I have a pallet rake with wood in it and a tarp over it. Cheap tarp from Harbor Freight. I made the top slope to drain off any rain.
Today I go to get a piece of pine and it's really wet. And there are about a million ants nesting on top of it under the next board. Tiny ants with lots of larva. I am trying to figure out if the rain blew in or leaked in this one spot or if the ants brought in the moisture. The piece of wood was crosswise in the rake and make have soaked in water through the tarp, drooling down from the top. The end of the board was touching the tarp. The lumber above and below was dry. What's your guess? Moisture problem caused by ants or ant problem caused by moisture?
(Also learned I have built a wonderful habitat for wasps (at least three nests) and wood boring bees, (at least one).) Bought some of the 20' spray to deal with them.
Carpenter ants are common here in surprising numbers in small parts of boards, etc, where there's a persistent wet area and it's hidden. Once the wet wood is gone, so are the carpenter ants.
I feed them sugar and borax in a cotton ball or paper towel to make sure that if they find the area favorable, they don't for too long, but not sure if that would be troublesome for bees and wasps (especially the types of wasps that like to chew on gray wood).
In my experience ants of all type will build nests in all kinds of places, moist, dry, hot, shade. They seem to prefer a somewhat sheltered spot instead of sopping wet. I've found many between stacked pressure treated boards, under green log sections, under steel roofing panels, under big rocks, and of course, inside lots of trees where there was a void and some kind of access.
Tiny ants you mentioned, as compared to big black and possibly carpenter ants, are particularly prone to raise a colony in the oddest places. Note that there are at least 1000 species of ants in the US so different ants may have different preferences.
When I encounter a colony of ants, unless they are in one of my buildings or are carpenter ants in a stack of wood, I generally just brush them off and leave them alone. They will run around, grab the larvae, and find a more secure place.
Ants are extremely important for the environment. Some things:
Ants turn and aerate the soil, allowing water and oxygen to reach plant roots. They take seeds down into their tunnel to eat the nutritious elaiosomes that are part of the seed, the seeds often sprout and grow new plants (seed dispersal). Ants eat a wide variety of organic material and provide food for many different organisms, other arthropods, amphibians, birds, and mammals. They prey on other insects some of which are pests, and some will attack and kill termites.
I do admit to conducting seek and destroy missions on fire ant colonies. I have experimented and found what works quickly and effectively.
The English words for what I was trying to say are Pallet Rack.
I have one bay of pallet racking that is 10' long and 4' wide with metal mesh for selves. Unfortunately I do not have a building to put it in, so it is outdoors with a tarp over it. It's a thin tarp and after a while it weathers and you can hold it up to the sun and see tiny holes in it. It works well enough except in this case I think the end of the board was in contact with it and the water wicked through as it ran down from the top. The board was about five feet long and I tried to store it crosswise, poking out the front and back about six inches. It helped the rest of the wood by holding the tarp out but took a beating. It's about to become a rocking horse and is drying in the green house at the moment.
Never heard about ants carrying any significant amount of water, so I would wager the board is wet from condensate and water soaking through.
Maybe try stretching the tarp so it doesn't touch any boards? You mentioned you've made it inclined, condensate should roll all the way down to the edge of a tarp and shouldn't wet the wood.
..and share it, but I don't know that they'd be wasteful and leave it in the environment around them vs. holding it and sharing it with each other.
I missed the bit about the ants being tiny first go around - they like to burrow through the polymeric sand in my pavers. I wouldn't be surprised to find that yard pros put borax in water that they're going to use to set the sand (I will next time).
Otherwise, I've noticed that I can get any ants to suck sugar and borate and water out of a paper towel - presumably to transport it.
I have found Terro very effective on carpenter ants. It is a "bait". The ants bring it home to the nest and it wipes out the entire colony. Terro comes in several different forms. I buy the 3 pound shaker bag. I can then walk completely around the house and the shed, spreading the Terro. It takes me about 10 minutes to do it. In a week to 10 days all of the carpenter ants are gone.
I agree that they wouldn’t bring it to soak the wood. Barry, knowing that we both share the packrat gene, I wanted to suggest that you keep an eye out for the local highway billboard company. Unlike yesteryear, today’s signs are not hung like wallpaper, but are printed on some kind of very UV stable plastic like PVC. They are big, tough and the ones I’ve talked them out were free. One has been out in the weather for probably 15 years, and is still looking good.
terro is boric acid or borate or something. I've used both terro and amdro (the latter is something else, and the ants here don't care for it, they're picky).
Not having terro on hand here this year, I found a recipe online for borax and sugar liquid (I have borax for forge welding) and the ants *love* it, but if feeding it in cotton balls or folded paper towels, they need to be wetted every day or every other day.
If mixing, though, apparently it needs to be in a ratio range - too little borax and the ants aren't killed. Too much and they will pass it by as they recognize it as unhealthy. Hide it in sugar in between there and they're soon gone.
I will keep a lookout for such a sign. Having grown up on a dairy farm, maybe I can get a Chic fil la one with cows on it.
Actually, I just saw your post, but I ordered a better tarp about an hour ago. I have too much invested in money and time and effort to let the lumber go to waste. I looked into the situation while it was raining and concluded I shouldn't struggle with the existing tarp.