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Our pest management services employ some very educated exterminators with years on top of years of experience in dealing with pests. The carpenter ant, specifically, has been the topic of many discussions. Our techs could easily debate and talk to you all day about carpenter ants. We could tell you things you would have never dreamed true, but you probably aren’t interested in all this. You likely could care less how many species of ants there are. What you are most concerned with is how to keep these ants from damaging your home. That’s why we’ve put together this quick little guide.
Identifying The Carpenter Ant
You might not care about the different species of the ant, but you do need to know how to distinguish the carpenter ant from the pack. Luckily, this is much easier than you’d imagine. The ant might be small, but it has six legs, two antennae, and three main distinctive body parts. They are mostly black in color, but some do have reddish spots. You’ll typically know you are dealing with carpenter ants when you see large colonies.
These troublesome crawlers like to travel together in large numbers. They’ll try to stick to invisible pathways like the grass and beside concrete walkways, but it is possible to identify them if you look hard enough. These guys are known for their strong mandibles, which give them the ability to gnaw through wood and wood structures.
They Don’t Eat Wood
The carpenter ant might be small, but it can do immense amounts of damage to wood and wooden structures thanks to its strong mandible. What’s even more interesting is these ants don’t eat the wood, but they chew through it, building tunnels that they later burrow into for safety. In fact, the excess wood shavings sometimes referred to as frass, will be a surefire sign of an infestation. This frass can oftentimes be found in areas like the basement and crawlspace. It can also be found stuck or piled in corners near walls. Look for these signs to determine an infestation on the property, but keep in mind, this isn’t the only indicator. There are plenty of others you’ll want to familiarize yourself with.
They Don’t Get Into The Pantry
It might take several years, but a carpenter ant colony can grow to reach 3,000 members in size. And the most troubling part about this is, they can remain undetected all this time. They’ll hide in the shadows, remaining undetected until the numbers are too far great to deal with. The reason for this is because they don’t get in your pantry and food like other species of the ant. They can thrive nicely off a variety of sources outside the home. In addition to this, the worker ant of this species can travel 1,000 feet or more from the colony in search of food. This provides the ant with the ability to locate their colonies hundreds of feet from the structure, making matters only worse.
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