[srodr]

We have a house that is part of a development built in the early 90s. Each block consists of a row of 4 attached townhouses, and all are finished with cedar siding.

Since moving in several years ago I have noticed a huge ant problem. They are the very small black ones (about 1/8 inch long). They are rarely inside the house, but at any time you can see continuos heavily populated lines of ants outside travelling into and out of the walls of the house. I've tried different insecticides and perimeter sprays, and it is easy to stop the line of ants, but by the next day they have just moved their "highway" to a different spot and are entering the walls in a different place. Once I even discovered that they were going up a tree next to the house and accessing the house by a branch that was touching the roof.

Because the houses are all connected, it isn't possible to isolate our walls and get a really good treatment. I've talked to neighbors and learned that this problem has existed for years. They agree that our walls are probably filled with millions of ants, but because they mostly stay out of the living spaces, nobody has ever done anything about it.

Is this something will cause major problems in the future, or is it harmless to have ants in the walls (assuming they only live there, not eat the wood, etc.)? When we bought the place we had a good inspection and nothing about this problem was found. I want to go to the next association meeting and bring up this issue, but I also want to have some facts and recommendations related to ant infestations to present to the board.

Thanks for any help that can be offered.