I've been busy painting room by room in this house I bought in December. Getting close to start working on the laundry room.

Last week, I noticed some large ants crawling on the floor in the living too room. I didn't think much of it. They looked like regular fire ants that are notorious around here.

Then yesterday I see several ants crawling from the crown molding in the laundry room. Several winged ants.
I look closer and see large mandibles. Fuck. Carpenter ants.

I've never had to deal with them. I don't know where they are coming from. Nothing outside and didn't see anything in the attic.

I stuffed some cotton balls soaked with sugar water and borax in the cracks of the crown molding where I tore out the caulk where I have been seeing them come out of.
How long should I bait and poison?

I'm kind of on the verge of just calling a pest company and have them deal with it so I can concentrate on other things. Anyone have a professional deal with it? How much did they run you?
Terminix wants $133 plus  $33 a month for an entire year for some plan...and that doesn't even cover carpenter ants. Getting tired of business forcing "plans" down my throat. I just want shit done. I can handle the outside pest control once the house is painted. The AC company that came out yesterday also kept forcing some service plan down my throat to "help save me money as my 9 year old AC unit is nearing the end of its life" They say.
Good. When it dies, I'll just get a new one under home warranty.

Just pisses me off...especially after this happened just after I called an A/C company to clean my evaporator coils, but all they did was charge me $200 to replace a PVC drain pipe and tell me they'd have to come back later to clean coils.
So and extra $85 I'd have to fork up just for them to drive 10 minutes to my house for a call I wanted them to do in the first place, plus the $5-600 they want to remove all the innards of my HVAC to clean.

Went to war with carpenter ants last year. Food grade Diatomaceous earth is what you seek. Completely safe for humans and pets but is basically glass shards to ants. Slicing them open externally and internally when they attempt to clean the powder off themselves. A little duster and a bag of Diatomaceous earth can be had for 20-30 dollars.

My degree is in entomology. Carpenter ants, if that's what they are, nest in rotten wood. Look for water damaged areas. DE Is a good suggestion, as is borax.

Are they fire proof? I suggest fire.

Now, see, if they were sheetrock ants, you wouldn't have seen them until tomorrow! Aye, carumba...

But if they were framing-ants theyd be gone already! Lol

Carpenter ants are common around here. I found a pretty big colony in my house during a remodel.

I pay a local pest control guy $400 / year for quarterly treatments. He uses Termidor for the ants and other stuff depending on which season/ bug he's spraying for. It's been three years, and I haven't had any ants problems since the treatments began.