Carpenter ants can be a bother when they get into your home and cause damage to the structure and leave behind ugly trails. To get rid of these annoying pests, you need to find their homes, which are the heart of the ant colony. In this piece, we’ll talk about the signs that can help you find where carpenter ants are coming from and how to find their nests and get rid of them.
Understanding How Carpenter Ants Act: It’s important to understand how carpenter ants act before looking for their nests. Carpenter ants don’t eat wood like termites do. Instead, they dig into it to make galleries and tubes for their nests. They like wood that is wet, rotting, or broken, like tree stumps, logs, and damp spots around your property.
Signs of Carpenter Ant Activity: To find the homes of carpenter ants, look for signs that they are active. Some of the most common signs are:
Carpenter ants leave well-defined trails, which are often easy to see when they are most busy in the morning or evening. Follow these tracks to find out where their nests are.
Carpenter ants push dead ants, wood shavings, and other things out of their nests. These pieces, called “frass,” gather near the exits to nests or other openings.
Winged Swarmers: Carpenter ants make swarmers, or reproductive ants with wings, at certain times of the year. These swarmers leave the nest to start new colonies. If you see swarmers inside, it could mean that a nest is close by.
Damage to wood: Look for small holes or tunnels in walls, beams, or window frames made of wood. Carpenter ants may also damage wood that has a smooth, sandpaper-like feel.
Finding Carpenter Ant Nests: Once you’ve found signs of carpenter ant activity, you can start looking for their nests. Don’t forget that carpenter ants can make more than one nest outside of the main group. To find the babies, follow these steps:
Watch for Ant Activity: Start your search where you see the most ants moving around. Keep an eye on the ants to see where they come from and where they go. This will help you get closer to the nest.
Check Wet Areas: Carpenter ants like to live in damp or wet places. Check places like bathrooms, kitchens, basements, and crawl spaces that have a lot of moisture. In these places, look for frass or wood that has been destroyed.
Inspection of the Outside: Don’t forget to also look around the outside of your home. Check the outside walls, decks, fences, and wooden buildings for ant trails, frass, or damaged wood.
Listen for Sounds: If the colony is very busy, you might hear rustling or a faint tapping sound coming from inside the walls.
Set out sweet or protein-based baits and watch which ones the ants are most interested in. This can give clues about how close their nest is.
Drill and Tap Method: If you can’t find the nest, you might want to hire a pest control service that uses the “drill and tap” method. To do this, you have to tap on objects and listen for hollow sounds that point to possible nesting spots.
Help from a professional is often needed to find carpenter ant nests, especially when there are satellite colonies or nests are hidden. If you can’t find the nests or there are a lot of them, you should call a qualified pest control professional. They know how to find carpenter ant nests and have the tools to get rid of them quickly and safely.
In conclusion, if you want to get rid of carpenter ants, you need to find their nests. By learning how they act and looking for signs that they are active, you can narrow down possible nesting spots. When dealing with carpenter ant populations, it’s important to be patient and check everything carefully. If you have trouble or the problem seems out of your hands, don’t be afraid to call a reputable pest control company for help. This will make sure that the ant colonies are gone for good and that your home’s structure stays safe.
