You may be wondering if carpenter ants could still be active inside your Maine home this fall. The simple answer is yes. Carpenter ants, if established in a warm residence, can keep working and causing damage to your South Portland home all winter. As they continue working, they often cause a host of problems. It’s best to immediately call a professional pest control expert to deal with carpenter ants and rid your home of the problem permanently. Professionals will also offer solutions to prevent carpenter ants in the future, as well as get rid of a current infestation.
While carpenter ants are generally less active in the colder months, especially given our Maine winters, with the right conditions they can stay active all winter long. Some reasons carpenter ants may stay active include a mild winter or a heated basement that keeps them warm. If you have an infestation in your home, they will likely stay busy all winter long as your home provides enough warmth to keep them active.
Unfortunately, the more time carpenter ants remain active in your home, the worse the damage they create can be. Carpenter ants build their nests inside the wood. Unlike termites, they don’t eat the wood as their food source, they simply tunnel through it. The structural damage to homes is often great either way.
While carpenter ants don’t bite or tend to carry disease, they are still a pest you want to kick out of your home. As they look for a food source they can contaminate your family’s food, which creates lost dollars in food waste. However, the bigger issue is the damage that they can do structurally as they tunnel and build their nests. Carpenter ant colonies can number in the thousands, and are nearly impossible to get rid of on your own.
Having a year-round pest control plan is always a good idea. This plan helps prevent pest problems before they get out of hand. If you want to prevent carpenter ants, please call us at Big Blue Bug Solutions to talk about a plan that is right for you. However, if you suspect a carpenter ant infestation already exists, don’t panic. We can help find the original colony and any satellite nests, and we will destroy them, ridding you and your South Portland home of your carpenter ant problem for good.