Carpenter ants are often mistaken for termites due to their wood-boring behavior. They are bigger species of ants that burrow into wooden structures and can wreak havoc in your home. As a homeowner, you need to know how a carpenter ant infestation can impact your home. Also, you should understand how a pest control company in Algonquin can help you eliminate an active infestation.
Behaviors of Carpenter Ants
Carpenter ants construct their houses in wood, digging tunnels to maneuver and get access to food. Unlike termites, these ants don’t eat wood. Instead, carpenter ants only chew wood and discard it. Due to the structural damage these ants can cause, they are the most troublesome species of ants.
Often, carpenter ants can be up to 5/8 inch long and have segmented bodies. If these ants have infested your property, you will find holes in the wood.
Carpenter ants need a source of water to survive. This is the reason they often target dead, damp, or rotting wood. This material is easier for the ants to dig into and offers them a moisture source. These ants create nests in fence posts, tree stumps, landscaping, or firewood. When indoors, they dig into damaged door and window frames, attics, sinks, crawlspaces, old wooden siding, and bathtubs.
Given the size of carpenter ants, they create more noticeable and destructive damage. They leave their nests regularly to forage and come back to dig continuously. Finding small but noticeable wood holes that look like tunnels, particularly if piles of sawdust are under them, can indicate an infestation.
How Do Carpenter Ants Invade Properties?
Usually, carpenter ants gain entry into your house through wall gaps or holes. These pests can use electrical wires, low-hanging tree branches, firewood piles, and mulch as highways indoors. Once they are inside your house, they can begin making trouble without being noticed. Although they often dig in moist, rotting wood, they are not picky. They may start infesting your house whether or not there are rotting or old wooden parts they can find. You should pay attention to wooden parts such as exposed support beams, decorative trim, and railings to make sure carpenter ants have not compromised them.
Carpenter ants can tolerate outdoor elements better than termites. This means that they can get around and search and search for new wooden structures they can burrow into. Usually, an infestation will start outdoors in a nest they build in a fence or tree. Then, this infestation expands indoors once the ants discover a weak spot. Colonies of these species can have more than 10,000 worker ants that have different satellite colonies. This can be bad for the structural integrity and value of your house.
Moreover, carpenter ants may enter your house if they swarm. Winged ants will leave their colonies to build new ones in warm weather. Such swarmers will look for soft, vulnerable, and rotting wood to construct new nests.
You can avoid an infestation by paying attention to the wood in or near your house and ensuring it stays in perfect shape. It’s important to replace and repair wood as necessary.
