FALL ANT PREVENTION GUIDE
Autumn has arrived in NJ, PA, MD and DE! It’s time for beautiful fall foliage, cooler temperatures, apple picking, pumpkin-spice everything… and ants?! Unfortunately, just because fall has arrived doesn’t mean you’re free and clear from worrying about ants in the house. Ants are less active in the fall as they burrow deeper underground to avoid freezing, but they may be looking for the convenience and comfort of your temperature-controlled home to spend the winter months. If they get into your home, you can have ant problems throughout the fall and winter.
Carpenter Ants
Carpenter ants are big and black and are often confused with termites. Carpenter ants will tunnel through the wood in your home, damaging structures, but unlike termites – they’re not eating the wood. They’re just chewing it up and spitting it out in order to make a path through the wall, furniture, or cabinetry. Inside the wood, they create nests for their growing colonies to rest. If this problem goes unnoticed for long periods of time, the growing colonies of ants will cause severe damage to the wood in your home.
Carpenter ants need access to moisture to survive. Outdoors, you’ll find them in rotting tree stumps. In your home, you’ll find them in walls where a plumbing leak created the ideal, moist wood they prefer for tunneling and building nests.
Pavement Ants
The pavement ant, or picnic ant, is usually found with nests under your foundation, sidewalk, or driveway. When they find their way indoors, they will emerge under floor registers connected to heating ducts, baseboards, and expansion joints. They will not cause damage to the wood in your home, but they will help themselves to any food you leave uncovered.
Odorous House Ants
Another common ant is the odorous house ant. These ants won’t destroy wood like a carpenter ant, but they’re also attracted to moist areas, such as near your heaters or pipes. While you don’t really have to worry about them ruining the structure of your home, you probably won’t enjoy sharing your pantry items with them as they seek out food and invade kitchens once inside.
How to Keep The Ants Out of Your Home
You can make your home less attractive to all ants by:
- Keeping firewood away from your home
- Pruning shrubbery, removing dead limbs, and keeping landscape trees away from the home
- Eliminating water leaks and problems around basements, crawl spaces, and your foundation
- Repair any roof or plumbing leaks immediately
- Repair clogged or broken gutters to eliminate standing water sources
NJ, PA, MD and DE Ant Control Solutions
Don’t wait until your home is overrun with the various ants, thinking they will disappear come winter. They won’t! If they’re living in your home, they’ll be active year-round. Our highly trained and licensed pest control technicians can resolve your ant problems with year-round pest solutions that are guaranteed to work. Give us a call today!
Call Viking at 800-618-2847 to learn more about our ant pest control and extermination services, or get a fast, free quote online today!
