Ants are tiny and relatively harmless, but they can still be an unwelcome visitor to any home. Even when you’ve thoroughly cleaned and dusted every nook and cranny in your house, these little pests can still be seen crawling on the floors and kitchen counters. To get rid of incessant ant infestations, it’s important to know the reasons why they’re coming indoors and how they find their way inside your space.
So why do you still see black carpenter ants entering your clean home? There are several reasons why black ants are coming into your home. Typically, they invade homes in search of food sources and water. They could also be looking for shelter from the weather changes or they’re attracted to the decaying wood near or within your property. Lastly, it’s also possible that they’re coming from nearby houses and have migrated to your property.
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Carpenter ants are one of the popular species of black ants that can be found both inside and outside your property. If you’re trying to prevent an ant infestation, it’s a common measure to keep your home clean and spotless especially during the seasons when they’re known to be active. But regardless of how much you’ve sanitized and decluttered your home, there are incidences when you can still find black house ants indoors.
A black carpenter ant infestation can happen anytime to any homeowner and here are some of the possible reasons why these pests come to even a clean house:
Like other pests, carpenter ants need to eat in order to survive, which is why they’re very hardworking in their hunt for food and water. This type of ants mostly likes to consume proteins from living or dead insects. They’re also attracted to sweets so if you’ve left any sugary foods unattended, it’s likely that they’ll come into your kitchen pantry to feast on them.
Once they’ve started going in and out of your kitchen, they leave behind pheromone trails for other ants to easily find the food. This ant trail is one of the reasons why ants could be increasing in number in your home.
It’s also possible that you may have faulty pipes or leaking water sinks that can be attracting these ants. Carpenter ants like to build their nests near damp or moist areas so they don’t run out of water to drink. You should check your water structures or pipes and fix any leaks to prevent any ant invasion.
Most indoor ant activity can be spotted during winter when they’re seeking shelter from the cold temperature outside. It’s likely that they’ve entered through holes or gaps in your foundation and have established their satellite nests or colonies in the warm and hidden areas in your home. They mostly stay dormant during this season, but if they encounter any leftover food or stumble upon your well-stocked pantry, you may see them actively going out of their nests to get food.
As social insects, ants don’t tend to stay in one place. They like to move around together in search of new habitats. You may also have a sudden ant infestation because they’ve migrated from your neighbor’s home. If anyone near you has had a recent or ongoing ant infestation, it’s possible that they’ve also spread to your home to establish their nests.
This can happen during the swarming season for carpenter ants. Once their colonies have matured and reached maximum population, the winged ants or reproductives can fly from their nests to look for a new place to start a colony. It’s easy for flying ants to flock to your home, assess its conditions and liveability, and build their new nesting place there if they get comfortable.
Your house may be clean indoors but tree branches and piles of firewood laying outside your property could be their main target. These stacks of wood and tree stumps may be inviting carpenter ants to your home. These ants are notorious for chewing on any wooden materials to create their galleries or tunnels to their nests.
If your home has a decaying wooden foundation, carpenter ants can infest the wood and further weaken your home’s structure. This can amount to thousands of property damage, so it’s best to replace or remove any rotten wood in your home and make sure to have the new wood treated so the ant infestations don’t happen again.
Carpenter ants can build two types of ant colonies indoors. The first one is the parent colony, which is their main nest that houses the queen and some workers. The other one is called satellite nests, where most of their worker ants are. The ants that you find inside the home may have originated from a parent nest located outside from stacks of woods or in trees. When indoors, they usually like to build their satellite nests in:
There are simple pest control measures that you can do to curb the increasing carpenter ant population in your home. From using natural ant repellents, placing non-toxic ant baits, to sealing their possible entry points, here are some of the ways that can help keep black house ants at bay:
Read More: How to Find Where Black Ants Are Hiding in Your Home
Aside from carpenter ants, there are thousands of ant species that you should look out for such as pavement ants, acrobat ants, sugar ants, pharaoh ants, and odorous house ants. To know if you have an ongoing ant infestation at home, here are some common warning signs that you need to know:
These telltale signs can mean that you need to immediately call a professional pest control company to help with your ant problem. They can help inspect and locate the actual sites where carpenter ants are coming from and set up barrier treatments or bait stations outdoors to keep them from coming indoors.
It can be a frustrating occurrence to see black house ants invading your once clean and infestation-free home. The best way to manage your ant problem and ultimately, to maintain the sanitation of your home is to enlist a professional and reliable pest control service like Positive Pest Management.
We’re a team of highly-competent pest control experts who are always ready and eager to help get rid of ants at home, as well as other kinds of pests and insects. We’re equipped with the latest tools and use quality pest control treatments to address and exterminate any kind of pest problem you might have. Contact us today and get a free quote.
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