Yep. Don't think that just because your nostril hairs freeze every time you walk out into the winter chill that your home is safe from carpenter ants. Ants come back every year, no matter how much snow you get. That means they know how to hide from the winter chill. One of the places they hide is inside your house. Yep. They could already be inside.
Here is what you need to know about carpenter ants.
- Carpenter ants only hibernate if they have to. What happens is their body temperature drops and they get more sluggish. When this begins to happen they will seal up their colonies, which is usually underneath the frost line, and wait till the temperature rises again. Before winter, most ant species eat a large amount of food to put on fat. This allows them to go without food all winter.
- Carpenter ants can stay active all winter long. There are two things required for active ants: A warm colony, and a food source. If you have active ants in your home, it is because they have found a way to get food. If they have a food source, they don't have to conserve their energy and move around sluggishly, or stop altogether. A well-fed ant is an active and happy ant. Your job should be to keep ants from finding food in your house during winter.
- Carpenter ants can damage the wood of your home. If you have active carpenter ants, they can continue to damage your home all winter long. This can create structural problems and hard-to-get-at home repairs.
- Carpenter ants leave signs. If you don't actually see a line of carpenter ants going to a pet food dish, a rotting piece of fruit, or some other food source, you'll have to look for the signs. If you have these ants in your home, there is a good chance you'll find exit holes and saw dust laying on a floor somewhere. Take a flashlight and search the nooks and cracks of your basement and attic. You can also detect carpenter ants by looking for a faint rustling inside your walls.
- Carpenter ants can be eradicated. If you have a company like Big Blue Bug--famous in Massachusetts for their unmatched pest control and the fact that their mascot, Nibbles Woodaway, can be seen on top of their roof from miles--it is simply a matter of having them send over an expert technician. They have the gear and education to find carpenter ant colonies inside homes, and fully seal the walls of your home or business.
With proper maintenance and help from a professional pest company, you can keep carpenter ants from channeling galleries through the wood of your property all year round. So, stop feeding those ants, and get plugged in to a pest control plan today. You've spent too much on your home to let it go to the bugs.