There are many different species of ants that around found living in and around homes, one species that homeowners need to learn more about and be very wary of is the carpenter ant, not because they bite, sting or cause health-related problems, but because these social ants can cause significant structural damages inside homes and other buildings if they are left up to their own devices. One way carpenter ants differ from many of the other ant species that live in New York is their ability to live in our home through the cold winter months, making it that much more important to eradicate these pests in a timely manner.
If a carpenter ant infestation is present in your home there is also a good chance you have a water leak or moisture-related issue in your home as well, this is because carpenter ants prefer to invade wood that is wet or has been previously damaged by water. Signs of a carpenter ant infestation in your home can include:
- Physically seeing carpenter ants crawling around your home, deck, or shed
- Finding piles of “sawdust” on the floor next to walls or underneath of wooden structures
- Hearing scratching-like sounds as the ants move about, working behind your home’s walls
Carpenter ants are a large species of ant; in fact, it is one of the largest species of ant found in America. Adult carpenter ants grow to between 1/8 and 1/2 of an inch in length (the queen can be even larger in size) and can be red, black or a combination of both in color. Carpenter ants that have moved into your home to nest behind its walls within its structural wood during the spring or summer have the ability to remain throughout the winter. The consistent temperature in your home allows them to remain active, chewing through your home’s structural wood and increasing the size of their nest and colony. Unfortunately, for homeowners, this means that an active colony will continue to damage the structural supports of your home 365 days a year, or until the problem is remedied professionally.
If you think carpenter ants have moved inside of your home, do not hesitate to contact the pest control experts at Parkway Pest Services. Our professionals are highly trained and educated and can provide you with the inspection and treatments that are needed to completely eliminate an infestation. If you don’t currently have carpenter ants living in your home and would like to keep it that way implementing one of our year-round residential pest control programs is a great idea. The year-round pest control services will provide your residential property with the barrier of protection it needs to keep dangerous, damaging and annoying pests including carpenter ants out of your New York home, no matter what time of year it is!