Tips For Dealing With Carpenter Ants

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Carpenter ants are a common pest that invades homes all over the place. If you have an infestation of carpenter ants, it may be a wise decision to call a pest control professional or exterminator to help you get rid of them. Carpenter ants set up their nests within the wood in or around your home, and usually come out at night to look for food and water. An exterminator can help you if the carpenter ant population has gotten out of hand. However, if you are simply wanting to prevent an invasion from occurring, there are several steps you can take. Most of these steps are easy enough to perform and can go a long way in preventing an infestation of carpenter ants in your home.

Seal Your Entrances

Carpenter ants are small, and range in color from brown to black. Their size allows them to invade homes through small cracks in windows, doors, and walls. Caulking these cracks and making sure they are completely sealed will prevent any stray carpenter ants from getting into your home easily. By making the entrances more difficult to take advantage of, you may deter any ants, who would rather find a home that is easier to invade.

Get Rid of Excess Wood

Carpenter ants love to eat through any type of wood, but greatly prefer damp, wet, or water-damaged varieties. If you have excess wood piles surrounding your home, carpenter ants can move right in and set up a nest rather quickly. This wood pile will then operate as their home base while they send out satellite colonies to invade your home for food and water supplies. By removing these excess wood piles from your property, you discourage these ants coming along at all. If you simply must have the wood pile, be sure it is far away from your house in order to keep the ants from getting inside.

Eliminate Food Sources

Not only will removing excess wood from your property get rid of a potential home for the ants, but it also takes a chunk out of their food supply. You can further limit food supply by not leaving out any leftover food and keeping food stored in cupboards. Make sure all food is sealed tightly and stored correctly to prevent ants from getting into it. No one wants to discover an ant invasion in their cupboard. By limiting food supply, ants will be forced to move on and won’t be able to set up anything permanent.

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