BASF Advance Carpenter Ant Bait Granules, Ready to Use Indoor or Outdoor, Attracts 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.

These are what the professionals use. GetThese and save all the money!! They did what no traps or sprays could. It was super easy to use and worked super fast! The ants were gone in a matter of days.

This product works very well. I started with this because it is not as toxic as many pesticides. The place I'm living at now has had carpenter ants established on the site for many many years with multiple nests. I took out about 4 nests with this in conjunction with the sugar based Maxforce. It's a must that you spend the time to find the source of the colonies, however long it takes to sit and watch where they go. If you don't put this close enough to the nest and too few ants bring this back to kill the nest they will learn to avoid it. So I suggest hitting them hard at their nest and don't skimp on the amount you use.I finally got Termidor and that instantly destroyed what was left. Amazing. Not even one ant left. If you use this yourself be wary that it is for outdoor use only and you have to be very careful handling this product and follow all the directions.

We have been plagued by carpenter ants for the last 2 years when I inadvertently brought back a colony in some firewood I collected. I found the main colony last year and got rid of it, but all of this year we have been finding carpenter ants throughout the house. I went searching for a product to get rid of them to preserve the house and marital bliss and I discovered "Advance Carpenter Ant Bait". So I thought I would try it, since they said it smells fishy and the ants were definitely raiding my cat's tuna dish (she gets fresh tuna twice a day yes, spoiled cat!So I bought it and followed the directions. Hmm... No luck for two weeks, the ants completely ignored the granules. But then my dad made a discovery. He had put a bowl of cherries on the counter top. And he went to munch on them and discovered they were covered in carpenter ants! So I put the cherries in a bowl with the ant poison and waited. After about 2 or 3 days we still had lots of ants visiting the bowl, but not quite as many as before. After two weeks they had noticeably decreased, but there were still a number present. So I went digging more on the web to figure out why they were eating the cherries, but not the poison as other peoples review suggested they would do. This is what I found out. Carpenter ants like either protein or sugar, but not both at the same time. So some weeks they will only look for protein, hence why they were raiding my cat's tuna dish. But my timing on buying the product was bad, because the day I set the poison out, the carpenter ants switched back to looking for sugar. Hence my dad's cherry bowl covered with ants. The "Advance Carpenter Ant Bait" was ignored because it is protein based.So I went looking on the web again and discovered this "Maxforce Carpenter Ant Bait Gel" and ordered it, since it is the same poison but was sugar based. And wouldn't you know that the day it arrived, was also the day after the last carpenter ant died from walking through the protein based poison.It took about 2 - 3 weeks for the carpenter ants walking through the protein based poison to all die off. It has been 3 weeks since the last ant was seen, so I am assuming they are all dead now.So I would order both products if you have a carpenter ant problem or if one does not work order the other because I believe the people who do not get good results with one product just have the wrong "food" presented to the ants and if they switch products the ants would then get the poison faster. That or do what I did. Put cherries in the protein based product or tuna in the sugar based product and let the ants walk through the poison. It will take about 2 - 3 weeks to kill them off that way, but that is how it worked for me.