Customer Reviews for Maxforce Carpenter Ant Bait Gel

This stuff ROCKS!! I killed like 5-10 ants a DAY by hand until I freaked and bought the Maxforce Carpenter Ant gel tube. Carpenter ants are super-finicky, but Thursday I started applying it. They sucked it right out of the tube (must be tasty!). Within a day ants were walking around like they were drunk. I kept feeding them the bait and within 3 days queen ants were walking around drunk and dying. And now this is day 7, I havent seen any ants today, except the ones I poisoned outside (die ants, DIE!). This stuff has been a savior. It cost $500 for an exterminator. I bought the granules too, as well as some junk from Home Depot. It helped, but MAXFORCE did the trick. You won't be disappointed.

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98 of 103 people found this review helpful

My wife and I just bought our "dream house," only to discover a major carpenter ant infestation (which our pest inspector didn't detect). They swarmed on the first warm day; were all over our upstairs, in our infant and toddler's rooms, traveling through AC ducts. I ordered the Maxforce Gel Bait, along with Drione Dust, and Suspend SC. After reading some of the "how to" info associated with this site, and watching some YouTube videos, I did a little "hunting" at 2:00 AM, and found the ants' "trail." There were literally hundreds, if not thousands, of ants going between my house and the nearby woods. I tracked them between a rotting pine log, and a gap under my wood siding. The ant activity died down the next day, but picked up again to full strength by 10:00 PM the next night. That's when I started feeding them the Maxforce gel. In total, I feed them 2 tubes in one night. I put quarter-sized drops every 5-7 inches, on the rocks along the path. (I made sure my cats and dog were kept inside.) The ants LOVED it. It was amazing to me how they swarmed the drops. Each drop would get about 20-30 ants forming a circle around it, eating up the bait. I had to go out every couple of hours to give them more (they ate the drops clean). The next night, I tried to feed them some more, but they were not nearly as interested. Wonder why? Surely they can't "learn" that quickly.  In any case, two days later, my wife notices that 50 or so dead ants had fallen out of the AC vent in our bedroom ceiling. I cut into the dead log, and found hundreds of dead ants. There were dead ants along the "trail." Two days later, no more ant activity has been observed. Now I'm going to use the Drione dust in the cracks/voids, and spray Suspend SC around my house/foundation. BTW - I was super impressed with the customer service and support at DoMyOwnPestControl.com - it was definitely a pleasure doing business with these folks.

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75 of 76 people found this review helpful

I purchased the Maxforce on May 18, 2010. Put the gel in many different places where the carpenter ants were traveling and watched them everyday for five days (5-10 ants at a time). The ants would not touch the gel. They would go near it and go right around. Not happy at all with product. Had to give it one star, would not allow 0.

  Expert response:
Ants are very picky eaters.  If the ants walk by the gel in this situation, it means that they were not in the mood this week for a sweet sugar bait, they were in the mood for more of a protein bait.  This is why we made our Carpenter Ant Kit #1, which comes with this Maxforce Carpenter Ant Bait as well as the Advance Carpenter Granular bait.  The Advance bait is a protein based bait.  It is always better to give the ants an option, so if they are not in the mood for the sugar, you have the granule available which is a protein.  Also, even though the ants went by it this week, they may be looking for sugar next week.  Sometimes with ants you have to give it time.

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49 of 53 people found this review helpful

I just received my order yesterday. This morning I decided to put out the Maxforce Carpenter Ant Bait Gel along a beam that I have seen the ants use as a 'trail'. I know they are more active in the evening/night, but wanted to get it out there. There were two ants scouting around when I put it out at about 10:00 AM. Literally 10-15 minutes later there were about 20 ants at the bait. An hour later there were at least a hundred ants, and 2-3 different types of workers! I was amazed as it was daytime and only about 47 degrees! Talk about an efficient bait. I placed some of the advance carpenter bait granules near the place, and closer to where I suspect a nest. I guess I'll just sit back and wait. If they work as good as they attract, we ought to be ant free in a short while! Thanks for your great product offering that's not in stores around here.

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35 of 36 people found this review helpful

I fooled around with sprays outside and the granules. I had carpenter ants on my deck outside and they were coming inside and built a nest in a wall. All the other poisons just slow them down, but they always come back. I put a few drops of Maxforce Carpenter Ant Bait Gel outside and within minutes they were all eating it. Now I just have to wait and see if it kills them. So far, so good. If you have carpenter ants, don't even waste your money on anything else. Nothing else is going to do the job.

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28 of 30 people found this review helpful

I can now say that I've hand fed ants. They would stand up on their little legs and suck the poison right out of the dispenser tube! I fed the buggers almost the entire tube of Maxforce Carpenter Ant Bait Gel so either I gave them an early spring treat OR hopefully right now they're all suffering terrible tummy aches.

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17 of 17 people found this review helpful

I used maxforce to eliminate a carpenter ant colony and had some to spare. One late Summer I found yellow jackets entering a spot in my house 15-20 per minute (huge). We could hear them in the ceiling munching at the drywall paper in the attic several feet in! I thought what the heck, maybe maxforce carpenter ant would work so applied a dab at the entry one night. Next day, wow, they gobbled it up like the ants did! I applied a couple more nights until it went untouched one day -- solved! After a little research, I found out yellow jackets are chasing sugars in August-Sept and proteins earlier. So best results on the maxforce on Yellow jackets would be to wait for Late August-Fall and they will take the bait like candy.

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17 of 19 people found this review helpful

We had problems with carpenter ants for three years and this year they were really bad, lots of workers and too many queens to count. I worked in pest control for 4 years and was not willing to utilize the conventional drill & spray treatment that I thought we probably needed. After reading a few customers experience w/ Maxforce Carpenter Ant Bail Gel I thought I'll give it a try before I call a pest control company. I applied the gel in the evening (not ideal) and as other customer indicated, the ants very quickly went to the bait and began eating it. In three days I saw maybe one carpenter ant & have not seen any in a couple of weeks. This stuff is wonderful and I love the idea that they are killing the nest. Even some commercial treatments can not be sure they treat all the nest locations when they spray. I am sold on this stuff and will recommend it to anyone dealing with carpenter ants.

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15 of 15 people found this review helpful

Found the nest in a tree next to my house... placed drops along their path to my house as well as several around their nest. They couldn't walk by it without stopping to eat. Over the next couple days, I observed literally hundreds stagger out of their tree and fall to the ground. I replaced drops every day because they ate absolutely every bit of it and my ant problem is 100% resolved. This product is worth every penny.

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15 of 16 people found this review helpful

I found that I had carpenter ants in the house, but did not know where the nest was. About 100 that I could see in a joist pocket in the basement. I put out a dime sized amount the first night which was gone by next morning. I continued to put out the same amount twice a day for 2 more days. Always gone within an hour. Every day, the number that I could see reduced drastically. It is now the 4th day and they have not touched the last "feeding". I can still see a few ants, but they are not moving well. I may switch to the protein to make sure they have not gotten tired of the sweet bait. There would have been no other way to approach this as the basement is finished.

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14 of 14 people found this review helpful

Great product, but be mindful of the containers end plunger. Be careful when inserting the plunger or turning the tube upside down accessing the end of the plug - the inner plunger plug inside the tube fell out backwards from that end of the tube, and in one plop dropped the entire contents of the tubes' Gel all over me and everything near. Otherwise great product in itself, and great Customer Service. Product 5 Stars Container Tube 4 Stars - there should be better instructions and prevention from that being able to happen.

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13 of 13 people found this review helpful

First off, I am 100% aware of the type of ant that was causing me problems...they were carpenter ants. Did you catch that? Were. I can't attest to how this product works on other species of ant, but our house was literally being invaded. You couldn't walk through the kitchen without spotting one of the big daddies moving along like they owned the place. I was lucky in that I found one of their highways into my home (a small crack just next to my porch) and also an entrance to one of their nests in some rotted wood in the back of my house. We were being sandwiched by them. I counted smashing 10 ants in under 10 minutes in a 3 foot section of my countertop and decided the bait I bought at the store wasn't cutting it. I highly recommend narrowing it down to either the entryway into your home or even better, their nest...if you can do both, great. I used very little of the single tube I purchased and I haven't seen a single ant in a couple weeks now. These beasts were aggressively running up to the syringe as I was squeezing it out and it was like I was hand feeding them. I squirted some on their highway and the entrance to one of their nests and that was all she wrote. On a side note, I know for a fact these ants were looking for sweet food because of that previously mentioned countertop being home to our fruit bowl...specifically some very fragrant melons and pineapples. This bait is for ants with a sweet tooth...not protein seeking. Bottom line...had carpenter ant problems for well over a month, baited them with Maxforce Carpenter Ant Gel, and I no longer have ant problems...both the highway into my home in front and the nest out back have not a teeny tiny soul left. Stop killing the ants you see and just feed them...some poison...to take back to their lovely queen.

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13 of 15 people found this review helpful

The ants disappear every time I use this. However, since I had used this before, I found that the "syringe" container is very tricky to use. I read some of other reviews and see the same problems. The content sometimes seems to be stuck and then bursted out all over the place. Also, liquid runs out from the back side when you point the "needle" side up ward and gets on hand, clothes, or floor. The last pack I used got all stuck suddenly and when I tried to press the pump harder, the content oosed out up the pump instead of the "needle" end and gave me a mess. When I received the product this time, I pressed all the gel out to a container I prepared myself and don't bother to hang on to the "syringe" or the "needle" at all.

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12 of 12 people found this review helpful

Howdy, Got the bait in good order and on time. The carpenter ant colony is DEAD! However, carpenter Ants are fussy eaters. They totally ignored the bait. I check during night time hours when they are most active. I tried a change in presentation and types of bait stations. Still no takers at the bait stations. I noticed my carpenter ants can't ignore other insects as food. I caught a few crickets. Diced them and placed crickets pieces on top of the gel bait in each bait station. Bingo, they could not get enough of those cricket pieces and ate the gel bait as well. Within two days all carpenter ant activity ceased, and I haven't seen a live carpenter ant in two weeks.

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10 of 10 people found this review helpful

I started seeing carpenter ant in my bathroom and was killing about ten every night. I went outside and found there trail going in the corner of my house. So I ordered a tube of Max force. When it arrived I went outside that night and applied several spots about the size of a quarter next to where they entering the house. About an hour later there were about 200 ants feeding on the stuff. I looked the next morning and all of the bait had been eaten.The next night there were no ants to be found at my house, inside or outside. Well exceeding my expectations.

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10 of 10 people found this review helpful

I put out the gel a few weeks ago...putting it where I see the ants most active in my basement. I've watched to see if there is any activity around the bait. For a week and a half it seemed like they avoided it. I did, however, see random dead ants here and there. So I guess it was killing some of them, but I still have live ones, too. I also put out the protein based Advance bait granules which was suggested, since Max Force is the "sweet" bait. Carpenter ants have finicky taste buds, it seems. They have totally avoided the protein bait so far. Anyway, yesterday, we had a major warm up in the East and with it came lots more ant activity in my house....not happy about that. But I did notice that for the first time there seemed to be more interest in the Max Force gel. I hope this finally does the trick. I've used 2 tubes of this stuff, so far. Fingers crossed.

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8 of 8 people found this review helpful

House was totally infested with carpenter ants. Used two "doses" and within a week, ants are pretty much gone. The product refrigerated (I was instructed to chill for 24 hours before use) kept the product from being too runny. I squirted it under the base boards in the rooms I saw them in most. I was actually referred to this site & product by an entomologist friend. Saved me $500 as compared to an exterminator.

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8 of 9 people found this review helpful

First I let the ants find the chewed up beef bones my dogs love. Then.....I watched the ant trail form and I followed to different locations and applied the bait gel. Next day there was not an ant to be found anywhere. Very happy with the gel. Used it in my house in a couple of spots and the ants disappeared the next day. I have not had a chance to use the Suspend SC yet, but me and my spray tank are looking forward to carpet bombing the crap out of the ants.

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8 of 8 people found this review helpful

Maxforce Carpenter Ant Bait... worked perfect! Be patient, takes time but did the job 100%. I had ant nests in the attic of a mobile home, zero access. I cut a hole in a closet ceiling and set jar lids there with bait. The ants took it to their nests. Also set two lids outside on the patio (behind pots so dog could not lick). Little trick: Put some water in the lid with the bait, the ants go a long way to get water and bait so.. give it to them!! Pretty soon you will see big black ants wobbling around and others curled up and dead. If you want to get rid of your carpenter ant problem this IS the answer! Written by whpower

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8 of 8 people found this review helpful

I am a sceptic when it comes to spending money, but given the size of my carpenter ant problem I took a chance and ordered the gel and granular bait. It was the positive and detailed reviews that convinced me to order and I'm glad I did. As a tip of the cap to those that took the time and wrote their stories before me, I promised myself that I would return their kindness and tell my own story, for good or bad. Here's my story: Given the long range (up to 100 yards) that carpenter ants will forage I had largely ignored for years the several ants walking around on our deck, and the occasional springtime 2-3 a day we would find in our house. While doing a deck repair on what I thought was rotten wood in my gazebo, I found my first nest of around 2,000 in my gazebo wall (which was only 15 from my kitchen!). I couldn't believe that such a large nest would show so little in terms of workers foraging. After that I went to work tearing out all of what I thought was rotten wood finding 4 other satellite nests of similar size and 4 additional queens (I do all my own carpentry work, and estimate my out of pocket just to replace the cedar they destroyed will be over $2,000 - I cant imaging the bill if I had to hire someone). It should be noted that twice a year for 3 years we had hired a professional exterminator to spray our deck for carpenter ants, and clearly all he had done is cash my checks. He tried, it just didn't work. I traced the ants back to the northwest corner of my yard, an old oak tree, where my battle stopped as I'm not sure the neighbor would appreciate me traipsing (i.e.- trespassing) through his back yard digging through his old wood and junk piles (yes, he's a cranky slob) to finish what I had started. My only real choice was baiting in hopes the ants would take the poison back to their nest in my neighbors yard and thus keep them from just repopulating my deck at their next flight/nest split. I found trails leading to an area by an old oak tree where I could see 20-30 foraging ants at any time in a small area (it was like grand central station for carpenter ants). I placed both the Advanced granular and Maxforce Gel near their trails and watched them begin to hit on the baits within 2-3 minutes with about 75% consistency (3 out of 4 ants took the bait they came across). Oddly, I needed both baits as the ants coming from the west only wanted the granular protein based bait, and the ones coming from the north only wanted the sugary gel. I checked several times, and it was kind of comical watching the ants as they would take the bait and then "ant-sprint" for their nest like they had stolen something. Little did they know! The next day ant activity was reduced 75% (yes, it seemed to work that fast) but the remaining foragers still were hitting the bait (west ants wanted protein, north still sugar). Also, I observed that several of the ants I did see seemed to be shaking at times like they had Parkinson's disease (FYI-two flies that seemed to like the granular bait also were shaking tonight, so clearly this crosses into other insect populations). Today was day two and in roughly 30 minutes of inspection I saw ONE ant. ONE! It's like the ant rapture has occurred. I have spent hundreds of dollars on exterminators and over the counter products, all for nothing. This stuff is the proverbial "ant bomb!" If I'd found it earlier, I would be thousands of repair dollars richer.

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8 of 8 people found this review helpful

Last spring we had a swarm of winged Carpenter Ants in our bedroom. Each day more and more appeared and they covered the windows in our bath and bedroom. The only thing I could do was use my shopvac to "take em down". I bought an ant bait at Lowe's and called the number on the back pf the package and was told by the woman that "Yes, it would work on Carpenter ants". Not one ant seemed to go for the bait. I bought the combo Kit of the gel and solid bait and bait stations and placed them in the rooms where we were seeing the foraging ants. I had to coax some ants into the traps and saw that they went totally to the gel bait and not the solid. But after this, I didn't see the expected swarming around any bait stations. So one night I stayed up late and after about 2 hours finally found where they were coming out of the ceiling and I used the syringe to squirt some of the gel bait into the hole. The next day, in broad daylight, there were hundreds of ant on the wall where I had applied the bait, more than we had ever seen before. Then by the next day, it looked like the grim reaper really clobbered them as only 3-4 were seen. This was followed by two days were only one ant, each day, was seen. Today, not one sign of them. I will continue to put the gel into the hole for another week just to be sure. So in my case, the bait stations didn't seem to do the trick. I had to find the entry place where the ants were coming from the nest and apply the bait there in order to have them take the bait. So I hope that we don't have a swarm of them in the spring and we finally have done them in.

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7 of 7 people found this review helpful

Product worked as advertised.I put the bait where the ant's were feeding. It drew a lot of ant's. The biggest problem for me was not to kill the feeding ant's,but to let them return to the nest. After 3 days I stopped seeing ants so it worked,how long I don't know. I was never able to find their nest I think that it was between the ceiling and the upstairs floor. So far so good.

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7 of 7 people found this review helpful

I noticed carpenter ants in my two upstairs bathrooms as well as many foraging for honey in my kitchen. I spent a lot of time researching the basic biology of carpenter ants as well as watching where they were coming and going to locate the nest. I ordered this product with the hopes that this would take care of them. When the product arrived, I dumped my honey pot to remove any of their favored food, put a few dabs in cracks in the bathrooms and stairway. Sure enough, within about 20 minutes the ants were going for it. I began to see little ant graveyards within days! The craziest part was seeing a mass of dead ants AND larvae on my bathroom floor around day 7. I can only imagine the chaos in the nest! I also located the parent colony in a tree outside and put some Maxforce bait out there and the ants went absolutely bonkers for this stuff. I have been ant-free for about 2 weeks now and extremely pleased with how easy and effective this product is. I think it is worth spending some time learning where the nest sites are located, but this stuff is awesome!

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6 of 6 people found this review helpful

I live in an area of sand and oak trees, what a great combination for carpenter ants.  I received and used Maxforce gel for carpenter ants. If you can read and follow directions your ant problems will be gone.  I not only used the product for ants in the overhangs on my house, I used the product on my oak trees.  I put a small piece of blue painters tape on the base of the tree, put a small amount of gel on the tape and watched my ant problems disappear.  Great product, highly recommended

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6 of 6 people found this review helpful

How much is enough? I fed the ants the bait for three nights until I ran out. They ate it up on the first night at the satellite nest along my wall, but would not touch it thereafter. They would purposefully walk around it. At the main nest they ate an entire tube over three days. Some large adults have died,but they still keep coming. This is 2 tubes $35 later. Its getting expensive.

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6 of 6 people found this review helpful

The gel works phenomenally. When I first put this stuff out the ants (which I had no idea how many I had) literally started coming out of the woodwork flocking around the piles I was making. Although very creepy to see so many coming out of the woodwork I was pretty excited that this stuff may actually work like the reviews said. After a day they were no longer interested, but I kept replacing the piles for the day, and I'm happy to say that what they did get was enough! Within two days the ants were considerably less and now two weeks later I haven't found one ant anywhere in my house or shed. I used it in conjunction with the Advance granules, and I'm not sure which one worked better, but the combo worked like a charm! Just a side note I called a well known pest control place to get a quote, and they quoted twice the amount what I paid for this, but said that although included in price there was no way they were going to be able to get rid of all ants with just one treatment and would have to come back. I consider what I bought here one treatment, and I don't think I'll be seeing any ants soon from the looks of things :-) And one other note, I liked this method better than the exterminators. They were going to bomb so that I'd have residue all over everything. Once the ants were gone here I cleaned up some remaining granules inside and no residue left to worry about. Highly recommend!!

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6 of 6 people found this review helpful

My hunting camp became overrun with carpenter ants this year. About 5 mins after I started to place the gel bait, I had ants eating it. I went back after a few days and had the entire floor covered with dead ants. A week later I went back and had even more dead ants. I will only ever use this product to kill carpenter ants - the sprays and powders don't do a thing. I never saw dead ants with those products like this!

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6 of 6 people found this review helpful

Had huge carpenter ant problem, still have huge carpenter ant problem. Tried max force ant bait, ants ate it up but didn't seem to kill them. Should have just used the 20 dollars I wasted on this product and just called an exterminator, wich I did. Leave it to the pros.

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5 of 8 people found this review helpful

Just over two weeks ago the black carpenter ants began to emerge. They were so bad you had to wear shoes just to walk in the bathroom. I ordered the max force gel and advance granules on a Thursday. My order arrived the following Monday morning. I could see the ants were coming from a location in the basement and placed a bait tray with both products on the bathroom floor. Within one minute a black ant went right to the bait tray and began feeding. The ant then followed the trail back and met three more ants. Thereafter it was a steady feeding frenzy with as many as 11 ants in the tray at a time. The larger ants were carrying the Advance granules back down their trail. Within two days ant activity dropped off to just 1 to 2 ants, and now one week later, nothing for the last few days. Both products together were effective and the ants were feeding on both. Recommend placing a bait tray with both the Maxforce gel and Advance granules on a trail being used as recommended.

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5 of 5 people found this review helpful

This product works exactly as described; killed off two colonies of carpenter ants that were living in the walls of my house within three days or so. But, heed the instructions and understand how this bait works. The ants take this 'food' back to the colony and share it. This process only works because of the delayed nature of fipronil, which takes several days to kill the ants that have ingested it. You therefore have to be very patient and allow the foraging ants to congregate at the bait and go back to their nest. Within a few days, they will all be gone. As an aside, and as other reviewers have noted, ants that have not yet succumbed will take the dead ants from the nest and deposit them elsewhere. In my case, this resulted in numerous dead ants in locations that had nothing inherently to do with the location of the nest. Just sweep them up and let the process continue. There is a 'sister' product made by Syngenta that uses Indoxicarb as the active ingredient and has the same effect. However, the inactive carrier ingredients are 'sweet' whereas this product is more protein laden; an attribute uniquely attractive to carpenter ants at certain times of the year. I put out both simultaneously and recommend this approach if you think that you have a carpenter ant problem. The ants that I dealt with fed on both products, so the investment in the two different types was well worth it.

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5 of 5 people found this review helpful