Carpenter Ants: How to Identify and Prevent Them?

Table Of Content

• Most Common Signs of a Termite Infestation (And What to Do if You Have One)
• Watch these busy woodpeckers do what comes naturally
• Carpenter ants can also leave long trails and paths on a home’s lawn.
• What’s the Difference? Identifying Termite vs. Carpenter Ant Damage
• What’s the difference between termite damage and carpenter ant damage?
• Set Borax Ant Bait
• Block entrances to small nests

While the control of other household ant colonies requires similar exclusion and sanitation tactics, the control of carpenter ants seems to be as much of an art as it is a science. Place the baits along ant trails that you have seen for the best effect. This is a great recipe for protein-feeding ants such as odorous house ants, Argentine ants, pharaoh ants, southern fire ant, thief ant, red imported fire ant, and pavement ants among others. Keep in mind that various ant species have different feeding habits and food preferences. A single species of ant also has different nutritional needs depending on the season and may change its food preference mid-way into you setting up the ant traps. It is for these reasons that you may have to experiment with various kinds of home-made borax ant baits until you find one that the ants will actually take.

Most Common Signs of a Termite Infestation (And What to Do if You Have One)

Often, your best bet is to eliminate the source of moisture that’s drawing carpenter ants to your home, as well as sealing any sources of food that might keep them coming back. Like other ants, they use scent trails to return to food and nests. If you can clean these thoroughly with ammonia, the carpenter ants may not be able to find their way. There are many different species of carpenter ants, so they can vary greatly in appearance with sizes ranging from 1/8 inch to 3/4 inch in the largest species.

Watch these busy woodpeckers do what comes naturally

They can cause serious damage to your home if not appropriately dealt with. Make sure to prune any bushes or trees that might be near your house. It is essential to address these attractants to lower the likelihood of carpenter ant infestations. Other signs you might see are small holes in the surface of wood where the ants have burrowed in. If the holes were made by carpenter ants, there will almost certainly be small piles of coarse sawdust beneath the holes. Once you have dealt with infestations in your walls, there is a number of steps you can take to prevent new infestations without using pesticides.

Are ants marching into your home? An NC pest control expert explains how to keep them away - Charlotte Observer

Are ants marching into your home? An NC pest control expert explains how to keep them away.

Posted: Thu, 11 Aug 2022 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Carpenter ants can also leave long trails and paths on a home’s lawn.

It’s possible that homeowners will not see them very often; however, this doesn’t mean they’ve moved on. It’s more likely that they’re further establishing their nest, especially if they’re in a cool or damp environment. They often establish routes between their nests and the areas where they forage for food as they travel between these locations frequently. These can look like long, skinny trails that are visible in a lawn’s grass. There isn’t likely to be activity on these trails during the day, but after sunset, the trails may be occupied by hoards of carpenter ants as they go out in search of their evening meal. To look for nests, the University of Georgia Extension Office recommends that homeowners take a look at any nearby trees that are at least 6 inches in diameter shortly after sundown.

More often, the general contractor subcontracts out the various building stages to different individuals, including carpenters. Fenoxycarb is used in baits specifically targeting fire ants and generally comes in granular form. It is not well absorbed through the skin and has low acute toxicity to humans. This ant bait is a good alternative for the sugar recipe described above. To make the ant bait, mix a small amount of jam with 2 tablespoons of borax and combine thoroughly.

Winged males are typically the first to emerge when environmental conditions like temperature and extended daylight signify that it’s time to swarm. If conditions are right, the male releases a pheromone that stimulates the female to leave her nest. 'The satellite nests act to expand the foraging range of the parent nest, and they are in frequent contact with the parent nest to share resources. Once you locate the nest, using an insecticide like Raid can take out the pests, Russell says. We back up our pest control recommendations with a detailed rating methodology that we use to objectively score each provider.

If you consistently see carpenter ants in your home and/or little piles of sawdust next to a wall, you may have a problem and want to contact a pest service. Typically, carpenter ants act as “silent destroyers,” quietly tunneling through wood without any external signs of damage. In some cases, homeowners may notice wood fragments and sawdust that fall through cracks the ants have created. Badly damaged wood will have small openings, like little windows.

Set Borax Ant Bait

Lisa Jo Lupo is a pest control expert with over 25 years of experience in the pest control industry, writing about pest identification and management. Use wood preservatives on your windows, doors, pantry, attic, plumbing areas in the kitchen and bathroom, and other suspected areas. These ants excavate wooded areas of properties and make them hollow. Ants have a constricted body structure with only one segment between the thorax and abdomen. Ants have unequal wings, with the front pair being longer than the other.

While black carpenter ants are common, you may also find a combination of black and red, red, or brown. Termites have a thicker body and antennae that are not elbowed. Workers also are white and smaller than carpenter ants, about 1/8 to 3/16 inch long.

However, the threat that carpenter ants pose to the structure of your home can be significant. Since they hollow wood out to build their nests, if they get into the wall voids of your house and stay there undetected, they can cause catastrophic levels of damage. Seeing carpenter ants indoors during winter means that there is an inside nest. Sometimes worker ants are carried in with firewood, but these workers are not able to start nests or cause any damage in homes. Parent carpenter ant colonies sometimes establish one or more satellite nests in nearby indoor or outdoor sites. The workers of satellite colonies move frequently between their nest and the parent colony.

Pyrethrins are toxic to fish and other aquatic life, and they have been known to cause serious allergic reactions in humans, especially asthma sufferers. Borax is a naturally occurring mineral that works by interfering with the ants' digestive processes. As worker ants continue to carry the material into the colony, the entire group gradually starves to death. Amanda Rose Newton is a pest specialist and horticulture expert, reviewing pest control and gardening content for The Spruce's Cleaning and Gardening Review Board. Her passion for pest control and sustainable gardening allows her to review plant and pest content for best practices and accuracy. She is a board-certified entomologist and volunteers for USAIDs Farmer to Farmer program.

Even then, switch the type/brand of bait periodically since ants can develop tolerance to the bait with long-term exposure. Keep in mind that although mildly toxic, borax should still be handled with care and kept away from children and pets. The main thing to consider when comparing the various ant traps is the main active ingredient in each of them. Borax may be mildly toxic but it is still not a substance that you want to handle unnecessarily. Store-bought baits generally come in ready-to-use containers where you only need to open and place the bait without touching any toxic substance.

Homeowners very often confuse carpenter ants with termites, since the structural damage they cause can be similar. But termites consume wood, while carpenter ants merely tunnel through it to create nests. The presence of fine wood dust around the entry point to the nest is a strong sign you are dealing with carpenter ants rather than termites. Control of carpenter ants in trees is important if ants are entering homes from colonies in trees. Contact a pest management professional if control is necessary. The best way to control carpenter ants is to locate and destroy the nest, replace damaged or decayed wood, and eliminate any moisture problems.

Powdered DE is puffed into holes drilled in the carpenter ant nest, where it breaks down the exoskeleton of the insects and causes them to dehydrate. Diatomaceous earth is an entirely non-toxic substance commonly sold as an organic garden pesticide. Its effectiveness depends on precise application, and perhaps repeated treatments, until a colony is eradicated. The best way to get rid of these ants is to hire a pest management professional.