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Considered to be quite big at about 20mm long, carpenter ants are found in plenty in the USA. These ants can cause infestations indoors and outdoors, making it quite challenging to get rid of them. They are known as carpenter ants, because they love wood, especially moist & decayed wood. However, an interesting point about carpenter ants is that they don’t eat wood, though they live in burrows inside decayed woods. Their diet is almost similar to the common ants. They get attracted to anything sweet or sugary.
They may not cause as much damage as termites when they stay inside wooden structures, but that doesn’t mean you can get complacent when you spot carpenter ants in your home. When you don’t get rid of them in the initial days of infestations, they grow quickly and can destroy your wooden furniture before you realize it. The average lifespan of carpenter ants is about 25 years; therefore, the earlier you spot them, the easier it is for you to get rid of them.
Spotting carpenter ants
Carpenter ants are big pests that are usually in shades of brown or black. However, you can also find them in red and yellow colors, at times. Their antennae are slightly bent. The worker ants don’t have wings, while the reproductive ants are winged creatures. If you see a small pile of wooden particles near your wooden furniture or anywhere in your house, you can be sure of carpenter ants infestations in your homes. These small piles of wood shavings are the nests of carpenter ants. Once you spot these nests, you have to look for ways to get rid of these ants.
Steps to keep carpenter ants at bay
Using a bait
Considered the most successful way of getting rid of carpenter ants, this method will work for tracing the ants’ path to their nests. Once you spot the nests, you can keep some sugary or sweet substance in the path to attract the ants to the bait. You can also mix some sugar and baking soda in a bowl and leave it on the path of the ants. While carpenter ants come out as they are attracted to the sugar, they get killed when they consume baking soda.
Wipe the ant trails clean
Ants usually follow the same route to get to food particles. Once you have established the nests, and found out the path of these ants, you can keep them away by wiping these trails clean. Keep all food sources closed, and spray a few drops of essential oils on the ant trails. You can also spray some detergent solutions on the track. The strong smells of these substances keep the carpenter ants away naturally.
Get rid of the nests
The small piles of wood shavings, which are the carpenter ants’ nests, are known as frass. When you identify a large amount of frass in and around your homes, we recommend you call a professional pest control Vancouver expert to eliminate the nests completely. You might find different carpenter ant dusts available in the market. These dusts, when applied directly to the nests, can kill the ants. However, to ensure that you don’t cause any damage to pets, kids, and others at home, we suggest you call a Vancouver pest control professional to do the job for you safely.
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