ants!

So, this morning I go out for a coffee on the back deck. I have some buckets on one side of the wraparound steps and one was knocked off. Something in the night must have been snooping around and tumbled it. I go over to it to put it back and what do I see? You are correct, ants!

Actually, what I actually saw first was what looked like a pile of sawdust on the stairs. I look closer and it is crawling with ants. I look at the ornamental log that is sitting on the corner. It looks like a bear's head so it was put there for show. There are holes bored in the top and the saw dust is from raw wood, not green like the pressure treated lumber the stairs are made out of.

I know it is ants, carpenter ants. The worst kind in some ways. A few years back I was helping a buddy clear out some dying poplars in his yard and I took a bunch of logs from the healthier parts of the trees. As we cut the trunk down we discovered multiple colonies of carpenter ants in the trunks. Well, now we knew why the trees were dying.

I did not take any of that for firewood as I did not want to transport those wood-munchers to my property. Well, some days later, when I was not home, he dropped off the ant infested pieces after he cut them up for splitting size. However, I did not know it was carpenter ant infested lumber.

I learnt that when I went to split the wood on a subsequent weekend. Well, I split one and the ants came pouring out. I knew now. Well, while tramping them and calling out to the wife and the boy to lend a hand, I ran out to the fire pit in the back and got some tinder and kindling set up. The ants needed to be eliminated. I did not want them getting in to my trees or the framing of my house. They will get in to your house to find a place to colonise. It happened in my brother's garage.

So, I get the fire going and, with gloves on, get the ant-log over to the fire. After they took care of the ants at the woodpile, the boy kept watch on the fire and the ants. He had instructions to destroy every ant trying to get out of the fire and he could crush them with a stick in the fire too. Normally, we live with "a leave us alone and we will leave you alone" policy with nature, but not carpenter ants, nor wasps. I finished up the wood and found a couple of more logs filled with ants. The hard way. Splitting the log open! I also found a couple before splitting, once I figured out what to look for. Those were organically recycled. I brought the other split logs to the fire while the wife dispensed with the ants that spilled out.

The boy and I, and later, the friend who brought the ant-wood too, spent our afternoon murdering ants. He stopped by to chat. So, we, my friend and I and not the boy, had a beer and slaughtered hundreds, probably thousands, of ants. These guys are tough, brave, and wily. You could see them grabbing eggs larva, and pupa, trying to save them. You could see them ferrying them about and trying to get out of the fire. Any with wings were immediately destroyed. 

They can take the heat too. There was one just not moving on the edge of one log. I thought it was dead. It was there for at least forty minutes with flames licking all about it, but it never moved, it did not budge a micron. Then at one point, I must have stuck my stick in to the fire to kill a winged ant or something like that. I must have come really close to that "dead" ant. Suddenly, it made a run for it. Sadly, it was struck down. It did give me a great respect for these buggers though. That was tough stuff. Trying to wait me out and then when it thought it may be doomed, it bolted.

Anyway, from that, I learnt that if a log is infested with carpenter ants, do not split the log, burn it as is. (And do not forget the "sawdust", I made sure that was dumped in too once the fire got going.) The problem with that though, is that it takes forever for the log to burn. Basically, the outside just keeps charring. So, today, I worked on getting the log to burn quicker. I turned it every now and again in the fire, like I was cooking something. Also, I took a stick and kept scraping the char off. Then, I found a soft spot and started "drilling" in to it. Basically, I just kept turning and pressing the stick in to the log until it started to wear the stick down. It let me cut channels in to the wood and expose more wood to burn.

Eventually, I broke a small chunk off. Right under that chunk was a few dozen ants and a bunch of pupa. They were not burned, but the ants were not moving. So, either they were asphyxiated from the fire and smoke, were stunned from the smoke, or were trying to fake me out like that one previously. I was not taking any chances, I scraped them off right in to the fire. While this was all going on, the wife found a bunch of ants and eggs on another part of the deck, not far from where the log was. Somehow, I missed some and the ants were trying to save the eggs and regroup. Well, an unlucky day for them, they got squished.

Back at the fire, I kept feeding kindling, twigs, and various scrap pieces of wood to keep the fire going to burn the log down to ashes. It was taking forever. I got a bright idea. I got a junk axe and a hammer. I placed edge of the axe against a crease in the side of the log and struck it with the hammer. I drove the axe in to the hilt, then took it out, turned it over and did it again. I kept doing this until it spilt in half. No more ants seen, but evidence of tunnels and such. I kept feeding the fire with scrap wood.

Finally, after about six hours, I got the two halves down to tiny bits and that was that. Now, of course, I was not constantly feeding the fire and beating up the log. I kept close to the fire and would build the fire up when it died down to mainly embers around the log. I did little chores otherwise or read. I have been reading a lot. I know I sound like a madman, but they can decimate your trees or damage your home if left unchecked. They, like the wasps in my hedge, can build super-colonies. At my friend's place, those ants in the various trees were part of a larger super-colony. They had their own colony, or even colonies, in each tree, but they interacted with each other. You could see them scurrying between trees even.

I had to put a stop to it. If I had a bit of an acreage, I would probably have dumped the log somewhere in the back forty, but I do not have that kind of space. Those buggers could very well have migrated back to my house if I dumped them at the back of my place. Hey, I expect to live at least another half a century or more. I want to live in this house without hearing them munching all night long. Respect or not. blbbl