BASFAdvance Carpenter Ant Bait Granules, Ready to Use Indoor or Outdoor, Attracts, Kills and Controls Ants, 8 oz

I usually do not write reviews unless I feel a product is really worthy or useful for a problem others may be having. What began as a few carpenter ants here and there became a creepy crawly, really annoying issue right on cue with the arrival of Spring. They would pop up in the most random places in the house on both floors. Knowing they are usually active at night made this problem even more cringeworthy, and although I hated the thought of killing an entire colony of creatures I was not willing to have this infestation. The key to effectively using this is patience and knowing that the bigger the problem the longer it may take. You absolutely need to resist the temptation to stop them where you find them and instead use them to help work the problem out for you. We used an opportunity of being away for a long weekend in mid-March (with the pets) to set out bait stations all over the place. These bait stations consisted of folded 6x6 inch pieces of cooking parchment paper (folded to be a little thicker) that we initially put piles of BASF Advance granules on (no need to purchase fancy bait stations). When we came home we found one station active, so we zeroed in on that area and baby-gated it so the dogs could not get near it. I added two more areas of parchment paper with bait piles (a couple of tablespoons) in line with the trails they were following and for about two nights in a row the piles of bait were reduced to nothing by the morning. When I noticed the granules were no longer being moved, I removed the paper with the granules and placed a pool of the MaxForce Fleet Gel on new parchment paper in the same area. For about 4 days/nights in a row it was a feeding frenzy. (I read more than I would ever want to about these creatures and the granules are the protein and the gel is the sweets they vacillate between craving.) I wasn't noticing any reduction in the number of ants coming and going around sunset (when they really come out) and I was so frustrated that they were still so active and kept appearing all over the house despite the bait being taken for nearly a week. But we kept at it. About Day 9 we started noticing a few dead ants here and there and some in the process of dying. The numbers started reducing until we only found about 4 or 5 live ones a day (instead of 4 or 5 every half hour) in really random areas. I was beginning to think there was a satellite nest. By the time week two rolled around (I kept the gel out and freshened it every other night), we went our first day without finding any ants - living or dead - and have been completely carpenter ant free since (about 2 weeks). I kept the bait available until I was 5 days ant free, just in case. We will now do the outdoor house perimeter preventative measure each fall and spring and if another is seen inside next spring for some reason I know my plan of attack. Lessons learned: 1) I would probably put both bait types out from the start on separate pieces of paper since you never know when they will prefer the one over the other (we lucked out by guessing what cycle they were in correctly). 2) Even though this is expensive, I was glad I used it liberally. No point in saving it when the goal it to get rid of the problem altogether. They "ate" what we put out and the evening dinner crowd consisted of dozens eating at any one time. 3) I will probably triple fold the pieces of paper next time, only for the fact that the gel hardens and in one area it seeped through and it took a little bit of scrubbing to get it off the floor. 4) I erred on the side of caution and Clorox wiped the bait station areas once the ants were gone (not before - you do not want to ruin the pheromone trail to the bait area they are making), just in case any bait debris was left and the dogs wanted to check out the area when the baby gate was removed. If the problem returns, I will update this review.

You have to use a protein bait and a sugar bait. I used this as a protein bait and "Maxforce Carpenter Ant Bait Gel" as the sugar bait. That way you are covered on if the carpenter ants are wanting a protein or a sugar.Took about a month of placing the baits on separate folded pieces of wax paper in the areas that I was seeing them, to not see them anymore.This was last year. I have seen 1 carpenter ant in the last week. I thought I had gotten the colony, but maybe not. Put these items back down. So, we'll see what happens. Hopefully, works as well again.

First of all, get any water source away from the foundation. Where there's access to water, the ants will remain. After that I put the bait wherever I saw an ant. It's been about 3 weeks and I haven't seen an ant in a few days. My water source was from my down spouts. I installed extensions to get the water away from my foundation. It's working for me.

I have found that carpenter ants only respond to this bait, put some down and they start moving it immediately to the colony, it will be gone the next day !! Just find a trial of them, bait, and they do the rest, nasty stuff though, use proper care, neurotoxin....

First of all, I live in Texas, not Florida. If you see carpenter ants with a red head and a black body, DO NOT buy this. They are not attracted to it at all. They will smell it for half a second, and then permanently ignore it (it smells BAD to them). From what I've heard, this bait will work on almost all other ants, but since it advertises itself as carpenter ant bait, I have to give it a 1.Most effective baits I used to get rid of my infestation:TERRO T300B Liquid Ant Killer, 12 Bait Stations (make sure you have scissors to open these, the tabs suck)DIY - Mix Powdered Sugar with Baking Soda, put it in a baggie or a lidDIY - Mix Borax (1.5 tablespoons), Warm Water (1.5 cups), and either sugar (0.5 cup) or some peanut butter. Mix well, and then soak a cotton ball into the mixture.^for this one, I used peanut butter, since I had already set up the baking soda/sugar trap.For all of these traps, you are going to want to place them somewhere near the entrance of where the ants are coming from, out of reach from pets and children. After a few hours, you should start seeing more of them show up. This is because they are hastily working to bring the "food" that they found an abundance of back to their nest. Don't mess with the traps or squish the ants once they start doing this, they are delivering poison to the nest. You can continue killing the ones that are not collecting the bait (e.g. ones that are just wandering around your house--they are either lost or scouting, no reason to keep them alive). Just make sure you throw the dead ants away, so that they don't attract more ants over with their pheromones.If there are locations the ants are falling from, I'd recommend mixing water with dish soap in a (preferably) rectangular bowl with skinny edges, and then placing that under the drop point. This mixture will paralyze the ants and drown them as soon as they touch it. You NEED to use soap--carpenter ants are very good swimmers if the water is not tainted (Dish soap is toxic if ingested, so do not let pets or children near this mixture either).Ants change their mind on what they want to eat every so often, so I'd recommend using all 3 of the baits I listed if you want to get rid of them as fast as possible. If they are not taking any of the 3 baits, there are 2 possibilities: 1) It might be a bad time of the day for them--ants are generally most active at night, and early in the morning; or 2) They are in their mating cycle and have no interest in eating anything. The only advice I can give you for this is, just leave the traps where you had them and wait for them to finish the cycle. If you see winged ants, SQUISH THEM. They are breeders, and they do not collect food.One last piece of advice: Carpenter ants make satellite nests. Their main nest is most likely not in your house--there is a good chance that it is in rotting wood (trees/logs), or in the dirt somewhere near your home's perimeter. Because of this, I'd also recommend looking for an insecticide spray that you can apply to the perimeter. I used "Spectracide Terminate Termite & Carpenter Ant Killer", and while it does work, I would suggest looking for a different one. Its spray pump is VERY annoying to use, and it is electronic, so there is no getting around its tediousness. Just make sure you read up on the insecticide's proper usage before applying it (most of the companies will have a website for this).I hope you found my advice helpful. It took me over a month to get rid of my infestation, since I initially had no clue what I was doing, and was just blindly ordering baits. I felt hopeless, and eventually I called 3 different exterminators... they all tried to get me to do a 1-year "maintenance" contract with no alternatives (over $700!). I spent about $95 trying to get rid of these things by myself. Over half of that money went towards useless bait that they did not care for. If you follow my advice, you will probably be spending under $50.Good luck!