Carpenter Ant Control
Carpenter Ant Control in Katy, TX - Mama Bear Pest & Outdoor
Mama Bear Pest & Outdoor offers the best carpenter ant control services in the Katy, TX area.
Carpenter ants are a larger species of ant that are known for their extremely destructive tendency to excavate wood to build their nests. Carpenter ants can hollow out the wood in your home, your furniture, the trees on your property, and any other wood they come across, leading to expensive and dangerous structural damage. While carpenter ants are often confused with termites, several differences in appearance and behavior can help you tell these pests apart.
Carpenter ants are a nightmare for homeowners, but don’t worry! Mama Bear Pest & Outdoor can help.
Our team provides targeted carpenter ant treatments to address infestations efficiently. Our certified technicians employ methods to eliminate carpenter ants while minimizing environmental impact. We conduct a thorough assessment to identify nesting sites and entry points, ensuring a comprehensive solution.
Count on us to protect your property from the potential harm that carpenter ants can inflict, preserving the structural integrity of your home. Contact our team today to get started with a FREE estimate at (281) 656-1525!
Carpenter Ant Characteristics
Carpenter ants are fairly distinct from other species of ant. If you are seeing ants crawling around inside your home, but you’re not sure if they are carpenter ants or not, look for these characteristics:
- Larger than most ants, can get up to ½ an inch long
- Black or red in color, or black with red legs
- A waist with one node (also known as the petiole)
- A thorax that looks evenly rounded when viewed from the side
- Winged reproductive forms have short hind wings and long front wings
Only the winged reproductive form of carpenter ants has wings, which often leads to them being confused with winged forms of termites, another wood-destroying insect pest. Carpenter ants do not sting like fire ants, but they can bite, which can be very painful.
Carpenter Ants vs Termites
Carpenter ants are often mistaken with termites, but there are a few distinct differences that can help you tell them apart. Carpenter ants are dark-colored, with narrow waists and bent antennae. Winged reproductive carpenter ants have shorter hind wings and longer front wings. Meanwhile, termites are light in color, with broad waists and straight antennae. While winged reproductive termites are dark-colored like carpenter ants, you can tell the two apart because both the hind and front wings on termites are the same length.
Termites and carpenter ants also cause different types of damage to wood. Carpenter ants excavate wood to build nests, while termites eat the wood for the nutrition in the cellulose.
How Do You Know If You Have Carpenter Ants
You can tell if you have carpenter ants by locating nesting sites and damage done by the pests. Carpenter ants tend to settle down inside moist, untreated, soft wood, especially decaying wood. This can be inside porch columns and steps, underneath eaves, inside wall voids, inside door/window frames, and inside beams and joists of the home. Carpenter ants can even nest inside insulation. The tunnels and galleries that carpenter ants create are smooth and do not contain sawdust within the nest, however, sawdust may be in piles near the nest.
If you are spotting coarse sawdust or worker ants inside the home, this is an obvious sign that they are building nests inside your home. You can also detect carpenter ant nests through a distinctive rustling sound coming from inside the walls, and if you tap the wood and it feels hollow, this can indicate a nest. The presence of winged reproductive carpenter ants is another sign that you have a nest somewhere in your home.
Carpenter Ant Treatments Near Me
Once you’ve discovered a carpenter ant infestation inside your property, prompt treatment is crucial to prevent any further damage. DIY carpenter ant control products can be ineffective or dangerous if applied incorrectly, so leave carpenter ant treatment to the experts at Mama Bear Pest & Outdoor.
Our team has the equipment, professional-grade pesticides, skills, and experience to safely and effectively eliminate the infestation of carpenter ants on your property. We will carefully inspect your property for signs of carpenter ants, making sure we locate every nest inside the structure. We will treat nesting areas strategically to ensure the most effective results.
Carpenter ant nests that are inside your home might be a secondary “satellite” nest to a larger infestation out in your yard, in a rotting log, or old fence posts. In that case, our team can also treat these outdoor areas for carpenter ants to eliminate the possibility of another satellite nest setting up shop in your house once the first one is removed.
Carpenter Ant Prevention
The best way to deal with a carpenter ant infestation is through prevention. Cutting back tree branches and bushes that are close to the structure can prevent the ants from easy access, and so can sealing off any potential entry points. Carpenter ants can get in through extremely small spots, so even areas like utility lines can be a potential issue.
Remove dead, decaying or damaged wood from the property and make sure mulch isn’t piling up too high. Look for areas that might be causing moist wood like leaky pipes, roof leaks, or clogged gutters, and remedy the situation, preventing the wood from getting too saturated. Carpenter ants are attracted to sweets, oil, crumbs, meat, and pet food, so keep all food stored in tightly sealed containers and clean up spills as soon as they happen.
Mama Bear Pest & Outdoor can also help with carpenter ant prevention. One of our technicians will carefully inspect your home for carpenter ant entry points, and then our team can seal them off, preventing any further intrusion. We also offer preventative carpenter ant treatments for your home and yard. Contact our team to get started today at (281) 656-1525!
Best Carpenter Ant Control in Katy, TX
Carpenter ants are one of the most destructive pests you can have on your property, as these wood-destroying insects will hollow out the wood in your home, leading to expensive damage and even potential structural issues. Prompt treatment for carpenter ants is crucial to stop them from creating any further damage.
Mama Bear Pest & Outdoor can help, we offer the best carpenter ant pest management services in the Katy, TX area. We also offer exclusions and preventative treatments to keep carpenter ants away in the future. Contact our team to get started with a FREE estimate at (281) 656-1525!
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