In Washington State, there are two different ant genera that should be watched for when it comes to protecting your home from damage; the carpenter ant, and the moisture ant. They can potentially go unnoticed for long periods of time, and can weaken the structural timbers of a home. Knowing the habits of the ants, and when you should be concerned about their presence can save the headache of extensive wood replacement work.
The Carpenter Ant (Camponotus spp)
There are a number of carpenter ant species in Washington state, including the Western Black Carpenter Ant (Camponotus modoc) and Hairy Smooth Carpenter Ant (Camponotus laevissimis). Thankfully, their habits and damage are the same and don't require much distinction from one another. One way to know if an ant inside your home is a carpenter ant is by looking at its size. If you see a very large black ant, measuring about 1/2 inch in length, you are almost certainly witnessing a carpenter ant. Carpenter ants have a unique attribute which makes identification more challenging; they are polymorphic, which means that the workers come in two forms. The smaller ants may be difficult to distinguish from similar looking species such as the thatching ant. This is when getting professional guidance is useful. Capturing the ant, and sharing images with an entomologist or pest control professional is a great idea. Better yet, keeping the insect in a jar and then calling a professional to look at the insect in person will make the identification more accurate. Sometimes a microscope will be necessary to make an accurate identification.
When is my home considered to be infested?
If you see one or two carpenter ants inside your home, this does not necessarily point to an infestation. An infestation cannot be ruled out this early though, and further investigation is needed. When a pest control professional inspects your home, they will be looking for a couple of factors. First, they will be searching for an ant trail into your home. Carpenter ants are largely nocturnal, operating at highest capacity between dusk and early dawn, but can also be found working during the daylight hours. If a trail can be located, this makes a stronger case for an active issue, usually focused in the crawl space. This is the second place a professional will look. In longer-term and serious infestations, there will be evidence of "sawdust" from carpenter ant activity.
More often than not, at the sight of carpenter ants, a pest control technician will recommend treatment just to be safe. The risks of allowing these ants to explore your home and possibly cause damage is too significant to ignore.
How to prevent carpenter ant damage?
Carpenter ants will infest old stumps or logs on your property or in the woods of neighboring properties. In the search of food, they may stumble upon your home. This may introduce the likelihood of the formation of what is called a "satellite colony". The queen will stay in her primary nest, continuing to lay eggs for the growth of the colony. Workers will remove the young and bring them to the satellite colony where more resources and space may be accessible to them.
Removing discarded, rotting wood from your property will certainly help prevent most carpenter ant problems. This is not always possible when your home is located right next to a forest. The second best thing to do is to make sure that your crawl space (and living space) is not too humid and is resistant to water infiltration. Carpenter ants, while primary wood destroying organisms, prefer wet, softer wood to nest in. High humidity in a crawl space will soften wood and make it prone to infestation by carpenter ants and wood destroying fungus. Houses need to breathe. Increasing ventilation and air flow where possible can reduce the humidity of the area, thereby reducing the risk of wood damage.
Treatment of ants
When other, non-chemical maintenance fails, preventative and remedial chemical treatment is very effective. When done tactfully, insecticides will be highly effective against the target insects, and will simultaneously avoid non-target, beneficial insects and wildlife. Over the counter insecticides are wholly ineffective against ants because they contain repellent chemicals. Ants will avoid these chemicals, until they can find a gap in the treatment perimeter, and then will gain entry. Rarely will baits work for carpenter ants, as they feed on live insects primarily. A non-repellent insecticide is always going to be the answer for ants. This treatment is to be applied to the foundation and perimeter of the structure, and sometimes inside the crawl space and baseboards of a home to provide complete coverage.
If you are seeing carpenter ants in your home, it is better to be safe than sorry, and get an inspection.
Moisture Ants (Lasius spp)
Moisture ants, also known as cornfield ants, are another type of wood destroying insect found in Washington state. They are typically a yellowish-brown coloration, and are quite small in size, about 1/8 of an inch. They are commonly seen outdoors, living in rotted wood. These ants are considered to be secondary wood destroying insects, meaning that they only cause damage to homes when there is already a significant rot issue. A moisture problem, contributing to wood rot, will invite them to build nests within the afflicted portions of your home. To make matters worse, they have a tendency to exacerbate issues by spreading the moisture to sound portions of the wood, causing the rotted area to expand.
The treatment plan for these insects is generally the same as carpenter ants, but should also include the replacement of wood that has been damaged by the ants and the original moisture problem. However, instead of looking for the ants themselves, be on the lookout for ineffective gutter systems, bubbling and peeling paint, and standing water, especially when it touches the siding.
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