Carpenter Ants, like all of us, thrive when the conditions are right. They like things like rotted wood, which, in a landscape can be from wood piles, buried debris, excessive amounts of bark mulch, diseased trees, rotted wood in a house, old stumps and very dry sandy soil where they can lay eggs and store food or any combination there of.

Look around your site and see if you can find any one or more of these conditions. They may not even come from your property initially. If any of these conditions exist in your neighborhood, then, you'll need to work with others to resolve the problem. You can use things like the Hot Pepper Wax we sell or, Diatomaceous Earth, Sharpshooter etc, but, they will continue to be a problem if the conditions under which they thrive aren't eliminated. Once you get rid of the places and things they like then, you can treat the area with Pepper Wax or equivalent product to kill off the rest of the remaining 6 leggers, and then you can feel sure you've settled the issue. You'll need to fertilize your lawn and possibly over seed to bring it back ti it's former robust state. A healthy, organically maintained turf can fend off a lot of pestilence all by itself.

Remember, what might be a problem for you, might be a boon for some one else. Birds and other creatures eat insects and even depend on their droppings and activities for their own health. Bugs are food to other plants, birds, worms, snakes etc.. Insects are part of a functioning ecosystem.

Getting rid of them will have consequences through out the system. I've known people to try and kill the big black ants on their Peonies.
I told them to stop, because, the black ants eat the sap on the buds for food and, in so doing, they allow the bud to open, as the sticky sap is the glue that holds the bud shut. The ants and the plant need one another and get a great deal out of the relationship. These kinds of symbiotic relationships occur thought out the natural world. Even in a small back yard garden.

So, before you embark on any eradication campaign, consider how necessary it is in the broader scheme of things. If the bugs are invading your home and pose a threat to life and limb and property then, you probably need to do something about it. If it's just that you don't like them around but they pose no threat to anyone or anything then, you might want to rethink the idea of eradication. Putting up bird houses, bat boxes and making your property a more habitable place for predators might be the best way to keep things in balance.