Carpenter Ant Detective Hunt - Tracking the little monsters.

Carpenter Ant Detective: Where to Look

It’s not easy to find the nesting sites of carpenter ants. However, unless all the carpenter ant nests and satellite nests both in and around your home are found and eliminated, you’ll never rid your home of a carpenter ant problem.

The first sign of carpenter ants is often a swarm emerging inside your home. You’re sitting in your living room, minding your own business, and suddenly hundreds of winged black ants, about one inch in length, appear almost out of nowhere. No warning signs–you just get the sudden swarm.

Carpenter Ant Detective: Backtracking to the Source

Where did the swarm come from? There’s a main nest in or near your home — probably in a moist, rotten tree stump, or that old rotting picket fense, or the wet rotting siding under a leaky gutter. The key is to look for wet, rotting wood somewhere in or near your home. That’s where you’ll find the main nest. 

You might notice the small piles of sawdust the carpenter ants create as they burrow into the wood, excavating the tunnels in which they live. They don’t eat wood like termites. They just create their nests in wood. 

Observe branches that hang over your home. These make a great pathway for carpenter ants to enter the home. You might find many ants in one location. Where you see many ants, you’re getting closer to the source.

Carpenter Ant Detective: When to look for them.

Here’s what happens when you’re sleeping. Put on your night vision goggles!

We suggest looking at night, when carpenter ants are most active. While they don’t eat wood, they love almost any food: Plants, honey, grease, meat. If you see foraging carpenter ants, their nest or satellite nest could be as much as 100 feet distant. As they forage, they follow scent trails. When it comes to detecting their scent trails, now we’re looking at the job of a professional carpenter ant detective.

Call ApolloX Pest Control

(203) 256-1200

You can eliminate one nest or satellite nest, but their could be a dozen in the near vacinity. You will have accomplished nothing, and after all your hard work, you’ll be unexpectedly treated to another swarm in the near future.

Carpenter Ant Detective: Some final tips.

The best carpenter ant solution is prevention. Make it impossible for carpenter ants to find the wet rotting wood they love to excavate for their nests. 

• Keep your property free of debris.
• Repair and repaint any damaged wood.
• Remove decaying stumps and dead trees.
• Repair leaks in your roof or gutters.
• Make sure rain water drains away from your home, not into your foundation.
• Repair leaky hoses, pipes and faucets.
• Basically, rid your home and yard of any wet, rotting, decaying wood.

You may think you’ve covered all the bases, but how great would it be to have a professional inspect your home and yard to verify you’ve caught everything? We often find a nest or satellite nest that was missed by the homeowner or business owner.

Do you really want an unexpected swarm to appear some evening when you’re entertaining guests? Such an experience would not soon be forgotten!

Call ApolloX Pest Control

Your Professional Carpenter Ant Pest Detectives

(203) 256-1200