There are many different kinds of ants, and some are more dangerous than others. What are the next steps after seeing an ant around your kitchen? One important place to start is to find out whether or not you have a carpenter ant problem.

Carpenter ants can cause significant damage to your home, so it’s important to stop an infestation right away and to seek help if you think there are carpenter ants inside the walls of your home. Here’s some helpful information.

Identifying Carpenter Ants

Carpenter ants are fairly large, growing up to a half-inch long. This is larger than many other species of ant. They can vary in color but are often black or dark red.
 
Carpenter ants are different from other ants in that they build their nests inside of wood. Often, carpenter ants will get into the walls of a home and build complicated tunnel systems inside the wooden structures that support a home.
 
If you aren’t sure whether or not the ants you’re seeing are carpenter ants, reach out to the technicians at Arenz Pest Management. We can help you definitively identify the species of ant in your home, as well as create treatment plans.

Carpenter Ant Damage

Unlike other pests such as termites, carpenter ants don’t eat wood. Because of this, the damage done by carpenter ants is often much slower than the damage done by termites. However, this doesn’t mean that the damage is insignificant.
 
Over time, carpenter ant nests and tunnels can jeopardize the structural integrity of your home. It’s important to take care of a carpenter ant problem as quickly as possible to avoid expensive repairs.
 
In addition to the damage they cause, carpenter ants need to eat. They are foragers and will appear in your kitchen, bathroom, and other rooms of the house looking for food.
 
If they get into containers in the pantry, they can contaminate food. Plus, it can be frustrating to deal with countless ants appearing around the house, congregating around the trash, or popping up in the box of your favorite cereal.

Knowing When To Seek Help

Thankfully, seeing a single carpenter ant in your kitchen is not a sure sign of an infestation. The carpenter ant may be coming from elsewhere seeking food or scouting for a new home. It’s important to eliminate any ants you see in your home.
 
If you start to see more ants, or ants in more places, it may be time to call the professionals for help. First, check for other signs of a carpenter ant problem, such as holes in the exterior of your home. You may also find frass at the bottom of your walls, a mix of sawdust, excrement, and dead ants.
 
If you’re worried about carpenter ants in your St. Louis home this September, it’s time to give Arenz Pest Management a call. Not only can we help you identify the species of ant, but we’ll also help you identify attracting factors and points of entry.
 
Our thorough treatment plan is carefully designed to meet the needs of your family and your home. We eliminate carpenter ants quickly and efficiently to minimize the damage. We also create long-lasting solutions such as environmental changes and food storage, so that your home can be ant-free long after we’re gone.

Tags: pest prevention | home pest control | carpenter ants |

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