As the name “carpenter ant” suggests, these ants really love wood. More specifically, they love to build their colonies inside of wood. This means that you not only have to worry about termites destroying the wood of the home, you have to worry about ants as well. Let’s take a look at carpenter ants and the threat that they pose.
Identification
Carpenter ants are one of the largest species of ants that will ever infest your home. A worker carpenter ant can range anywhere from ½ to ⅝ inches long, with a big head and big jaws. It will also be completely black in coloration. This unusual appearance makes it easier to identify them when they’re out foraging for food, so that’s a plus.
Infestation
Carpenter ants will build their colonies inside wood, and as they grow in number, they damage the wood more and more. They leave very few outward signs of their presence, except when they go out foraging, and when they have to throw out the debris in the colony – for which they will have tiny exit holes. These ants will mostly go for wood that has moisture issues, but they may infest dry wood as well in certain situations.
Infestations can start in one of several ways. Sometimes, mature carpenter ant colonies will send out swarmers (winged reproductive ants), and these swarmers will find suitable wood in your home. In other situations, a scout carpenter ant may find its way into the home through a crack in the exterior of the building, detect suitable wood, and then the colony establishes an outpost in the new location. It can be hard to prevent these infestations from starting. The only effective deterrent is to make sure that you do not have any wood that has been water damaged in your home.
Control
In order to control carpenter ant infestations you will need the help of a pro. Since the nest itself can be very hard to reach, a pro will use baits to poison most of the colony, and eventually, the queen will eat some of the poisoned bait and die. This will lead to the complete collapse of the colony and the threat will be eliminated. If you have any questions about carpenter ants and the control methods used against them, or if you have a carpenter ant infestation that needs to be removed, contact us today.
