Carpenter ants can cause significant damage to your home

Carpenter ants have a justified reputation for being destructive little creatures. Though they may not have the notoriety of the termite (or the termite’s association with billions of dollars in property damage) they can nonetheless cause significant damage to your home or other buildings on your property if they were to go untreated. 

Carpenter ants likely made their way inside your home due to moist or rotting wood. Unlike termites, who actually consume wood, carpenter ants burrow their way through wood, preferring dead, dried, or rotting materials to make their way through. Carpenter ants cannot digest wood. Their diet will consist of other insects, dead or living insects, coincidentally including the termite. 

Carpenter ants eat proteins and sugar

Carpenter ants are typically seeking out protein and sugar rich foods, and termites definitely provide the protein they desire. The sugar they seek is usually found in a substance called honeydew. It’s a substance that is secreted by aphids and is unrelated to the more well-known melon of the same name. 

Now, if carpenter ants have made their way inside your home, odds are that your house may already have some damage — the type of damage that enabled them to get inside. Left untreated, that damage will no doubt get worse. Additionally, the ants will be seeking out safe places to nest to further expand their colony, and they’ll be seeking out the protein and sugar their diet consists of. 

Carpenter ants live to grow their colony

Carpenter ants are social insects. This means they live in groups, and each member of the group has a very specific role to fill. 

The queen, which in some instances can live as long as twenty years, uses pheromones to communicate with the rest of the ants in the colony, works to establish the colony, mate with males, lay eggs, and direct workers. 

Workers, depending on their role, will spend their time constructing the elaborate tunnels and galleries within the nest; gathering and distributing food; protecting the colony; and more. 

Male ants will mate with the queen. And that’s it. That’s their role. After mating, they will soon die. 

The carpenter ant is one of the largest ant species in the United States, with workers usually measuring to about one-quarter to one-half inch in length. Males are approximately the same in size, whereas the queen will sometimes be two to three times the size of workers and males!

Carpenter ants should be treated right away

Usually, we find that when a carpenter ant infestation has made its way inside of the home, that this infestation will be connected to a larger one outside. 

When carpenter ant colonies grow significantly, they will break off into smaller satellite colonies that are connected to the main colony. This also means that carpenter ant colonies can have several queens, with a main colony queen overseeing the entire colony, and individual queens presiding over the smaller sub-colonies. 

Despite the communal nature of these social insects, the queens have been observed to be territorial when they feel their space is being encroached, causing discord within the colony.

Point being, a large colony consisting of several queens means that their ability to quickly lay eggs and further grow the footprint of the colony is that much greater, and the longer this goes on, the more difficult it can be to effectively treat. 

It is always in your best interest to contact a professional pest service in order to get on top of the infestation for a more desirable outcome. 

Aspen Pest Control specializes in treating carpenter ants

One of our pest control specialties is treating homes in Washougal for carpenter ant infestations. 

When you call Aspen Pest Control, we’ll book an appointment with you at the earliest, most convenient time possible for you. After thoroughly discussing the matter and the things you’ve observed, we’ll conduct a thorough inspection of your property and your home, depending on your level of comfort and the severity of the infestation.

After we’ve been able to carefully inspect and assess the situation, we’ll present you with our findings as well as treatment recommendations. Our commitment is to always make this a hassle-free process. We’re here to serve you, never pressure you to invest in services you don’t feel you need. 

When you do choose to move forward with treatment for your carpenter ant infestation, we’ll meticulously apply commercial grade products in the identified areas and will reapply those products based on your unique treatment plan. Different types and sizes of infestations will require different strategies. 

In order to give you complete peace of mind, we always make our Home Protection Plan a standard part of our treatment options. Instead of a one-time treatment plan, the Home Protection Plan consists of year-round treatment applications that are applied on a quarterly basis that, depending on the type of nuisance pests you’re facing, will address a variety of different issues when they’re most seasonally relevant. 

It’s the top choice of our new clients, and we believe that it’s because it gives them the peace of mind that they just couldn’t get with any other plan. 

Ready for pest control services that are committed to your needs? Then contact Aspen Pest Control today for your consultation!