'Sawdust' Mounds Indicate Carpenter Ants
As the winter winds start to blow, insect activity in northeastern New Jersey seems to disappear. While winter’s frigid temperatures do thin the ranks of some insect populations and force others to enter a hibernation-like state, most insect populations simply go underground — or inside. You may not see carpenter ants or termites during the winter, but they can be nesting in your foundation, tunneling and gnawing away out of site, quietly destroying your home.
Social insects, carpenter ants live in huge colonies that can number in the tens of thousands. In New Jersey, any large black ant 1/4 to 3/4-inch long is probably a carpenter ant. Drawn by moisture, carpenter ants may nest in foundation areas where structural timbers have been weakened or damaged by plumbing leaks or storm runoff. Unlike termites, carpenter ants do not feed on wood. They do chew tunnels through wood and create large galleries for their nests that destroy and weaken foundations and structures.
Carpenter ants can access your home from underground, from woodpiles, from shrubbery around window frames or from trees overhanging your roof. If you notice telltale mounds of what looks like sawdust, you probably have carpenter ants nesting in your home. The “sawdust” is the byproduct created when carpenter ants tunnel through wood. The only way to eliminate carpenter ants is to locate and destroy the entire nest. It’s not an easy task and one best left to the experienced pest control professionals at Heritage Pest Control.
Next time: Termites