Carpenter Ants in Boat

So I’ve seen a couple here and there but I’ve noticed what I thought was sand in the bottom of my hull. However there has been more and more each time I’ve checked the boat. I found a small hole tonight where it seems they’ve either found or chewed through on the inside of my fiberglass and I believe they are taking out the insulation and that is what the “sand” is.

How the hell do I get rid of these little sh*&^? I sealed the hole but I’m worried they are going to destroy my insulation really worried that if I don’t get them out they’ll destroy the boat.

Open that hole back up and spray the hell out of it with poison

Well, would have been a lot easier had you not sealed the hole. You need to get an insecticide dust, preferably a pyrethroid of some kind. Inject the dust in the hole, and sit back and watch the little suckers come pouring out like it’s their job. You’re gonna wanna do this with the boat out of the lake, pyrethrin products are highly fish toxic.

Wildlifeguy wrote:

Well, would have been a lot easier had you not sealed the hole. You need to get an insecticide dust, preferably a pyrethroid of some kind. Inject the dust in the hole, and sit back and watch the little suckers come pouring out like it’s their job. You’re gonna wanna do this with the boat out of the lake, pyrethrin products are highly fish toxic.

I’ve got some sevins powder. That the right stuff?

I put some sevins in the hole and watched another ant go into another hole and doused that with the powder too. I could hear them working away on my boat. This is excruciating knowing I have to wait and see how many the powder gets. I can’t even see most of the areas where they are so I have no idea if there are any other holes.

Sevins isn’t bad, but I’d try something else. Now being a licensed professional I could never recommend you use a product for which licensure is required but I hear the same product we use, Tempo, might be available online and if not used for hire, shouldn’t be a problem, if you catch my meaning.

I’m going to get an ant bomb too, take everything out and cover it with a tarp and bomb it.

Get some D-Fense SC,I have wiped-out entire ant mounds with it.Deltamethrin is what it is.Works on all kinds of insects.

milemark_714 wrote:

Get some D-Fense SC,I have wiped-out entire ant mounds with it.Deltamethrin is what it is.Works on all kinds of insects.

Is that over the counter?

I usually do the gel ant baits. They carry it back to the nest and kill the whole nest. Ant sprays make you feel good to watch them die. However, by not getting it down into the nest they sometimes split up and make multiple nests and your worse off than before.

Unfortunately from what I’ve read the Gel traps won’t work on carpenter ants because they don’t eat it.

I’m going to seal it up best I can and bomb it. Also sticky traps. If a round or two of that doesn’t work, I’m calling the pros.

mahtofire14 wrote:

Unfortunately from what I’ve read the Gel traps won’t work on carpenter ants because they don’t eat it.

I’m going to seal it up best I can and bomb it. Also sticky traps. If a round or two of that doesn’t work, I’m calling the pros.

go full caddyshack!

jwellsy wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>milemark_714 wrote:</div>
Get some D-Fense SC,I have wiped-out entire ant mounds with it.Deltamethrin is what it is.Works on all kinds of insects.

Is that over the counter?

I usually do the gel ant baits. They carry it back to the nest and kill the whole nest. Ant sprays make you feel good to watch them die. However, by not getting it down into the nest they sometimes split up and make multiple nests and your worse off than before.

I got it from Amazon.Works better than anything Ortho or Terro.Mix in a spray bottle and hit the affected area and perimeters.Excellent for getting rid of Asian beetles.

There are gel based carpenter ant formulations, again, “licensed use only”, brand name is Maxforce fleet I believe. Seems to work ok. But honestly, if your set on something other than dust, Termidor (or anything containing fipronil) is what you want. I’d caution against the bug bomb, especially anything otc, they are contact kill only, nothing residual, and won’t penetrate into the hull where most of the ants are. Nice thing with most fipronil formulations is that it keeps on killing them, after it drys.

As a owner of a pest control company, Wildlifeguy is spot on here. Ants are terrible this year. My main concern for you here is generally, carpenter ants are generally only attracted to wood that is already damaged and wet. I am guessing the boat had issues before the ants arrived. However minor those issues are, the ants are certainly not going to help.

Be careful about residual chemicals that could contaminate your fishing gear and repel fish.

jwellsy wrote:

Be careful about residual chemicals that could contaminate your fishing gear and repel fish.

I took everything out of the boat before fogging it. Sounds like that might not do the job so I’ll keep going with the Sevins and look into the other powders you guys suggested.

**Update**

We have dead ants! I’m not terribly confident the fogging got rid of them, but just unwrapped the boat and there are dead ants all over my cockpit which tells me the bomb at least got them out of some of their tunnels/crevices. I haven’t ever seen them on my deck or in the cockpit so I’m assuming it at least reached some of them and forced them out and killed them. Might to one more tonight and put some sevins down along with some Delta Dust that was recommended to me from some of you guys. Hopefully we are on the right path here.

Now its time to figure out why they were in there. I suspect you have trapped moisture or rotting wood that is what they thrive on. Good luck!

CaptainMusky wrote:

Now its time to figure out why they were in there. I suspect you have trapped moisture or rotting wood that is what they thrive on. Good luck!

I’m sure I have some moisture. First two times I used my boat this year were in the rain and I’ve been trying to dry the inside out ever since.

mahtofire14 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>
Now its time to figure out why they were in there. I suspect you have trapped moisture or rotting wood that is what they thrive on. Good luck!

I’m sure I have some moisture. First two times I used my boat this year were in the rain and I’ve been trying to dry the inside out ever since.

Cover it and put a fan in it. Or one day with no cover on these sunny days. I fished alot of wet days this year and snowy days. The fan under the cover works great.

Yes a fan will work magic. Good luck.

Good idea! I’ll do that also. She’s wide open today after fogging it and it’s nice and sunny.

I had a giant ant hill at the house in Princeton out in the yard. I gave her a couple gallons of gasoline and lit er up. Might not be the best solution for your application though.

Sounds like you have it under control.

A perimeter treatment of the building the boat is stored in would also be a good idea, as well as the house and take a good look at the trees in the area to see if they have any activity as well.

jbg1219 wrote:

A perimeter treatment of the building the boat is stored in would also be a good idea, as well as the house and take a good look at the trees in the area to see if they have any activity as well.

Another friend I have who is a pest control guy said the same thing. I have a pine tree that is near my boat (Which is always covered). But I’m pretty sure they came from that tree. I dropped powder around that tree and then also around my boat’s concrete slab.