Pennsylvania Carpenter Ant Control

What are Carpenter Ants?

Carpenter ants are large black or reddish ants ranging in size from one-quarter inch up to three-quarters of an inch. The Pennsylvania pest control experts at Viking Pest explain their range in size helps to distinguish between the different classes such as worker ants and queens. Carpenter ants get their name from the way that they excavate wood to build their nests, resulting in tunnels inside wood structures such as logs, trees, beams, and doors.

To protect your Pennsylvania home from carpenter ants, you need to learn about the behavior of this pest, take steps for prevention, and find effective treatment options should an infestation occur.

How to Identify Carpenter Ants in Your Pennsylvania Home

Carpenter ants may at times be confused with termites because of their affinity for wood. Yet carpenter ants do not eat wood, they tunnel through it to build nests. You can tell these ants apart from termites by looking at their antennae, which are bent at an angle. At first glance, carpenter ants may look like house ants because they have a single node between the abdomen and thorax. However, they can be distinguished using their uniquely-shaped heads. The Pennsylvania pest control experts at Viking Pest explain carpenter ants have heart-shaped heads while house ants’ heads are more circular.

If left alone, carpenter ants can be very destructive to your PA home, particularly because they quickly multiply. If you see carpenter ants in your home or business in the winter, this could signify that a colony is located inside. These colonies can reach up to 10,000 individuals with just one queen. The workers are the largest group that you will encounter in your Pennsylvania home. The workers can be identified by their lack of wings and shiny black or brown color. The worker class of carpenter ants also ranges in size between ¼” and ½”. Another class of carpenter ants, the queen’s brood, is generally larger than the workers. They’re easily identified by their size, between ⅜” and ½” long. Only the queen is bigger, measuring up to ¾” long.

When Are Carpenter Ants Present in Pennsylvania?

Carpenter ants are active in the spring and summer, and fall months in Pennsylvania. They are drawn to wet wood that’s been damaged by mold, so the moist and muggy spring and summer months provide them with good habitat. The Pennsylvania pest control experts at Viking Pest explain although they will take advantage of damp, decayed wood, they also may begin excavating their tunnels through dry and undamaged wood in your PA home. Carpenter ants will enter buildings and structures through any kind of crack or gap around doors, windows, or holes for wiring or plumbing. Any tree limb touching a house provides a bridge for carpenter ants to reach areas above ground near and around your home in Pennsylvania.

During the spring and summer in Pennsylvania, parent colonies, are found in moisture-prone areas, including the bathroom, kitchen, window frames, or roof lines of your home. These nests must maintain their moisture to support the eggs that the queen will lay, helping to produce many new ants. The Pennsylvania exterminator experts at Viking Pest explain these new ants then will make their satellite nests deep within your structure, causing the most damage. Carpenter ants may leave a sawdust-like substance near their nests, called frass. These frass piles consist of the wood carpenter ants have dug out when making their nests along with dead ant body parts and excrement. Our Pennsylvania pest control experts recommend you look for these clues to know if they have a problem and then call Viking Pest for effective carpenter ant control and carpenter ant prevention in Pennsylvania.

How to Control Carpenter Ants in Pennsylvania

One of the first steps to help get rid of carpenter ants in Pennsylvania would be to get rid of anything that could collect water, and places where there could be standing water. Focus on keeping the surrounding areas of your home as dry as possible. Making sure to keep any type of small opening in your property properly sealed, and remove any firewood and building materials from being stored next to your property. The Pennsylvania pest control experts at Viking Pest explain these pests are sure to use these materials, or any type of branch that touches your home, to enter wherever they can. However, the best way to get rid of carpenter ants would be to allow the PA pest control professionals at Viking Pest to take the time to do a thorough inspection of both the interior and exterior of the home to find where there are any ant activity and nests.

Hire Viking Pest to Help Control Carpenter Ants in Pennsylvania!

With professional help, you can eliminate carpenter ants. Viking Pest offers expert treatment designed to effectively and efficiently control and prevent carpenter ants from invading your home or business in Pennsylvania. Our use of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques focuses on finding the core of the pest concern and controlling carpenter ants from the source. Through IPM, pest control materials are selected and applied in a manner that minimizes risks to human health, pets, and the environment. Call Viking today for your FREE and NO OBLIGATION estimate at 1-800-618-2847 or schedule online today!

Protecting Your Home or Business From Carpenter Ants in Pennsylvania With Viking Pest Control

Viking Pest offers expert treatment designed to effectively and efficiently control and prevent pests from invading your home or business in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. Our use of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques focuses on finding the core of the pest concern and controlling Carpenter Ants in Pennsylvania from the source. Through IPM, pest control materials are selected and applied in a manner that minimizes risks to human health, pets, and the environment. Call Viking today for your FREE and NO OBLIGATION estimate at 1-800-618-2847 or Schedule Online today!