Nobody wants to see ants around their property, but carpenter ants can be especially problematic. These tiny insects can invade your home and take over various wooden surfaces. If you think you might have carpenter ants in your home, you will need help from a Jacksonville pest control specialist to completely eliminate them. At Wildlife and Pest Control Experts, we know the best way to prevent carpenter ants, and we can help you take the right steps to ensure that carpenter ants never try to invade your home again.
What Makes Carpenter Ants Different From Other Species?
Carpenter ants in Jacksonville are about 1/2 an inch to 5/8 of an inch long and have black, brown, or red bodies segmented into three sections. Because carpenter ants share some common characteristics with other ants, they are constantly mistaken for different ant species. And while these ants look similar to many other ants in the area, there are a few unique characteristics that only carpenter ants have. Here is a look at some of the carpenter ant's distinguishing features:
- They have larger bodies than other ant species.
- They have heart-shaped heads when you look down at them.
- Antennae are slightly bent.
- The thorax is rounder than other ants.
Another thing that makes carpenter ants different from other ants is their nesting behaviors. Carpenter ants will excavate various wooden surfaces and build their colony within the wood. While compared to termites, because of this behavior, carpenter ants don't eat the wood as termites do. Instead, they dig holes and tunnels in the wood to make a nest.
Can Carpenter Ants Destroy A House?
When carpenter ants build their nest inside a wooden structure, it can cause a substantial amount of damage. At first, the damage may be minimal. But as the colony continues to grow, the wooden beam or object will become more hollowed out, which can make it unstable. Carpenter ants are known to cause structural damage to homes. However, you may be happy to know that it takes a long time for ants to destroy a home. If you take swift action against a carpenter ant infestation, the damage that your house receives should be minimal and easily fixed if you catch the infestation in the early stages.
Effective Carpenter Ant Prevention Tips
Carpenter ants are attracted to moist areas that have rotten or dead wood. If you want to keep carpenter ants away from your home, you should make the conditions around your house as inhospitable as possible. Some of the things that you can do to keep the carpenter ants away from your home include:
- Keep your crawl spaces, basement, and other humid and moist areas well-ventilated.
- Make sure that you don't have any leaky faucets or pipes on or around your home.
- Don't place stacks of firewood close to your house.
- Cut back any shrubs, buses, and tree branches from your home.
- Seal off any gaps or cracks around your wooden structures to prevent them from using them as an accessible entrance.
Carpenter ants love any type of damp or rotting wood. If you have old tree stumps, brush piles, or tree limbs in your yard, there is a good chance that you will attract carpenter ants. Since carpenter ants don't ingest the wood, they destroy any soft wood they can find. It doesn't matter if the wood is treated or untreated; carpenter ants will try to take it over if they can.
The Most Effective Way To Get Rid Of Carpenter Ants
Carpenter ants can live in the deepest crevices of your home and other wooden structures. Because they can stay hidden so well, it can be challenging to try and get rid of carpenter ants on your own.
Wildlife and Pest Control Experts are home pest control leaders in Jacksonville. We understand the unique challenges of carpenter ant control and have some of the most innovative ways to overcome these challenges. If you want to make sure that the carpenter ants on your property leave and never return, call today. And when you call, ask us about our free estimates and inspections.
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