Black Ants.....Nightmare on Cedar Street

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

We sawed a whack of Cedar today.
Nice slabs were taken but 1 logs was full of......well....the video tells to all.
You can zoom in on the 2nd and 3rd slabs from the right. See the big chunk of metal in the top corner of the slabs....its has a glare on it. I don't know what it was but its staying.

https://youtu.be/wi1KdpX7H9Y



 

[clww]

I'd ditch that leaf blower for a flame thrower.

[cutterboy]

WOW! I've seen ants in a log before but never that many.

[AnthonyW]

I would get some terro ant traps and place around the shed. You don't want them making the shed into a snack.

We split firewood for my father. When we come across a log with ants in it we pile in on the other side fo the road (only houses on one side of the street. The wood always disappears. I wonder how many are surprised by the extra friends they have brought home. hahaha.  :D :D :D

[gfadvm]

That number of ants in a log is common here in standing dead blackjack and cherry. I have never seen any in my drying barn as they seem to leave as soon as the log is milled. Haven't had them bite but then I don't own a pair of shorts

[mad murdock]

Carpenter ants!  I hope your house is far away. I would have been spraying them ants with soapy water, it kills them.

[WDH]

Poor little ants  .  Just trying to make a living.

[justallan1]

You keep your ants, David.
Right now my mill is in my shop and on it's trailer and jack stands, of coarse I run it out of gas mid cut, so here I'm straddling a burl and standing on the tracks, trying to not spill gas all over and on the hot muffler and smack dab between my shoulder blades one of these big black SOBs bites me. If I would have flinched I'm pretty confident somehow I'd been on my back, one leg stuck between the tracks and the burl, with gas all over the darn place.
DANG-IT! I love this sport.

[Nomad]

     Nice Cedar slabs!  I've never seen quite that many ants in a cedar log before.  Judging by the wings on a lot of 'em, they were about to swarm when you interrupted their plans.

[kelLOGg]

Sometimes an ant nest in cedar can be beautiful...

 

[Hilltop366]

It made some interesting lumber!

I through a piece of firewood (from the cold outside) in my indoor furnace once that had ants in it. In short order it warmed up and the ants came alive and started to crawl out the furnace, I spent the next 1/2 hour in the furnace room stomping on ants. Now if i see any thing that looks like a ant hole in a log I will keep cutting blocks off of it in the woods until I'm above the nest.

[wolf nemeth]

last summer I cut several large ERCs on my farm. All but one of them had those huge ants  in the center of the trunk, up to about 6-7 feet they seem to just move in when a cedar reaches the right size for lumber....

[Brad_bb]

So new to milling over the last year.  I've run into carpenter and nests in logs (not as many as in this video though).  I've got a sprayer nearby with Dragnet, a commercial synthetic permetherin.  My mill is also in my shop.  If I see ants start coming out, I hit the wood with the spray.  Do you guys do anything different?  Hard to believe Soapy water would be very effective?

[21incher]

Nice slabs, but next time I would use a shop vac to clean them up. Aren't the ones with wings termites?

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Nice slabs, but next time I would use a shop vac to clean them up. Aren't the ones with wings termites?

No, the ones with the wings go and build new nest......just what I was told.

[Dave Shepard]

A friend of mine uses borax for ants. He says it dissolves their little exoskeletons.

[wwsjr]

I sawed a 20" cypress yesterday that had almost as many in the heart. No visible sign outside. Had a pattern in 1" boards almost like Kellogg's post

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

..............Kellogg's post.

2 different cereal companies.  ;D

[WDH]

They like cedar because they can easily excavate their tunnels in the doty rot in the heart.  They like cherry, too.

[Magicman]

Been there and seen that many times.  Even more ants a couple of times this year.   :-\

Just saw and keep going, but brush any off that get on you.  Them devils will bite. 

[kelLOGg]

..............Kellogg's post.

2 different cereal companies.  ;D

:D :D :D :D :D  good one, Goat.
Bob

[drobertson]

Yea, that video brings back a few horrible memories of them critters,  I like to kill'em before they all get out, I keep an extra mix of the blade lube handy, and poor it in wherever they start coming out.  And I wait,  I don't want them things starting a new life around my place.  And the myth about cedar being immune to insects,  :D :D :D 

[terrifictimbersllc]

Never cut the queen in half!  : : :

[LeeB]

..............Kellogg's post.

2 different cereal companies.  ;D

And then for the more aged among us there is old goatmeal.

[Left Coast Chris]

We get them in manzanita burls and there is a black color around their tunnels that make for some beautiful wood.  You have a rare find...... the wood is beautiful.   Maybe some book matched table tops with bow ties...... drool....

HOWEVER.............by the looks of it this is a real biological quagmire.   Not sure if it was the filming and the close ups but they are HUGE.  Maybe MUTANTS and in very LARGE numbers.    The whole operation needs to be QUARANTENED, certified pest control advisor, pest control plan, documented extermination actions,  and likely years of monitoring.   Better sell some equipment.......