What Happens if Carpenter Ants Go Untreated?

Pest control is unpleasant for everyone, and carpenter ants are no different. Carpenter ants should not be disregarded, regardless of whether you own or rent your home, as they can seriously harm a building’s interior and structure. You’ll learn about the dangers carpenter ants pose in today’s blog post, along with some easy precautions that homeowners and renters can take to safeguard their properties from these invasive pests.

What Do Carpenter Ants Look Like?

One way to ward off carpenter ants is to be aware of their appearance. The largest size of a carpenter ant is less than half an inch. One-inch-long, winged carpenter ant swarmer is produced by established colonies. Workers of carpenter ants can be dark red, yellowish dark, or both. You should immediately contact a pest control specialist if you see worker ants on your property.

Dangers Posed by Carpenter Ants

The true threat posed by carpenter ants is not that they can bite people, despite having larger jaws, but rather what they do to your building. True, carpenter ants attack humans when they perceive a threat. Bites of carpenter ants lead to immediate pain and subsequent bee sting-like symptoms.

However, their bites can be lethal to the interior and structure of your home. Carpenter ants will eat the wood that makes up the structure of your home if it is wet and soft. If the damage caused by this ant’s biting and chewing is not repaired, your building or business may collapse because it weakens the support beams.

Carpenter ants are easy to identify because their holes in moist, decaying, or damp wood extrude frass (sawdust). As a homeowner, when you notice an accumulation of this frass, you should be eager to contact the pest control experts at Van Den Berge Pest Control at 616-392-7367. They have won the Best of West Michigan Pest Control award for the past eight years.

Simple Steps to Take to Protect Your Property from Carpenter Ants

By keeping your yards dry, you can make your home less appealing and comfortable to carpenter ants. This would make it more difficult for them to be drawn to the wood in your building. You should also:

1. Fix hoses that leak or fixtures that are broken.
2. Take care of broken or clogged gutters that send water down the side of your house.
3. Cut down any trees or bushes on your property that block the sun.
4. Loosen the ground near the foundation of your walls to stop rainwater from pooling there.
5. Remove any building materials or firewood at least 20 feet from the foundation walls.
6. If your flower bed borders are made of wood, you need a stone edge to keep carpenter ants away.
7. Think about replacing the mulch or maintaining it two feet away from your foundation.
8. Allow airflow for basements and attics that tend to get wet.
9. Properly seal any holes, cracks, utility lines, etc., that they could use to get into your home.
10. Keep your home clean to eliminate the food sources for carpenter ants.
11. Set out bait traps made of sugar and boric acid where you see them in your home.
12. Use Diatomaceous Earth.
13. Use a Pyrethrin-Based spray.
14. Call an Exterminator.

Contact the pest control specialists at Van Den Berge Pest Control at 616-392-7367. We have been voted the Best of West Michigan Pest Control companies for eight consecutive years.

Carpenter ants can cause a significant amount of damage to your home and life if you do not eliminate them. If you live in Michigan and have noticed a swarmer around your home, please contact us so that we can eliminate the wood-eating ants plaguing your property.