Three Ways to Identify Carpenter Ants
It is important to be able to identify carpenter ants because when they infest your home, they can be confused with termites, and the latter is a worse problem for a home owner. Carpenter ants can do damage to your home over a long period of time, but nothing like that seen with termites. In addition, in cases where you can find their nest, you can often be successful at eliminating these ants. Termites, on the other hand, if left alone can destroy a house and always need the attention of a professional pest control company to eliminate the infestation. The following are three ways to distinguish a carpenter ant from a termite problem.
Spotting dust piles
Most people are aware that termites eat wood, but carpenter ants do not. They feed on meat and sweet, sugary substances. When they infest your home, they do so by setting up a nest inside an area of wood. Because they are not eating the wood, they will burrow into the wood and extract it. This results in a small pile of wood dust. Seeing this wood dust is a classic sign of carpenter ants.…show more content… Like other types of ants, they will move in a single file on trails carrying the scent of other ants. When you see these ants, they are not likely to be confused with other species of ants. They can be anywhere from a third of an inch to as large as an inch. Visually, they are black or a dark brown in