Have you ever encountered carpenter ants at your home or business place? These are relatively larger than other ants and have a round back and a narrow, pinched waist with a small hump. Carpenter ants can create their wooden nest across indoor and outdoor spaces. It is one of the largest ants in the United States; some species are even half an inch long. Carpenter ants can infest your space in search of food, nesting or warmth; however, their stings and contamination can lead to severe diseases, such as salmonella, staph, Clostridium, E. coli, strep, Shigella, and various other fungi.
Want to know more about carpenter ants? Here is a detailed blog on their infestation and steps to get rid of carpenter ants.
Reasons Why Carpenter Ants Enter Your Property & Its Signs
The general trait of carpenter ants is that they nest inside the wood, which is why they are often confused with termites. However, these ants do eat wood; they drill it to form a tunnel for their nesting. Once they find a proper nesting place, a female carpenter ant lays down 15 to 20 eggs to form a colony. Their colonies grow rapidly and might reach a peak population of approximately 3,000. It is necessary to get rid of carpenter ants to prevent their infestation and invite disease.
Typically, carpenter ants enter your house to look for insects, meats, and sweet items like syrup, honey, sugar, jelly, and others for feeding. Another reason for this is their nesting, so they pick wooden items like furniture to secure their colony formation.
Here are a few early signs that tell you carpenter ants have already made their infestation to your home:
- You can spot a line of carpenter ants who leave their nest searching for food.
- Carpenters ants lose their wings after mating, so their discarded wings might be a good sign to track their entry.
- Another sign is wood shaving; take a closer look at your wooden items; this wooden dust shows its presence.
Ways To Get Rid of Carpenter Ants
Infestations of carpenter ants are not life-threatening; however, these can cause severe illness. While walking through areas searching for food, they cross through unsanitized areas like sinks and washrooms, spreading cross-contamination. Carpenter ants also cause foodborne diseases, such as Shigella, clostridium, salmonella, and other fungal diseases. Their stings or bites create swelling, burning, and itching sensations.
So, to avoid such infection and bacteria, here are a few ways to get rid of carpenter ants that you should follow:
Remove Decaying Woods
As carpenter ants target woods for their nesting, leaving decayed wood at your home will act as an open invitation to them. Inspect your furniture and seal up any holes or potential gaps through which ants can easily enter. All these ants require a slight hole from wall framing to siding to lead their infestation. So, make a routine inspection to remove all decayed wooden items from your space and paint a laminated layer on them for extra protection.
Avoid Woodpipe Collection At Home
If you keep firewood at your home, it might harbour carpenter ant colonies. Store them in your backyard to ease their infestations and ensure they don’t directly connect with your home space. Even if you have to keep it inside, make sure to shake these woods properly, clean them properly, and pack all decayed gaps.
Spray Pesticides
If carpenter ants have already made an entry, follow their sign and locate their entry points.
Once spotted, spray pesticides with caution, like gloves and glasses, on all the possible areas. Follow the spraying routine 2-3 times continuously; it will make carpenter ants suffocate, and they will leave the place in search of a new location. These pesticide sprays will also clean out bacteria and fungi formed around them.
Follow Cleanliness
Another preventive measure is to follow proper cleanliness and avoid littering leftover food items. Especially honey-based products or sweet items that attract ants to enter your space. Also, carpenter ants strive for warmth and moisture areas, so make sure to clean out potential spaces like kitchen sink or washroom areas to prevent the spread of bacteria and fungus.
Seek Professional Assistance
If your DIY techniques fail to eliminate carpenter ants, hire professionals to ease your process. They have the expertise and effectively work to inspect your house, spray pesticides, and use other ant removal techniques to get rid of carpenter ants completely. Professionals assure guaranteed results and follow-up to prevent further occurrences.
Hire Maple Pest Control For Ant Removal Services!
Are you dealing with carpenter ants infestation at your residential or commercial property? Maple Pest Control is your ultimate ant control company in GTA; we offer reliable and licensed extermination services to handle all sorts of ant infestations. From timely inspection to spraying pesticides, our team will cover everything for your assistance. We proactively follow all the latest techniques and use eco-friendly and effective products with hygienic measures to secure your property. Operating in several locations of GTA, Maple Pest Control will be your best choice for ant removal services in Toronto.
Schedule an ant removal & inspection with us today!
Common Questions Answered By Our Experts!
What sound do carpenter ants make in walls?
You might hear carpenter ants rustling through your woodwork or walls when they’re tunneling through wood or trying to communicate with other pests in the colony.
How do you tell if it’s a carpenter ant?
In the United States, several species of carpenter ants exist. So, they cannot be identified through characteristics like size and colour. What makes them different is the rounded profile of their thorax, the circle of hairs around the anus and the heart-shaped head.
Can you hear carpenter ants chewing?
When carpenter ants are often in the wall voids, you can hear them chewing wood. You may see evidence of an infestation if you don’t hear them.
What kind of noise do ants make?
Many ants make noise and chirp when they rub their two hard abdomen parts together. Different species can use these scraping sounds to get organised, communicate with mates, and call for help.
Why do I have carpenter ants?
These insects usually build their nests in damp, sound or decaying wood. Homes with moisture issues caused by leaks are prime targets for carpenter ants. The pests will also use tree branches that overhang roofs as a bridge, accessing buildings to find a way inside.
Connect with professionals pest control for their extermination.
How can I locate a carpenter ant nest at my house?
Carpenter ant nests might be located across different areas, such as walls, ceilings, floors, window frames, and doors. These insects are particularly attractive to humid and poorly ventilated areas.
What is the lifespan of a carpenter ant?
Carpenter ants have a longer lifespan. Queens can live up to 10 years, and workers can live up to seven years. Carpenter ants live so long that waiting for a colony to die out is not a feasible solution.
What does carpenter ant damage look like?
Carpenter ant damage does not necessarily look like a tunnel and galleries. It can look like a hole that is frayed around the edges, dashes and dots running along a block of wood, or wood rot (especially since these ants prefer to attack rotting wood).
Want to get rid of carpenter ants? Contact our experts!
At what time are carpenter ants mostly active?
Carpenter ants are fast-moving species that pause only to feed or share food with other ants. Therefore, they are most active at night.
