Hi Larri,

Those look like winged carpenter ants reproductives. Ants generally will emerge from a colony all at once. It is an oddly organized event so there may be hundreds if not thousands moving about an area over a few days. However, since you are in a log home it would be good to check that the ants do not have a colony in your home. The most obvious sign is usually ants moving around inside or along the outside perimeter. Because they are nocturnal, the best time to look is just before dark with a light. Another sign is sawdust where they have been tunneling into the wood. They also will use foam insulation, so look around areas where foam board or sprayed foam may have been used. 

Getting rid of ants can be difficult and involves finding the part of the colony where the queen is and getting some pesticide to her. Once she is taken care of then the satellite colonies will collapse on their own. The queen colonies are often longer lived colonies, lasting years, and usually occur in an old stump or fallen tree outside. We usually notice ants before a queen colony can get established in our homes, so it usually just the satellite colonies in our homes. But it can occur. Often consulting with a pest control professional will be beneficial as there are many pesticide options and they usually have experience with what works in you area. 

Hi Larri,

Good questions. Most are nocturnal, but some ant remain active most of the day. But if you look at dusk you are much more likely to see them moving along their paths. You can actually follow these paths to the main colony because most of the action will be occurring there. So, although you'll see ants all over, most will be a heading in some direction to some place. Winged adults emerge and take flight. They may have been trapped inside just by chance, or they may have emerged from a colony in the home. Since you are not seeing others in the house that may be the case. 

They use wood as a substrate for the colony, they don't eat it. So they won't abandon you and move on unless something drastic happened like the queen died or their food source entirely dried up. They are omnivorous, and eat proteins, fungi, plants. Lots of stuff. Food sources are unlikely to dry up. 

The key to successful control is reducing the suitability of the habitat. If you can find them using your home, then drying it out, or sealing access is key. But to eliminate the colony entirely requires removing the queen. To do this means finding that queen colony, then you can use a bait which the ants will take inside and feed to the queen, she, like many ant queens, looses the ability to move about and relies on workers to feed her. Ant are susceptible to a wide variety of pesticides. The trick is what bait to use. This is where pest companies who work in an area with them have knowledge we don't. They can help find that queen colony, and they will have experience with what bait works where you are at. If you like you can try any of the ant baits if you can find the colony. All of the pesticides will work, but they just may not take the bait to the queen, so they may not work. 

Hi Larri,

Winged ants are a reproductive caste. They are just looking for a mate. If a female they will mate then try to find a place for a new colony. When they have a mass emergence event, there may be thousands flying around a neighborhood. If this was the case it's not uncommon for a few to get inside a home. They likely will die out anyway because most homes are not good colony habitat. The wood is too dry. You are much more likely to see unwinged ants roaming around. And yes, them follow paths to and from the colonies. There are some out roaming but if you follow them you will eventually find the major pathways especially near nightfall when more ants are active. And these paths are usually along the edges of walls inside homes, or along the edge of the building outside. That is where most insects and small mammals travel, it's a more secluded travel way. 

Sorry I didn't clarify. Winged adults will emerge from a mature colony. If you have one in your home the adults will emerge from that colony directly into your home. If the mature colony is outside somewhere, they emerge there and in flying around end up trapped in your home. 

Mature colonies are busy places, and since you are not seeing sawdust, hearing scratching, or seeing ants, my assumption was that the colonies are outside and you ended up with a few lost adults inside wanting to get back outside. 

When there is an emergence period usually outside you will see many flying adults. Here in Palmer this spring it occurred over three days and there were thousands by the Farm. They got caught inside buildings and cars. But all it took was going for a walk in the late evening to verify that there were many more flying around outside all over the area, not focused to one building. 

Hi Larri,

I can't say for certain that is carpenter ant frass (what we call the waste from them digging tunnels). But it could be. It often resembles fine pencil shavings. 

Do you have a way to get into that area of your roof where they are falling from? If they are in an area where you do have an open joint in the ceiling boards it's probably worth your time to try to remove one board, or part of one to get a look at what is up there and thus falling down. Ants often love roof spaces because they are usually wet/moist from a slightly leaking roof or condensation and also warm. Eighty year old wood is also probably fairly attractive to them.