Carpenter ants are one of the most common ants in the Northwest and posses the ability to destroy one of your most valuable investments, your home or rental homes!
Carpenter Ant Outdoor Activity:
The smaller male carpenter ants will begin crawling about as early as February and the larger females will emerge a little later in the spring. Their outdoor Garden Pests Control activity primarily consists of workers traveling between foraging sites and their nests or moving a satellite colony into a structure, like your home.
Colonies generally consist of a queen, brood (larvae and pupae) winged ants, and workers. Older colonies usually have satellite colonies, in addition to the main colony, containing workers, older brood and often some winged males and females preparing for mating flights (swarming). (Make sure your tenants know to contact you if they are seeing large flying ants, in or near your home. Their presence could mean that there is a nest close by or already within the structure.)
Main colonies are often found outside in damp wood (tree stumps, wood piles, etc.) where young brood can be raised in high humidity.
Indoor Activity
Satellite colonies do not require high moisture and can thus be found in various locations, indoors or outdoors and in very dry locations like beneath insulation in attics, Eucalyptus Oil For Bed Bugs sub-floors, window frames or wall-voids. The number of satellite colonies can vary from none to over 20, depending on climate and the length of time allowed to infest.
Though carpenter ants do not eat wood like termites the damage cause is comparable because they excavate tunnels and galleries into the wood to store their food and young.
Carpenter Ant Facts to Keep in Mind:
1. The ants you see crawling around the home are often only 5 – 10% of the actual ant colony.
2. During warmer months, carpenter ants are most active at night. People often mistake this for their absence.
3. Wood is not the only substance they excavate. They will choose other firm materials of similar density: foam, insulation, pressure treated wood, etc.
4. They come in different sizes, meaning they are “polymorphic.”
5. The queen can live over 20 years and can produce hundreds of thousands of young from just one fertilization.
4 Ways to Know if You Have a Carpenter Ant Infestation:
When looking to hiring a professional for Carpenter Ant treatment, ask yourself or your tenant the following questions:
1. Have they been present in your home for over a year?
2. Have you seen them during the winter months?
3. Have you seen winged varieties prior to their mating flights (swarming)?
4. Have you heard regular chewing noises especially at night?
If you or your tenant answer, “yes” to any of these questions, you can assume that you either have a satellite or main colony nesting in your home. This level of infestation will most likely require professional treatment.
If you answered, “no” to all of the questions but are still worried you have a carpenter ant issue, the colony may be residing near your home. Fortunately, this is a simple fix and preventative treatment should suffice.
Other conditions to look out for around your home and rental properties that may be conducive to carpenter ants (as well as other pests): Water leaks, drainage problems, trees or bushes touching the exterior of the home, fences touching the home (especially wood fences), and stumps or woodpiles less than 15 feet from the home.
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