Wood Decks in Newport, KY

The low streets of Newport (ZIP 41071) near the Licking and the Ohio sit on ground that stays damp, and damp ground is where carpenter ants thrive. They are the large black ants seen trailing along a fence or a foundation on a summer evening, and a timber deck is one of the things they look over.

Carpenter ants do not eat wood. They excavate it, chewing out smooth galleries to nest in, and they choose wood that is already wet or starting to soften because it is easy to work. Sound, dry timber holds little interest for them. The first sign is usually their sawdust, called frass: small piles of coarse, fibrous shavings mixed with bits of insect, dropped beneath a board end, a post or a joist.

So a timber deck on damp ground is built so nothing in it stays wet. The frame stands well clear of the soil with open air beneath it, the ground under a low deck is covered with gravel on fabric so it is not a damp mat against the joists, and nothing is stacked against the rim where it would hold water. Shrubs and vines are kept from touching the deck, since a branch resting on a rail is the bridge a trail uses. Every cut end of treated lumber is sealed, and the boards are gapped so they drain and dry after rain.

On our visits we look for frass and for trails along the frame, and check the places water gathers: under planters, at board ends near a downspout, at the foot of a post. Where ants have found a damp spot, the source of the water is fixed and any softened piece is replaced, which takes away the reason they came. Kept dry that way, a Newport deck on river ground gives carpenter ants nothing to move into.