Carpenter ants are common pests in Toronto, in and around homes. These ants like wood that has moisture. Carpenter ants tunnel and create nests in softwood but do not eat the wood. These ants are 0.25 to 0.75 centimetres in length, have bent antennae, and are either black or reddish black. If wooden areas in your residential space, including porch, tree, or door, become moist. Then, carpenter ants in Toronto will likely attack your space.

How Do Carpenter Ants Infest Wooden Structures?

Worker carpenter ants find an entry route to homes, gnawing a clean tunnel parallel to the wood grain using cracks. They chew the wood and discard it outside the tunnel, resembling sawdust. The sawdust is an indication of a carpenter ant infestation. If the wood extends to sound wood, these ants leave the wooden tunnels searching for food. Food sources that these ants like include aphid honeydew, insects (living or dead), plant juices, and sweet foodstuff.

Life Cycle of Carpenter Ants:-

These ants are commonly wingless, non-producing adults belonging to the worker caste. All carpenter ants reside in large colonies with hundreds of workers, a few reproductive males/females, and at least one queen. The mating takes place in flight by winged ants during the late spring and the early summer. When the male dies, a single fertilized queen ant finds a suitable place to lay eggs. Then, commence a colony. Its white and oval eggs hatch into larvae, and the queen continues nourishing until the larvae develop. Afterward, adult ants emerge. At warm temperatures, the egg to adult cycle takes three months for completion, increasing to 2,000-3,000 ants in a year.

Carpenter Ant Control:-

Locate the nests to get rid of carpenter ants. Monitoring is effective at night as these ants are most active during the nighttime, searching for food. A helpful fact to monitor these ants is that they tend to follow a trail. They make rustling sounds that you cannot hear while in nests. Preventing the excess moisture in wood, removing food sources, avoiding storing wood inside/close to home for long helps in control. Removing attractive food sources for carpenter ants also aid in carpenter ant control. You should consult a pest control service if you are sure that carpenter ants have infested your property.

Conclusion:-

Carpenter ants are common invaders in Toronto homes. These ants infest wooden structures in homes to make their nests and build a colony. These ants are most active at night and search for food during that time. Carpenter ants colony includes a queen ant, a few male/female reproductive ants, and non-reproducing worker ants. It takes three months for these ants’ life cycle to complete. Therefore, the right way of carpenter ant control is to locate nests and remove attractive food sources from reach. In addition, professionals may use a spray or ant baits to exterminate carpenter ants in Toronto from your residential space. Last but not least, dealing with carpenter ants is the job of professionals, so leave it to them.

If you want to learn about controlling pests and dealing with them, you should feel free to contact Pesticon (https://www.pesticon.com/), a pest control company, an expert at pest control in Toronto, Kitchener, Guelph, and Cambridge.