Early Carpenter Ants Attack

You may not necessarily see constant activity but rather, you may see a few on one day and a few on another.  Nonetheless, just because they appear to go away for a while doesn't mean that they are gone but rather that they are just not currently visible. During periods when they are not active and visible they generally are tending to their nest.  This is actually like humans – when it is sunny and dry you may paint the outside of your house and when it is cold and rainy, you may paint an interior room.  Such non-visible activities may include making sure that the colonies pupa are stored well where they will continue to grow and be ready to help the colony eventually damage your home! Therefore, take the gift of having seen some as a good early sign and opportunity to address problem properly.

Backing up for a brief moment, let's look at some causes as to why some carpenter ant activity previously unseen may suddenly be visible. It is important to realize that the odds are that at the time of first seeing them the ants usually have been there for at least a year or more. Sometimes yard work in winter or early spring can be the catalyst for causing the appearance. While IPM or Integrated Pest Management recommends the removal of branches and foliage that come in contact with the structure as an integral part of the preventative process, doing it at the wrong time can exaggerate the problem.

Branch removal that is done during winter or very early spring can confuse the colony and cause branching out of a sub colony.  If the colony had been relying on the contacting branches as a pathway, the ants will not have access to their previous route to get outside. Because of this, they can possibly spread out to other areas in the structure looking for other perimeter openings for exterior access.  This really acts as a double-edged sword; on the positive side, it might alert you to a colony infestation that you were otherwise unaware of; on the negative side, the problem now may be spreading and on route to getting worse unless fast action is taken.

Since a carpenter ant infestation almost always start as a shoot off from another larger, establish colony, they likely will be travelling outside on a daily basis.  The purpose of the travel is to communicate with that original colony and to forage for food source commonly other insects.  Given that you can count on this behavior, pest control providers often are able to use this information to limit treatment to the exterior perimeter of structure and avoid interior treatment.

A false sense of security can be derived from a nest that is only partially killed.  Since there is no consistent way of verifying, the colony will become virtually non-visible and won't show back up again until it has regenerated itself.  It can take months to tell for certain whether a problem is fully eradicated. For this reason, opting for continued periodic service treatment is much wiser plan of attack than a one-time treatment.  Also, money spent on a more thorough treatment process will often pay for itself in as little as 6 months or a year.  Keep in mind the goal of successful carpenter ant extermination; to increase the likelihood of a more through colony kill and then start practicing preventative integrated pest management practices.

For more useful and related information, check out the links below: