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It’s no surprise that carpenter ants are a big problem for so many homeowners in the United States and many other parts of the world.
There are over 1000 species of carpenter ants. Among the most common carpenter ant species that live in the U.S. are:
- Black carpenter ant
- Florida carpenter ant
Carpenter ants are large ants with a long body. The insect’s body has an oval and segmented shape.
The length of insects varies between 1/4 and 5/8 inches. Black carpenter ants are much bigger than Florida carpenter ants.
Carpenter ants have different colors. There are insects of black, dark brown, brown-red, orange, yellow colors as well as a combination of black and red.
The vast majority of carpenter ants have a large black body.
Carpenter ants nest both inside and outside. The insects choose to nest in damp and deadwood areas outside. Inside, the nests of ants can be found in such areas as:
- Behind baseboards
- Hollow doors
- Walls
- Window sills
A colony of ants consists of a queen and its workers. It’s also important to note that the queens of carpenter ants are bigger compared to workers. A colony of carpenter ants consists of 10-20,000 workers. Large colonies of arts consist of 50,000 workers.
Why It’s So Important to Control Carpenter Ants
Many people believe that carpenter ants eat wood. However, this is not the truth. In reality, ants don’t feed on wood. However, they tend to destroy wood.
Carpenter ants chew through wood to create tunnels as well as nests in wood. As a result, wood weakens. It’s worth noting that the insects can cause a lot of damage to the materials in the building.
If left untreated, carpenter ants can cause a lot of problems in your property. A colony of ants can cause serious damage to the structure of your building.
Common Signs of a Carpenter Ant Infection
However, it’s possible to avoid this type of damage. All that you need to do is to treat ants effectively and not allow these annoying insects to destroy the structure of your house and ruin your happiness.
That’s why you should remove carpenter ants as soon as possible. The earlier you identify carpenter arts – the better.
Luckily, it’s pretty easy to identify carpenter ants in your house. Below, we’ll walk you through the top carpenter ant warning signs.
Do you see black or red ants in your house regularly?
Do you see small openings on the surface of wood?
Do you see ant trails or ant paths in the lawn?
Have you noticed the ant expel debris?
Have you seen the piles of wood shavings?
Do you hear strange noises in the wall?
These are the top warning signs that your home has carpenter ants. Now, it’s time to ask pest control experts for help with active infestation!
How to Identify Carpenter Ants
The process of controlling carpenter ants always begins with the inspection. It’s necessary to inspect for various reasons.
This type of work needs to be done to identify where exactly the colonies of carpenter ants and their nets as well as trails are located inside your building.
Carpenter ants can also be found in the hidden areas of your house. That’s why such areas are checked for ants during the inspection.
Plus, pest control experts are able to analyze the scope of the problem and come up with treatment solutions.
Once pests have been identified, they need to be treated and removed. Now, let’s dig deeper into the process of removing carpenter ants.
How to Get Rid of Carpenter Ants
Insecticides as well as sprays are applied to control carpenter ants. Different forms of insecticides and sprays can be used for controlling carpenter ants. These include:
- baits
- concentrates
- dusts
- foams
Pest control specialists will carefully analyze your carpenter ant problem as well as the area that needs to be treated first. After that, they will advise you upon an appropriate solution.
The way you treat carpenter ants depends a lot on the area where the infestation has been found.
Let’s say that you are dealing with the nests of carpenter ants in the wall. In this case, the wall has to be drilled about 2 – 6 feet. Such halls make it possible to contact the nests of ants directly and, most importantly, kill the queen.
Carpenter ants in the wall have to be treated with either liquid insecticide or with dusting. These carpenter ant treatment methods provide effective and permanent results.
How to Prevent Carpenter Ants
When treating carpenter ants, it’s incredibly important to achieve long-term results and avoid re-infestations.
Keep in mind that carpenter ants can come back to your house quickly after the treatment. And of course, homeowners have to prevent these kinds of things from happening.
After carpenter ants have been removed from your house, you also need to do everything possible to stop the insects from coming back to your living environment.
That’s the reason why certain actions need be taken to prevent further infestations of carpenter ants from happening.
There are many things that you can do to prevent carpenter ant infestations.
- Damp areas in your house can attract carpenter ants. The insects need water to survive. Wood softens due to fungus that’s caused by moisture problems. Carpenter ants tend to attack weakened wood. Also, ants prefer to build nests in wet and decaying wood. Make sure that there are no moisture problems in your living environment. Sources of standing water have to be eliminated. All roof leaks as well as plumbing leaks in your house need to be fixed. So, make all the repairs if such a need arises.
- Dry out all wet areas in your house. Moisture damaged wood needs to be replaced.
- Rotting trees, as well as tree stumps, have to be taken away from your living environment.
- Another important thing that you need to be aware of is that carpenter ants prefer to nest in firewood. So, it would be better to keep it away from the house.
- Oftentimes, carpenter ants choose to nest in trees. Insects can take advantage of tree branches to get to your house. So, cutting trees has to be a part of a carpenter ant prevention program. Branches as well as limbs of trees, which are close to a house, need to be cut off. Make sure that tree branches don’t touch your house or garage.
- Pests may also come into buildings through cracks and gaps in your home’s exterior. That’s why it’s so important to check the foundation as well as doors and windows for cracks and other problems. All cracks in the building need to be sealed properly.
- Openings in the wires and utility pipes can also become an entry point for carpenter ants.
Why Do You Need Professional Help with Controlling Carpenter Ants?
The next important question is – how to control carpenter ants? Should you control ants by yourself or ask pest control professionals for help?
It’s crucial to have knowledge, skills, experience as well as the right tools and equipment to be able to do pest control effectively.
Controlling ants is something that needs to be taken very seriously. So, leave this task to licensed pest control professionals.
Do you need professional assistance with a carpenter ant issue? Contact Contender’s Tree & Lawn Specialists to get an initial consultation for FREE!
