Black Carpenter Ant

Aprox 18 months ago a mound of Thyme in the garden began to die. First in the center of the plant. I'd put the little 3 inch pot of thyme in the ground near the edge(there's a "retaining" wall of bricks where the rose bed meets the lawn)of a big rose bed. So it begins to die only in the center. It was interesting so I let it go to see what would eventually happen. In a nutshell, the Thyme plant became central headquarters for what turned into a very bad infestation of those carpenter ants. They're now all over that bed and I've noticed them around the base of my two beautiful Honey Locust Trees.They have to go & here's my problem. Birds are nesting & bunnies are visiting not to mention my two dogs who follow me around the garden & love to lay in the shade of those Locust trees. They're gon... read morena get stung. I don't know how I can use anything toxic out there. That's my dilemma!

A major pest in houses, they nest in wet or moist wood in the walls, weaken them, and require replacement of the wood - basically like termites in Minnesota. They will also nest in rotting heartwood - there's a dying tree that we will have to cut down because of those carpenter ants. Doesn't harm any plants other than to make conditions worse for trees but they tends aphids and other soft bodies bugs for their honeydews so could have a indrect effects on plants. I have seen them nest in the ground, thought the other websites seem to never metion this - the nests are generally multi holes in the ground, slightly raised. Maybe it is because it's sandy. Will bite.

I have them here in Maryland. They had taken up residence in my Sassafrass tree by chewing tunnels through the trunk. The tree is approximately 20 years old. I used Raid and Yard Guard sprayed in all the holes except one and ran them out of the tree. There were hundreds including some mature queens that would have flown off to start a new colony if not eradicated in time. They were living in the tree and eating the bird seed in my feeder at night. I couldn't think of any other way to get to them since they were down in the trunk. The tree is still living and appears to be fine. I think I caught them in time.