In all of Bay Pest Solution's years of fighting carpenter ants, we’ve discovered there are three primary, telltale signs of infestation. If you find these signs in your Bay Area home, you need to act fast.
The first thing you need to do if you think you might have carpenter ants is to verify the bugs really are the ant subspecies you think. If you’ve seen the insects wandering around, you may notice they can grow to be rather large ants, but they won’t let it get to their heads. After all, carpenter ants are more commonly known for their heart-shaped heads — and yet, the one thing they’re sure not to spread with you and your family is love. Carpenter ants use wood as a food source, but unlike the more infamous insect woodworker, the termite, carpenter ants' primary concern is to hollow out space in moistened wood to serve as a home for their colony. This doesn’t mean just stopping at a nest, however, as the bugs use a growing network of tunnels to create room for growth in their colonies.
The Three Damaging Signs Of Carpenter Ant Infestation
Unlike many species of ant, you are not as likely to discover a colony of carpenter ants in your Bay Area property by happening across worker ants scurrying around the kitchen, searching for food. As a wood-munching species almost more like termites than ants, the telltale signs of carpenter ant infestation are often related to the damage they inflict on human homes. From Bay Pest Solutions, here are the three most prominent signs of a carpenter ant infestation:
- Like termites, carpenter ants often drill holes into windowsills and baseboards, leaving behind tiny mounds of wood shavings. If you spot some of these piles, it’s no coincidence. You’re not alone in your Bay Area home.
- Try pressing your ear against the walls — carpenter ants are small and quiet creatures, but not completely silent. If you listen closely, you may be able to hear the faint rustling noises an army of worker ants makes as a result of drilling through the walls.
- Perhaps the most obvious sign of carpenter ants in your Bay Area house would be to actually see carpenter ants in your Bay Area house. As new queens are born and set out from their home colonies to create new ones, they often take few males with them for reproductive purposes and can be spotted taking flight, trying to escape the house.
How To Prevent Carpenter Ants Before It Is Too Late
It doesn’t just have to be a house. To the future queen of a carpenter ant colony, any unprotected building with a wooden foundation or load-bearing beam is a free game. Moreover, because most of the telltale signs of carpenter ant infestation necessitate damage to your Bay Area property, it is apropos to set in preventive measures to protect your property from infestation. Here are three pest prevention methods you can do yourself, courtesy of Bay Pest Solution:
- Watch out for gutters or other drainage spots that spill out around the base of the home. If you discover any on a rainy day, divert the streams immediately to avoid both weakening the ground and providing pests the moisture they need to survive.
- If you have any bushes, trees, or the like brushing against the walls of your Bay Area property, cut them back. Not only do stray branches provide pathways, but also cover, for trails of carpenter ants marching inside.
- Keep spare firewood near your home? It may be convenient, but it’s still a veritable buffet for hungry carpenter ants. Be smart and observant when you deal with firewood, and if you leave spare logs outside, keep them a few inches off the ground and a good distance away from the walls of your home.
Regardless of whether or not it's too late to prevent a colony of carpenter ants in your Bay Area home, it is never too early to take the next step in pest management and seek protection outside of what do-it-yourself tips can provide. At the first sign of carpenter ants, contact Bay Pest Solution for your chance to leave these ugly pests behind you for good.