Carpenter Ants

Carpenter Ants got you down? Carpenter ant control can be aquired much easier if you know some simple facts about your pest. We have compiled some very important facts about controlling carpenter ants that will help you in your quest to rid your home of these pests.

Carpenter Ants-Just the facts:

• Carpenter ants generally aren't as destructive as termites, although large colonies are capable of causing structural damage to a house.
• They damage wood by hollowing it out for nesting.
• Carpenter ants do not eat wood like their distant cousins, the termites. Instead, they tunnel through it while building and expanding their nests.
• Their preferred food is honeydew, a sugar secretion of certain plant-feeding insects such as aphids and scale insects. They also feed on other plant secretions and the remains of insects, including members of their own colony. They will readily forage in the kitchen, seeking out sugars as well as fats, grease and meats.
• In their natural habitat, they are found in tree stumps, dead trees, logs and tree holes.
• Carpenter ants seen in a home may actually be nesting outdoors and foraging indoors for food and moisture. Stacks of firewood, stumps, logs and railroad ties are likely spots to look for nests.
  If outdoor nests are suspected, look around the foundation of your house at night with a flashlight, especially around doors and openings where utility pipes and wires come in the house.
• Seal cracks and openings in a foundation, especially where utility pipes and wires enter from the house.
• The best way to control wood ants is to find and destroy their nests.
• Wood ants follow distinct trails between the parent nest and satellite colonies. Homeowners can use this trailing behavior to locate and eliminate the nests.
• If you suspect a carpenter ant nest is in a wall, also treat behind pipe collars and behind, but not in, the junction box for electrical switch plates and receptacles.
• Carpenter ants find it almost as easy to scurry along vegetation planted too close to a house until they find a soft spot in the wood where they can chew open an entry hole.
• Property around new homes should be cleared of tree stumps and miscellaneous wood refuse. Keep trees away from houses. And don't store wood in crawl spaces.
• Fix leaks or drainage problems that allow water to seep into the walls or attic. Moisture softens wood, making it easier for carpenter ants to work quickly chewing out tunnels and nests.
• Colonies can be in walls, ceilings or floors, or all three locations in the same house. Often, inadequate ventilation or improper installation causes moisture to accumulate in or around the insulation. Ants always seem to find these wet spots to infest, and their nests can be as large as the conditions allow.
• Finding large nests up to 500 square feet is not uncommon. The same is true of flat insulated attics with rolls or batts in them. A broken bath fan hose or unvented attic creates ideal conditions under the fiberglass. Very large nests can be found in attics, and leaking plumbing vents can be a problem in both types of roofs. Sweating or leaking skylights are another concern.
• Advance can be broadcast around the perimeter of the building, around trees that have dead branches, along wooden privacy fences.
• Overgrown shrubbery close to older homes needs to be cut back so it doesn't abut walls.
• A black ant or two in your house doesn't mean you have an infestation. But the fact that you've seen them nearby and now are seeing them indoors is not a good sign. They may have a nest in your house or are planning to create one.
  

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