Why A Carpenter Ant Colony In Your Wentzville, O’Fallon, or Troy MO. Home Should Be Left Up To Pros.
Nicole’s Weekly Pest Control Tip
A Carpenter ant colony can damage wood in or near your home. While carpenter ants do not eat wood they damage it as they create tunnels to build a nest site. They primarily attack wood that is or has been wet and damaged by mold, but will also nest inside dry, undamaged wood. There are nine types of carpenter ants throughout the U.S., usually measuring ¼ to ½ inch in length and are red, black or red and black in color.
What To Find A Carpenter Ant Colony?
Carpenter ant damage caused from the worker ants is typically found in tree stumps or within wall voids where moisture problems have softened the wood. In the video above, Nicole shows in her weekly pest control tip a carpenter ant nesting location along with the difference between worker ants and eggs.
Ant colonies must be constructed out of direct sunlight so when exposed to sunlight you will see how quickly the worker ants gather up the eggs in an effort to take them deeper into the ground protecting them from the light.
Satellite nests (or satellite colonies) from black carpenter ants are commonly found in and around areas such as window and door-frames, chimneys, and behind the walls near sinks and bathtubs. More often than not there are no visible signs or damage present in your Missouri home, so homeowners spray the ants they see in one area. This is task commonly completed with retail products is not effective and will not eliminate your carpenter ant infestation – it’s a bandaid approach.
After a few days or perhaps a week, more ants come back.
The reason calling a pest management professional like Around The Clock Pest is the right choice because a carpenter ant colony has more than one nesting site. These types of ants build two types of nests. Most satellite nests are built in or closer to your their main food sources while the parent colony is constructed further away with ants found in a larger number.
Constructing more than one nest helps ensure their survival. Another interesting fact about all ants is that the more you try controlling by spraying, the more eggs a queen or multiple queen ants will lay making retail sprays a RISK.
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