The Fastest Way To Remove Carpenter Ants

Carpenter ants are a wood destroying ant species that is very similar to termites in the damage that they can do. The “carpenter” in carpenter ants comes from the intricate colonies that they build inside of wood that has been damaged by excessive moisture. As such, properly identifying and removing carpenter ants is essential.

Removing carpenter ants

Getting rid of carpenter ants can be more difficult than getting rid of other ant species. With most ants, you can find their colony somewhere in your yard, or outside of the building in which they forage for food by simply looking at the workers. But carpenter ants create their colonies inside the wood of the home. This makes them pretty much impervious to many control methods that would work on ant mounds, such as boiling water or kill-on-contact insecticides.

So in order to get rid of a carpenter ant infestation, you will need to use baits. Baits are protein or sugar-rich foods that are laced with a slow acting insecticide. The ants will take the bait back to the colony where it is shared with other members, eventually reaching the queen. Once the queen eats the bait, it will die in a few days, leaving the colony without any reproductive capacity. Since ants almost never replace a dead queen, the colony will die off and the damage to the wood in the home is halted.

Getting professional help

In order to get rid of a carpenter ant colony, even with DIY baits, you need to know what you’re doing. The baits have to contain the right active ingredient and they need to be placed in the right position, otherwise the ants will simply ignore them. It’s also important to correctly identify the species you are dealing with so that you can properly administer the right bait and the insecticide with the right active ingredient.

We can help you with all of these factors. If you see ants that are larger than usual inside the home, then you know that you are dealing with carpenter ants. At that point, the best option at your disposal is to call over a pest control specialist who can remove the infestation quickly and effectively. Contact us today if you are having ant issues in your home, or if you would like us to perform an inspection in order to determine the species behind the infestation.