Help! There Are Carpenter Ants Around My Reno Property

All knowledgeable homeowners fear termites. Termites cause billions of dollars in damages each year and can escape detection for years. What many homeowners do not realize, however, is that there is another kind of pest insect that can also destroy the wood in your home and force expensive repairs. This insect is an ant known as the carpenter ant.

The carpenter ant is a lesser-known wood-damaging pest that homeowners must sometimes face, but it can cause damage just as bad as anything termites can do. Where termites eat the wood in your home for food, carpenter ants bore holes through wooden structural support beams in order to make their homes in the wood. Termites live near your wood; carpenter ants live in it. 

Carpenter ants in Reno are hard to detect and can persist for years. By the time you discover them, a great deal of damage may have already occurred. Celtic Pest Control does not want that to happen to your house. Call us today, and let us be your Reno pest control experts.

How To Identify A Carpenter Ant

Carpenter ants are one of the larger ants homeowners will see in or around their homes. They generally appear dark brown or black in color and have two large antennae that are as long as their legs. They have heavy mandibles that they use to bore through wood. Carpenter ants are colony insects and usually in large, established groups. Inside encounters can be rare because carpenter ants often get food and water outside the home. Because of this, carpenter ant sightings often occur along the outside periphery of your house. 

If you see carpenter ants in your house, just know that there are others. Celtic Pest Control does not want them in your home. We know how to get rid of carpenter ants. Call us, and we can help you get rid of yours.

Why Carpenter Ants Are More Problematic Than Other Ants

Carpenter ants tend to avoid the main living areas of a home. They move between the walls and the outside of the home without ever coming inside, where you can see them allowing infestations to get larger and the damage to your house to grow worse. DIY methods are largely ineffective in treating carpenter ants because these ants generally do not come into the main areas of the home and are not attracted to most bait traps. Further, carpenter ants tend to be the most active at night and can hunt for food individually, making it hard to know where their nest is.

It takes a lot of knowledge and experience to get rid of carpenter ants. Celtic Pest Control has both, and we know how to kill carpenter ants in houses. Call us, and let us help you today.

Five Naturally Effective Ways To Prevent Carpenter Ant Infestations

The best carpenter ant treatment is carpenter ant prevention. Here are some ways to discourage carpenter ants from coming to your house:

1. Clean up brush piles. Carpenter ants are attracted to dark, moist brush. They are especially attracted if there are large pieces of wood in a pile. 
2. Keep firewood off the ground. Firewood is a common reason carpenter ants become interested in your property. They prefer moist, wet wood, and lots of it.
3. Keep mulch to a minimum. Large, thick mulch beds are extremely enticing to many types of ants, and carpenter ants are no exception. Mulch can bring them close to your house.
4. Keep landscaping trimmed away from your home. Carpenter ants will often follow foliage up to your house and explore it. Plants bring carpenter ants close to your house.
5. Maintain your house. Carpenter ants prefer soft wood over hardwoods, especially when some degree of rot is present. Decaying molding outside? Ants will like it.

These tips can help reduce your risk of getting carpenter ants, but they may still, unfortunately, visit you anyway. If that happens, let Celtic Pest Control help you eliminate them. Call us today, and let us get rid of carpenter ants.

Let Celtic Pest Control Help With Your Ant Problem

Carpenter ants can be hard to find and can cause extensive damage to your home. DIY efforts do not work well for carpenter ants, and treating them takes knowledge and understanding of their habits and behaviors.

If you see signs of carpenter ants on your Reno property, do not let them damage your property. Call Celtic Pest Control immediately. We have the experience and the skills needed to get rid of carpenter ants.