Carpenter ant Infestation in Home

Today we got another call for a carpenter ant infestation.

Interestingly enough, there was frass falling from the ceiling in one of the rooms and we were able to study this out and kind of track the carpenter ants. Got all the way over the other side of the house, found where they’re coming from a planter box all the way the corner of a home, then up through the attic and over the other side of the home.

Some of this is is wood and some of it’s actually uh, just the foam insulation that carpenter ants love to tunnel through it. It’s an easy go for them… Path of least resistance and um and then when they toss it out most times you don’t get to see it because it’s in a crawl space or maybe an attic or a wall cavity.

In this particular scenario because it’s the tongue and groove ceiling they’ve chosen an exit hole up above us here and so as they’re mining through they’re dumping all of the frass or the shavings right here and this is the spot they picked right in one of the bedrooms which you know for a typical homeowner maybe a little bit scary but it’s also great because you know you have it.

In many cases you wouldn’t even know you had a carpenter ant or a whole colony. This particular one we even have winged ones here the winged ones are called alates or reproductives. By the time a colony reaches full tilt like this and it’d be could be anywhere between two and five thousand in that colony, we know we have an infestation up here.

I was able to talk to the customer and they’ve identified at the other corner of the house. They’re seeing a lot of activity outside coming and going into the siding of the home so if you can imagine we’re at the farther end probably 50 to 60 feet away from what we’re going to look at next.

The interesting part is that they started coming in through here, moving from the planter box, into here the corner of the house they’ve mined their way through. They’ve gone up two stories… Went into an attic space above, crossed the attic space and then got into the foam and the tongue and groove ceiling on the farther end of the house. Gives you a little picture of how industrious they are. I think our next step is to figure out a protection plan for this homeowner and then off to the next place to see what we can find.

Part of our commitment to the community is to offer free inspections. So if you have a question about any potential pest problem at all, feel free to give us a call or go to our website at pestlock.com and remember, whether you’re doing DIY or you’re hiring a professional… Let’s focus on the health of the home while still focusing on the health of the environment.