Have you ever seen large black ants crawling around the inside and outside of your home in Manalapan, NJ? You are most likely seeing carpenter ant activity, which can be a sign of greater problems on your property. Carpenter ants are specialized pests that can cause damage to the wood that makes up your home and often will come back to the structure year after year. These ants can quickly become a more serious problem without the intervention of a professional pest control company.
Carpenter Ant Behavior
Carpenter ants are social insects, meaning their colonies are organized into complex societies with a division of labor amount the different castes. The carpenter ant plays an important role in the environment by acting as a major decomposer of dead or fallen trees within the forest. However, because they are very efficient destroyers of wood, they can become a very serious threat when they enter human-made structures.
What attracts carpenter ants?
Carpenter ants are attracted to areas with moist or decaying wood. This wood includes fallen trees, branches, wood piles, decks, wooden shudders, picnic tables, and swing sets. “Skylights, spas, and bay windows favor the establishment of carpenter ant nests. Some small species of carpenter ants can live in curtain rods. Hollow doors are like bringing the Trojan horse into an abode. Homeowners want to stack firewood in their garages or adjacent to their houses, so it doesn’t inconvenience them to bring the wood indoors, but it’s another invitation to enter structures,” explains Austin M. Frishman, Ph.D. for PMP Magazine You can read the article in its entirety here.
A common misconception is that carpenter ants eat wood. Unlike termites who are also woodboring insects, carpenter ants chew through wood to burrow and raise their young, leaving small piles of shavings called frass behind. According to the University of Nebraska’s Entomology Department, “the diet of carpenter ants is quite varied and includes living and dead insects, honeydew from aphids, sweets, meat, and fats. They do not eat wood. Workers leave the colony in late afternoon or early evening, forage during the night and return to the colony in the early morning hours. Carpenter ants carry food back to the nest intact or ingested and later feed it to non-foraging members in the nest. These ants may forage several hundred feet from the nest to search for food.”
We suggest that you remove fallen branches, roots, and tree stumps from your yard, trim back branches that are hanging over and coming into contact with your house and place firewood as far away from your home as possible. It’s also advised that you replace decaying or moist structures that you have in or surrounding your home. Keeping tabs on these areas of your property will help you stay ahead of the curve for carpenter ant prevention.
How can Cooper Pest Solutions help with carpenter ant removal?
Here at Cooper Pest Solutions, we are determined to help you find the best possible fit for your carpenter ant problem. That’s why we developed two carpenter ant services for removal and prevention.
- Cooper Carpenter Ant Service
Our pest management professionals will first perform a detailed inspection of your property to locate carpenter ant trails for pinpoint accuracy. After putting together a customized carpenter ant removal plan, Cooper Carpenter Ant Service application begins with baiting and targeted application of non-repellent pesticides is applied. Our service uses the most effective techniques that yield high results with as little pesticide use as possible. While most companies across the industry will spray the perimeter of your home and hope for the best, our program is designed by highly decorated entomologist Rick Cooper, Ph.D., considering carpenter ant biology and patterns as leading factors in successful elimination.
- Cooper Carpenter Ant Continued Service
After the first year of coverage is complete, you can choose to extend your protection with our maintenance plan. Similar to the Cooper Carpenter Ant Service, the Cooper Carpenter Ant Continued Service provides another year of coverage until the following year. If you experience any carpenter ant activity, all you need to do is simply call us for free, unlimited services for the duration of your coverage. Cooper Pest Solutions offers this protection at a discounted rate to customers who choose to continue their protection after their initial program has finished.
How long does it take?
Within the first ten days after the initial Cooper Carpenter Ant Service treatment has been applied, you should see a drastic reduction in carpenter ant activity. You don’t even need to prepare anything or be home for the treatment to take place, as only the exterior of the house will be treated.
Carpenter ants enter into a cocoon as part of their developmental process. Ants that are in the cocoon stage when the treatment is applied will not receive the bait placed by the technician and thus will emerge as healthy ants. This is normal and should be expected. Once these ants hatch from their cocoons, they will not survive due to the fact that the nest has already been controlled. Without the rest of the colony, these ants will quickly die on their own.
At Cooper Pest Solutions, our goal is to provide fast, convenient service, with the peace of mind that you are in good hands. We understand that pest problems can be stressful and overwhelming, so we strive to have one of our representatives meet with you the same day or very next day.
Will they come back next year?
Our Cooper Carpenter Ant Service guarantee lasts until March of the following calendar year. If you are experiencing any activity before your program expires, simply call us. Services calls are unlimited and free. Should you choose to continue preventative services and maintenance after your Cooper Carpenter Ant Service expires, you can extend your coverage with our Cooper Carpenter Ant Continued Service. This program will last until March of the next calendar year with unlimited, free service calls. This service can be renewed year after year for guaranteed protection.
For residents with an active Carpenter Ant infestation at home, the Cooper Carpenter Ant System focuses on eliminating active ant colonies. Detailed inspections are performed to locate Carpenter Ant trails and with pinpoint accuracy, our pest management professionals deliver the system. The ants feed on the bait, taking it back to the colony where it is fed to other ants, thus destroying the colony. The system includes identifying carpenter ant trails, utilizing baits and traditional materials as necessary. The program is available only through Cooper Pest Solutions.
I found more pests at my home. Can Cooper Pest Solutions help?
Carpenter ants are one of the covered pests included with our Home Intensive Program. The Intensive Service Plan is designed to provide preventive pest control for your home, year round. This is our most popular service for homeowners as it provides protection for over 20 of the most common pests native to the Hillsborough, NJ area. To learn more about our Home Intensive Program, click here.
Our Commitment to Providing Wow Service
We pride ourselves on quality and efficiency for all pest treatments that we provide in Manalapan, NJ. All of our staff go through extensive training to provide the WOW experience and the consistent service that our customers have come to expect. We stand by our services so all of our programs including our carpenter ant services have a 100% satisfaction guarantee.
