Carpenter Ants: The Do’s And Don’ts

Carpenter Ants: The Do’s and Don’ts

Your home is your sanctuary and your pride. It’s the place you feel safest and most secure. However, there could be a problem right under your nose threatening to take away that sense of security and a lot of your money. 

It can be hard to recognize carpenter ants at first, but even before you know they’re there, they’re doing damage to the structure of your home or deck. 

Keep reading to find out what you should and should not do when trying to get rid of carpenter ants.

Carpenter Ants: The Do'S And Don'Ts

The Do’s

The first thing you may be wondering about carpenter ants is what to do. There are early precautions, warning signs, and ways to take matters into your own hands when you first notice an infestation.

Know Your Carpenter Ant Facts

Carpenter ants come in a variety of colors such as brown, red, yellow, and black, but you’ll probably recognize them by their size. Worker carpenter ants can grow to be half an inch long. 

Most carpenter ants don’t have wings, but they do have large mandibles for chewing through wood and delivering painful bites.

They only use the wood to burrow through and make their nests, but that’s enough to cause major damage to the structural integrity of your home. They most often become active during the spring.

Replace Decaying Wood

If you discover carpenter ants in your home, you should inspect the wooden features of your home such as framing. Since they mainly attack wet, decaying wood this will give you good hint about where the ants are coming from. If you discover decaying wood, you may need to call in a carpenter to have it replaced. 

You’ll also need to fix or replace any pipes that are leaking and causing water damage in the first place, or the ants will return again.

Call An Exterminator

If you discover carpenter ants in your home, you absolutely must call an exterminator to take care of the problem. An exterminator can use powders and sprays that are unavailable to nonprofessionals that can deeply penetrate your wood. They’ll even know how to get rid of carpenter ants when you have pets that you’re worried about ingesting pesticides.

They can also apply a perimeter treatment to the base of your house to deter future ants from entering.

The Don’ts

Now that you know what to do, you should also know what to avoid doing. There are lots of mistakes you can make when it comes to the safety of your home against ants.

Ignoring the Signs

At first, it will be easy to ignore the signs of carpenter ants in the house, but the longer you ignore them, the worse and more expensive the damage will be. These are the most common warning signs:

  • seeing carpenter ants walking around your home
  • finding small wood shavings
  • hearing a faint rustling sound in the walls.

As soon as you notice any of these signs, call an exterminator.

Incorrectly Identifying the Ants

If you see ants in your home, don’t make the mistake of assuming that they are a less harmful species. Also, don’t mistake them for termites. They require different treatments by professionals.

Make sure you familiarize yourself with the appearance of carpenter ants before you make an assumption about the type of insect in your home. 

An Ant Free Home

With proper identification, home care, and calling a pest service right away, you can feel safe from carpenter ants. 

If you’d like to schedule a consultation or treatment for carpenter ants in your home, feel free to get in touch with us.