We need to provide a carpenter ant treatment at a home in Watertown, CT. We’re very excited about this as it will be our first carpenter ant treatment since moving our office to the Watertown, CT area. During the inspection which we provided as part of an FHA loan closing we found carpenter ant frass located in the basement. The picture below is a classic picture of what carpenter ant frass looks like when it’s found in a home. What’s not pictured is what allowed the ants to do this damage in the first place.
This particular home was in very good shape, but it had evidence of water damage around the front door. Since carpenter ants are known to exploit areas of water damage this is the first area we looked for evidence of pests. Upon reaching the basement it was obvious that this home had a serious issue. In fact, it was so obvious that the buyer of the property immediately spotted the frass along with us.
Frass is the technical name of the sawdust that’s created by carpenter ants when they chew through wood. Along with sawdust most all frass will contain insect parts, dead ants and the rest of the garbage from the nest. It’s a common misconception that carpenter ants eat wood, they don’t. Carpenter ants chew through wood with powerful jaws and leave a smooth edge that goes with the grain of the wood. Typically, the damage is not going to be visible. However, knowing that frass exists there’s a good bet that damage of some kind is also there.
Treating carpenter ant nests
This home will require a carpenter ant treatment as soon as the weather warms. The treatment for this home will involve taking a small drill bit and drilling a series of holes into the front door frame bottom and injecting an insecticidal dust. We’ll use the same process to drill the rim joist in the basement. The object of drilling these areas is to inject the products we’ll be using directly into the cavity that the ants have created. By doing this we’re sure to eliminate the problem in one attempt; not all homes are this straight forward.
The vast majority of homes that we receive calls on regarding carpenter ants are much more difficult to solve. Many of these homes have no evidence of frass at all so it’s important to know where carpenter ants nest and what to look for. This is the reason that hiring a professional is a good idea when looking to cure an issue with carpenter ants invading your home.
In most cases it’s also a good idea to have an on-going program to prevent carpenter ants from re-infesting your home. It’s a fact; whatever made your home attractive to ants in the first place likely still exists. In this case prevention is the best cure.
If you live in Watertown, CT and have ants call Envirocare Pest Control at 1-888-879-6481