Hi, Last summer we had an ant invasion in our house, we put out ant traps but they didn't do much good. After about a month I decided that maybe these weren't the common ants that I was accustomed to - they were longer, black and I started noticing them going into a door frame that seemed to be slowly eaten away. So I did some web research and discovered I had carpenter ants and so I bought some recommended bait - Maxforce. Right before we went on a 10 day vacation I put it out and when we returned there were no more ants - it worked great! I had also noticed that the ants had damaged an old deck that I was going to replace this summer so I wasn't too concerned. So today I decided to begin to tear the deck down and I started with the rotted/eaten section. To my surprise the wood was crawling with ants. These are smaller than the carpenter ants - brown with darker ends. We had little red ants in the house but these are different. I'll put out some more Maxforce but I want to make sure I get rid of these things for good (meaning I'll do multiple treatments all throughout the year). So my question is - could these be a different variety of carpenter ants or do more common ants take up residence where carpenter ants have been? Or do some non-carpenter ant varieties also go after wood? Since I'm putting in a new deck I want to make sure I understand what these guys are. Thanks! Bob

hello, since last week I have noticed yellow colored "vomit-type" patches in my mulch in the backyard. Its a gated community so it cannot be strange large animals. Also, i notice these patches appearing during day time. Can this be cat, rabbit, mouse, rat,...? I do see some holes in the mulch (large enough for rat). This streaky patch appears only in the mulch not in the grass or anywhere else in the back yard. appreciate any help.