or they will come back. Palm is easier for them to tunnel through than a lot of other woods so they will go where the diggin is easy. I remember as a kid, my father felled a large mimosa tree and it had millions of those nasty devils inside. We had to get a can of gas and burn the !^()&%
out of them!
EVERYONE WHO HAS WOODEN TIKIS OUTSIDE: Don't forget to protect them from the bugs. If you have them sitting directly on bare ground and have applied no preservatives to them, they are sitting ducks. If you believe in a no-chemicals approach, that's your choice but if you can't keep the tikis indoors, you need to seriously consider: Am I doing what I need to protect my beloved Tiki?

Thanks I was trying DE a pool chemical (since I work at a pool) but it wasn't enticing enough for them to hang around it. I'll try the yeast thing. I was going to start tapping at it but like you said I'm not perpared for millions of capenter ants, and I live in an apartment I'm not sure they would appreciate me burning a half carved, ant infested Tiki in the back yard. I'll keep you posted.

You could also try sealing off the log using plastic and duct tape....I doubt they'd live for more than a few days without oxygen.

Matt

On 2004-02-10 11:02, mattfink wrote:
You could also try sealing off the log using plastic and duct tape....I doubt they'd live for more than a few days without oxygen.
Matt

It would have to be hermetically sealed though... Ants don't need as much oxygen as we do so one teensy leak and they might just enjoy the added insulation. Wonder if they make huge ziplock bags? :wink:

Hmmm, that leaves drowning and fire....

Matt

On 2004-02-10 11:33, mattfink wrote:
Hmmm, that leaves drowning and fire....
Matt

I tried the yeast last summer in the kitchen and they gobbled it up and I noticed some ant corpses later on...
re the smothering would be hard to find teeny little pillows anyway!
:wink:

Sounds like it'll work!