Inspecting Your Home For Carpenter Ants

One wood-destroying insect that can produce considerable damage to your home is the Carpenter ant. This wood predator can come in any size. Also, Carpenter ants swarm looking quite similar to a colony of termites moving about. The difference can be seen in the fact that the Carpenter ant has a smaller waist area than the termite does.

The House Is Not On The Menu
One misconception about Carpenter ants is the fact that they do not eat wood. They will nest in the wood in your house by burrowing a tunnel into it. Furthermore, the presence of Carpenter ants is a good indicator that you also may have a termite problem. The ants take advantage of the areas that termites attack in order to make their home. These critters like to sit down for a long meal typically chewing away at other insects and sugars they find from sunset to somewhere around midnight. Anyone in a home infested with Carpenter ants will hear these munchers chewing behind the walls. They like nesting areas that are near moist spots in the home such as the insulation around plumbing fixtures.

Traveling Causes Wood Damage
Carpenter ants are busy constantly tunneling and excavating through the wood in your home. You can tell an area that has been cleared by a Carpenter ant because it will be strangely clean. There will be no sawdust or other debris. These areas look like they have been hand sanded because they are extremely smooth. Depending upon where the ants decide to locate will also dictate the type of damage the wood structure will sustain. If Carpenter ants attack important load-bearing areas, the damage can be extremely expensive.

Springtime Is Carpenter Ant Time
During spring is the optimum time to find carpenter ants in the home. In order to battle these critters, it is important to understand from where they come. Are they coming from an outdoor or indoor nest? This may be difficult to ascertain since the presence of Carpenter ants do not necessarily mean that they have a nest in the home yet. If the appearance of Carpenter ants takes place in the late winter or perhaps in the early part of spring, this is a clear indication that they probably are coming from a nest inside the house.

Activity noticed later in the year may not necessarily mean the ants of already set up home inside your house.