Carpenter Ant Concerns: Hurting Your Home and Your Wallet

Every year, carpenter ants cause extensive damage to homes in the Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA metro areas. These sneaky pests seek food and shelter in our homes and businesses, wreaking havoc on wooden structures along the way. PestLock has the ant control information to help you detect and eliminate infestations in your home or business.

Why Ants Love the Pacific Northwest

Our humid climate in the Pacific Northwest creates the perfect atmosphere for ants. The carpenter variety seeks out any wood in which to build nests. Needless to say, copious amounts of rain and damp weather in general make for plenty of wet trees, wood piles, and other places for ants to nest. Unfortunately, they sometimes choose to set up colonies inside our homes.

Do I Have Carpenter Ants?

The reason carpenter ant damage can become so costly is that it’s hard to spot. These ants’ colonies usually build multiple nests, with the parent colony in a tree or other outdoor location and the remaining colonies indoors. Indoor nests are often found in wall voids, preventing homeowners from spotting ants or their wood tunnels, called galleries. Unless you can spot the signs, you could go for months or years without knowing you have an infestation:

• Wood shavings
• “Window” holes for discarding shavings from wood tunnels
• Insect carcasses near window holes in wood
• Soft rustling sounds from inside walls or woodwork
• Understanding Carpenter Ant Infestations

Although you may see a swarm of black winged ants coming out of the walls, moldings, or baseboards in your home, the absence of worker ants doesn’t mean your home is carpenter ant-free. Spotting one or two live ants doesn’t mean you have a full-fledged infestation; however it is important to have an expert inspect to verify Ants sometimes travel far from their nests to forage for food. If you suspect a carpenter ant infestation, enlist the aid of a professional ant control company.

Pest Control: A Solution to Their Threat

Don’t let carpenter ants destroy your home and deplete your nest egg. Infestations don’t have to spell disaster when expert ant control treatments are just a phone call away. Whether you’ve spotted a swarm or have experienced one of the many other tell-tale signs, eliminating carpenter ant infestations is as simple as scheduling an appointment with PestLock. We proudly serve residential and commercial customers in the Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA metro areas.