It’s easy for people to question whether professional pest control is really needed when dealing with a certain pest. There are many DIY remedies out there that may appear to be the perfect solution and while they may work for some pests, they can actually do more harm than good when trying to eradicate a carpenter ant infestation. To understand why it is so important to contact a professional when dealing with carpenter ants, let’s first discuss the damage that these pests can cause.
When we hear the word termite, it’s easy to picture the destruction that they can do. However, many people don’t realize, that there are other pests that are capable of causing very similar damage, carpenter ants being one of them! While these pests do not eat the wood like termites do, they will chew away at it in order to form their tunnels and nests inside. It’s hard to imagine something so small could cause such extensive damage to your property, but ant colonies can have up to a couple thousand workers in a single colony. Just think about the cumulative damage they can cause together! Carpenter ants have been known to cause so much damage to wooden structures that they can become unsafe to live in and require costly repairs! Unstable walls and sagging floors and ceilings are all products of carpenter ant infestations that have remained untreated for too long.
So what exactly happens inside the wooden structures when they are infested with carpenter ants? With a couple thousand ants in one colony, where are they all? These ants will have two different types of nests: parent nests which are where the queens reside and then satellite nests, which are spread out both indoors and outdoors in order to have access to more resources. Due to the fact that carpenter ant colonies are so large and spread out, by tackling a carpenter ant invasion on your own, you are likely setting yourself up for failure. However, pest control experts know the best strategies for how to locate these nests and have experience eliminating them. Professionals can also help determine the extent of the damage that has been done to your home.
Though there are some carpenter ant elimination methods you can attempt on your own, we don’t recommend doing so as it usually takes many attempts before DIY treatments even make a dent in your ever-growing carpenter ant infestation. Though we don’t recommend using DIY methods at eliminating these pests, there are definitely some steps you can take to help deter these pests from your home. Since carpenter ants don’t feed on wood they destroy like termites do, it makes sense that they will need to find another food source. Inside homes, these ants commonly feed on sugary or protein-rich foods as well as pet food. Storing your food in airtight containers, picking up pet food between feedings, and storing your trash in bins with tight-fitting lids can help keep them from entering your home. However, it doesn’t take carpenter ants very long to create some serious damage, and while you are dealing with the overwhelming task of ridding a carpenter ant colony from your home, that damage is still going on. Before long, you will experience the frustrations that come with dealing with these persistent pests! For all these reasons, professional pest control is the way to go when it comes to carpenter ant control. If you'd like to read some more helpful tips when dealing with carpenter ants, check out our previous blog.
Carpenter ants can infiltrate homes and cause extensive wood damage that can go on for quite some time without being noticed, which makes them all the more dangerous. Not only that, homeowners often only realize that these ants have invaded only after the damages to their homes have already begun! If you notice these ants in or around your home or small piles of sawdust on your floor or along your trim, contact your local pest control company as soon as possible. At Adams Exterminating Company, we can completely eliminate the carpenter ant infestation in your home. We will send one of our highly-trained technicians to your home every other month to monitor and maintain your pest control to keep your property pest-free. Give us a call at Adams Exterminating Company today; we can help determine which of our services is best suited for you!