What’s The Big Deal About Carpenter Ants?

What's The Big Deal About Carpenter Ants?

When you think of the term carpenter ant, what do you picture? Do you see a little ant, wearing his little yellow hard hat, sporting little steel-toed boots, and carrying a little toolbox with his tool belt around his waist? Wouldn’t it be nice if this were the case? Perhaps if you had a repair to be made around the house you could send a bunch of these little Mr. Fix-Its on their way to do your bidding; kind of like elves.

The problem is, these ants aren’t really builders or fixers of any kind. They are destroyers. In fact, they really ought to be renamed destructor ants. That would certainly be more appropriate since they burrow into wood and weaken the structure of your home. Yes, these are a pest we all need to take seriously, because if left to their own devices, they can do some pretty serious damage over time.

What do carpenter ants look like?

Carpenter ants are among the largest ants in the world, but the size of these ants within their colony varies. Adults are anywhere from 6 to 12 mm in length. Some males and winged swarmers can be as large as 18 mm, and the queens are around 20 mm. They are typically black but can have a reddish tint. And, the thorax of these ants is evenly rounded.

What do carpenter ants eat?

You may be tempted to think that carpenter ants eat wood like termites do, but this is not the case. These ants actually feed on sources of protein and sugar, such as dead insects, honeydew, meats and pet food. They do most of their foraging for food at night, between sunset and midnight during spring and summer. Sometimes worker ants travel up to 100 yards away from their nest in search of food. It is typical during this time when carpenter ants find their way into homes.

So what do carpenter ants have to do with wood?

Carpenter ants create tunnels and nests inside of wood. This can be either outside, such as in a log or tree stump, or inside, such as inside your walls or under roofing. And it’s most common for homeowners to find carpenter ants inside during the spring. If you find these ants in your home during late winter or early spring, this suggests that they are coming from a nest that is already inside your walls. And if you see piles of wood shavings underneath wooden items, then you should be appropriately concerned.

What can you do if you find these “destructor ants” or evidence of them, inside your home?

If you have seen these ants or evidence of them, it is a best to contact a professional pest control company as soon as possible. If left untreated, these little home wreckers can do quite a bit of damage both to outdoor wooden structures as well as the wood in your house. Here at Russell’s Pest Control, we have decades of experience dealing with carpenter ants, and a whole host of other household pests. And unlike those “carpenter” ants that do not live up to their name, our expert pest control technicians certainly will. You can count on it.

Ants Invading Kitchens

Ants Invading Kitchens

There is a well-known idiom in The Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms listed as “have ants in your pants.” This idiom is a convenient way of describing someone who is very excited or worked up about something and not able to keep still; someone who is excessively fidgety. That same reaction and effect could easily describe the homeowner who discovers ants in the kitchen.

Ants come in all sizes and colors and are a nuisance to homeowners and business owners. While there are certainly more dangerous and more destructive pests, you do not want ants crawling around in the kitchen helping themselves to your food. Remember, ants are marching across your kitchen floor and up the side of your cupboards or across your kitchen counters with a distinct purpose; they are foraging for food and water.

Odorous house ants are black or dark brown and are of a very small size, ranging from 1/16th to 1/8th inch in length. Their oval, segmented body is much the same of most other ant species. However, there is one very distinguishing characteristic of the odorous ant and that is the offensive smell that is emitted when they are crushed. It is much like a rotten coconut smell. The odorous ants normally build their nest outdoors but, under certain conditions, may move inside homes. Regardless of the location of the nest, these tiny ants will invade your home in search of food. They are known to move in the home in large numbers and contaminate your kitchen and food.

Unlike carpenter ants, the odorous ant is not a threat to the property or structure of the home. Neither are they a major threat for biting and stinging people. The nuisance brought about by odorous ants is their ability to invade in large numbers and work their way inside food containers, eating and contaminating contents. The trick to total eradication is that the entire nest or colony must be destroyed and not just the ants that you see.

Russell’s Pest Control has more than 40 years of experience and our employees are driven to control your ant problem. With their knowledge of pests, Russell’s technicians will know how the ants are getting in the house and from where they are coming. Our technicians will also implement a program for you that will quickly, safely, and effectively resolve your “ants in the kitchen” problem. When you contact Russell’s Pest Control about your ant issues, we will also assist you with several ant prevention tips, identify points of entry, and put exclusion measures in place to ensure that there are no more ants in your kitchen.

How Knoxville Residents Can Get Rid Of Ants

How Knoxville Residents Can Get Rid Of Ants

Ants can quickly become a major nuisance when found inside your home. These little black insects have found their way into your home in search of food. They will forage for food until they find an easy source. If they decide your home is an easy target for food, they will mark a trail and lead their colony there. Your home can make the perfect environment for a newly established ant colony. They need shelter, food and water to thrive and you happen to have all three. These pests can contaminate food and some damage wood sources in your home. So how do you eliminate their interest and keep them away from your Knoxville home?

The first step to keeping these ants out of your home is to seal up the exterior of your home. This can be any gaps or cracks you find around your home. These gaps can be around piping or venting. There may be cracks in windows and doors. Seal up the exterior of your home to stop ants from even trying to forage for food inside.

Next, seal up any food and water sources in your home. This can be in the pantry, the trash and pet food. Make sure all of these food sources are in airtight containers, preventing pests from getting inside. Fix any leaks or moist areas in your home. This will help deter them from seeing your home as an easy target.

The last step is to make sure that any landscaping shrubs and bushes are trimmed away from your home. Bushes and shrubs are a great place for ants to hide in and start a colony. Also, keep wood piles around 20 feet away from your home. There are a lot of pest insects that thrive in wood piles.

Most homeowners will try some of the DIY ant control products once they find they have an infestation. These products can be faulty. They only work to a certain extent and leave the rest of the colony to keep thriving. If they are done improperly, they can cause more harm than good. Some chemical DIY products can be dangerous to you, your family and pets. If you are going to try these products, make sure to read the entire label and use them exactly as instructed. The major problem with these DIY products is that they do not eliminate the entire colony and after a few days the infestation may continue or grow worse.

If you find that you have an ant infestation in your home, it is best to call Russell’s Pest Control for ant control. We can set up a plan of action for the current infestation, eliminate the ants (and other household pests) and keep them from coming back to your home.

Ant Control And Lawn Maintenance

Yesterday while I was mowing my lawn, I had two unfortunate surprises. The first came when I stopped to breathe at one corner of the yard and found that I had my foot in an anthill that the mower had just demolished. The second came when I jumped out of that anthill and found that I had landed in the neighboring ant hill, which was also broken and covered in a sea of frantic insects. While working in this industry, one develops a degree of professional curiosity about the bugs that one encounters throughout the day. In this case, however, I found that I was not curious enough to risk an ant swarm going up my leg, and I set off mowing again at a brisk pace.

I know that I’m in danger of repeating myself too much, but this wet spring is really causing me to eye the peak pest months (which are approaching quickly) with great concern. The reality is that most pests, like ants, are extremely moisture dependent. Dry seasons are hard on them and make it difficult for them to expand their colonies. Wet seasons without too much heat provide an open invitation for a population explosion.

If, like me, you have found some ant hills in the yard, don’t panic yet. Ants belong in the yard, and you will be glad of the cleanup work that they do. They can also serve as excellent predators for other unwanted bugs, so we can appreciate their valuable place in the ecosystem of East Tennessee. But, we must accept their presence in the yard while recognizing that we would rather not share space with them in the house.

If you’re looking for a few easy tips to help you to avoid several thousand unwanted visitors, here they are. To begin with, do everything you can to avoid clutter in your lawn. Infrequently-used toys or lawn equipment can often turn into nothing more than a harborage site for many pests, including ants, mosquitoes, and rodents. This is particularly true if the item is often moist (either because it’s a water toy for your children or because it can collect rainwater). Setting up housekeeping underneath a moist object is good living for many pests, and you can greatly deter their presence simply by removing comfortable housing.

Additionally, make wise decisions about the kinds of plants you put near your house. Many ants, including the odorous house ant and the crazy ant that is gaining some notice from the press, are attracted to sweet-smelling plants that make a large supply of nectar. These ants will tend aphids that feed on sweet-smelling plants like foxgloves or roses. These flowers are beautiful, but they can attract ants to your home. If you want to have sugary plants in your garden, consider putting them in a bed out in the yard instead of right next to the house. This policy also holds true for hummingbird feeders, which always attract ants. If you want a hummingbird feeder, put it out in your yard instead of right by your window.

Finally, don’t go overboard if you decide to get some mulch this spring. Mulch is like a paradise for pests. It holds moisture well, but it’s also very warm since it’s full of decaying material. If you do get mulch, use it sparingly so that you don’t end up with enormous mounds that can be converted into ant or roach hotels. Try to avoid placing mulch directly against the house since that provides an access point for pests to get in without crossing through open ground. And, if you put mulch around your trees, do not mound the mulch up in a volcano around the trunk. If you leave a small, open ring around the tree trunk, you will save the tree from the diseases that some pests may carry to plants, and the pests will be less likely to damage the tree itself while foraging.

These are just a few tips to help you with ant control this spring and summer. Of course, a pest control prevention program is another very reliable way to make sure your home remains comfortably ant-free during these warm months. If you need to talk to a pest professional, I know where you can find one, or you can call us here at Russell’s at 865-584-8549.

Carpenter Ants: The Busy Builders

Since we’ve already started a mini-series about ants (including odorous house ants and fire ants), I thought we might round off our discussion of one of East Tennessee’s most troublesome pest families with an introduction to one more common species. Today, we’ll have a look at carpenter ants and the trouble that they can cause when they invade homes or businesses.

As you can imagine based on their name, carpenter ants tunnel through wood to build their colonies (much like carpenter bees). Unlike termites, carpenter ants do not eat the wood that they destroy. They grind it into sawdust while they’re excavating and push the dust out into the open with the rest of their waste. Therefore, if you find piles of sawdust near your home (particularly if they’re inside), you should suspect carpenter ants first thing. In almost every case of carpenter ant invasion, excess moisture is present. The moisture softens the wood, making it much easier to remove than dry wood. Quite often, we find this species of ant near leaks around bathtubs or by leaks at exterior doors and windows. The presence of these ants could alert homeowners to the possibility of water-related problems.

Carpenter ants are nocturnal, so they are most active at night; this means that you may not encounter them in your home until they’ve already built up a substantial colony. If you do encounter carpenter ants in your home or business in an area ranging from Lenoir City to Knoxville to Sevierville, they are most likely to look like the one pictured here. The most common species in our area is the black carpenter ant. They are solid black, and each colony contains members of three different sizes. The smaller ants are more likely to stay near the nest and care for the young while the larger ants (which can be quite large) are more likely to be out foraging for food.

So, what are carpenter ants likely to be up to inside your home? Well, they’ll be doing exactly what every other bug does: looking for food, shelter, and water. Black carpenter ants can invade homes in order to set up a primary colony in wooden siding or in the wood frame inside your walls. These pesky critters can do some serious structural damage if they’re left untreated for any amount of time. However, it’s just as likely that their primary colony is outside in a stump somewhere and they are only using your house as a grocery store and nursery.

Carpenter ant eggs require a very moist environment while their later life cycles are more comfortable in a slightly dryer atmosphere. Because of that, these little explorers will often set up a secondary colony someplace out of the elements where they can tend their toddler-aged ants. In that case, you may have a nest without the telltale carpenter ant sawdust piles. They could be exploiting a hollow void in your house for their secondary colony. This could be a wall void (which is very inconvenient) or something much simpler like an infrequently-opened drawer or a long-untouched box.

The thing to remember is that carpenter ants like to follow well-established trails and prefer “roadways” when they can get them. You are most likely to see them walking along a wall, around your cabinets, or beside your garden hose outside. You can use this tendency against them and follow them all the way back to their nest. Once you follow them to the secondary nest inside your building, you can remove it and will be well on your way to eliminating your problem. Bear in mind that, unlike many ants, carpenter ants send only a small percentage (usually less than 10%) of their colony members out to forage at a time. If you are only killing the ants that you find eating the sugary juice spill in the kitchen, you will continue to have carpenter ant problems.

The pest control industry views ants as one of the hardest pests to control, and, let’s face it, plenty of people find it creepy to have so many little insects running around the house. If ant control is simply not your forte or not something you can fit into your schedule, we at Russell’s Pest Control would be happy to offer a helping hand. As always, you can give us a call or contact us online.

Red Imported Fire Ants: The Insect Army

Good pest control professionals should view their titles literally. We believe in “pest control,” meaning that we control the populations of pests when they get into places where they don’t belong. Our job is not to exterminate every insect or rodent. If we did, the whole food chain would fall to pieces. That being said, there are some pests that are really hard to like. Right now, the word “mosquito” probably just flashed through your brain, and we understand that feeling. But today, we want to discuss another unpopular pest that is quite new to the Knoxville area. Get ready for an introduction to the fire ant.

The red imported fire ant came to the United States from South America in ships in the early 1900s. They have grown their populations since then and adapted to the cooler climate. They are verified in at least eleven states, now including Tennessee. These ants are extremely dangerous and hard to control. An average fire ant mound can have 200,000 occupants, and you can find dozens of colonies per acre in rural areas. The mounds will be noticeable because they have a large pile of dirt at their main entrance. In urban areas, this dirt pile could pretty easily be up to six inches across; in agricultural areas, they have been known to be up to two feet high. This knowledge leads us to lesson number one for those sharing a county with fire ants: Don’t stomp an ant mound! You never know what species of ant could come out, and you may regret the decision!

So, what makes red imported fire ants so much worse than other ants? Well, there is only one way to describe these colonies: militarized. A fire ant army is a war machine. If a person accidentally wanders into a fire ant mound, the workers will immediately begin swarming up to exposed skin. But, they won’t attack right away. They actually wait until a larger number of soldiers gain access to the prey. Then, they release a chemical as a signal, and all the ants attack at once to inflict the most damage.

Most people say they have been “bitten” by an ant, but serious ant encounters have nothing to do with bites. Some species of ants (though not all) are equipped with stingers, just like a wasp, and these stingers do the damage. However, fire ants are quite smart. While they are waiting for the attack signal, the ants use their powerful jaws to latch onto a hair or the skin of their victims. Then, when they begin to sting, they are very difficult to brush off and are more likely to be able to deliver multiple stings per ant.

In addition, fire ant stings are more dangerous than the stings of other ants. Most ants inject a type of acid when they sting, which can cause painful skin irritation. Fire ants inject a certain protein that is foreign to other creatures. The immediate result is a wicked-looking blister that often scars. However, some people (and other animals) are violently allergic to this protein. When you hear about fire-ant-related deaths, they are almost never associated simply with the painful stings. The worst danger is from these extreme allergic reactions, which can cause victims to go into shock and, in extreme cases, die.

This is a hard article to write and a hard article to read because we generally don’t like to make people frightened of pests (grossed out, maybe, but not frightened). However, red imported fire ants are a menace in East Tennessee, and they don’t belong here. Our native plants and animals are not equipped to withstand their aggressive attacks, and they are doing damage to our ecosystem.

With many pests, like odorous house ants, there are things we can recommend for homeowners to try if they want to spend time managing their own pest control to save money. We do not recommend that with red imported fire ants. If you suspect that you have fire ants near your house, either because you’ve received stings or because you’ve seen their large mounds, please give Russell’s a call or visit our contact page. We can do a free inspection to determine if fire ants really are a problem near you, and we have the equipment needed to treat for these pests safely.

Ants In The Kitchen? They’re Probably Odorous House Ants

We did some research to discover which sorts of bugs our pest control customers in Knoxville, Sevier County, Blount County, and other surrounding areas encounter most often. One of the top three problem pests was a critter that we haven’t covered yet on our blog. We apologize for the delay and would now like to give you an introduction to the odorous house ant, a bug that causes a great deal of trouble for East Tennessee homeowners.

The odorous house ant gets its strange name from the unpleasant smell that it gives off when you crush it. The scent is usually described as a rotten citrusy smell; imagine something that’s somewhat sickly sweet. Another common name for these ants is sugar ants (due to their tendency to forage for sweet foods). Growing up, we just called them “little back ants.” There are a lot of little black ants in the world, but these are the ones that are most likely to cause trouble in your house.

The problem with odorous house ants is that their colonies can contain thousands of workers (actually, 10,000 is not an uncommon population), and they can spawn multiple colonies in the same area. Each of these sister colonies has its own queen; in fact, unlike some ant species, odorous house ants have no problem with maintaining multiple queens per colony. Since only the queens lay eggs, having several queens at a time can result in major population explosions.

Odorous house ants build shallow nests under almost any sort of debris that they may find around your house. You may frequently recognize them by the orderly lines that they make while foraging. You are particularly likely to see these trails leading to a sweet food source, including starchy pet foods, sticky garbage cans, and sweet-smelling house plants. Like all bugs, ants’ foraging cycles are dependent on moisture. You may be more likely to find them in your house after or during major weather events like soaking rains (when they are avoiding floods) or lingering droughts (when they are seeking water in your house).

If you want to try to control odorous house ants on your own, you need to consider what ants need to survive. The key factors that every insect pursues are shelter, food, and water. Begin your ant control by removing any debris that could be harboring a colony. Move wood piles away from the house, and rake leaf litter and branch debris away from the walls. Also, bear in mind that ants are expert climbers and can easily enter your home from above by using an overhanging branch to reach your roof.

As I mentioned, these ants are very methodical. It’s possible that you’ll be able to follow one of their foraging lines back to the nest. In that case, use an over-the-counter pesticide labeled for exterior use to treat the nest itself. Don’t forget, though, that it’s quite possible more than one nest is in place around your home. Keep your eyes peeled for other ant trails even if you’ve successfully treated one or more nests.

However, it is possible that you cannot follow the ants’ trail because it is not immediately evident. We’ve heard of these ants coming right out of electrical outlets or underneath baseboards, which makes it hard to track them. In such cases, use soapy water to wipe down the areas where you find them. This will remove any sweet spills that may be attracting them and will help to eliminate the pheromone trails (basically, scent trails) that they are leaving behind for other ants to follow. Once the area is very clean, rely on ant baits to try to eliminate the hidden colony. Hopefully, if their original food source is removed, they will take the bait back to the waiting colony members and handle all of the ant extermination themselves.

Of course, Russell’s Pest Control knows that ant removal can be very tricky. If you don’t want to tackle the little black horde on your own, feel free to give us a call or visit our contact page. Ants are one of our specialties, and we’d be glad to handle the issue so you don’t have to spend time on it.