Ants in your bathroom is a real problem. The reason is that the ant you’re most likely experiencing is the carpenter ant. The ant itself may gross you out, but the damage they cause can be worse. Do you have ants in your bathroom that may be carpenter ants?
Carpenter ants in your bathroom
Carpenter ants, which are the most common type of ant people see in the bathroom thrive on moisture. Where else in your home is there more moisture? Some of the common issues associated with moisture in the bathroom are the following:
- Toilet leaks
- Leaks around tile showers
- Old leaky windows
Lets look at each and how it relates to carpenter ants
Under leaking toilets are an area that carpenter ants nest
By far and away the most common location for a carpenter ant nest is under a leaking toilet. Ants in your bathroom tend to nest between the toilet and the wet subfloor. When this happens it’s common to see the ants walking on the floor. Some people also complain of ants in the toilet itself. This last phenomenon is usually the ant looking for moisture. H0wever, once in the bowl they’re unable to get out.
In order to control ants under a toilet bowl a pest management technician can use a contact kill aerosol with a needle nose tip. This specialized tip has the ability to slide between the toilet and the floor. Once in a short blast of this aerosol fills the area and will kill or flush out all accessible ants
Ants love shower bases and the areas behind tile walls
Most people are surprised to hear that carpenter ants live inside the walls of your home. This is so common in fact that 80% of all interior colonies are found in wall voids. Why are the ants in your bathroom in the walls?
For those of us that have children we know that after they shower there are typically puddles on the floor. These puddles seep between tiles and get under the shower. The same can be true of older tile showers that has cracking grout. Once ants find this water source nesting around it is easy.
Eliminating nests in walls is difficult. The reason is that your pest professional can’t see through the walls any better than you. When hunting for colonies without any obvious signs of trouble your technician will do a carful inspection and interview. They’ll ask questions such as where did you see ants first? are they only in the bathroom and have your seen ants with wings. The answers to these question will dictate where the treatment will begin.
In most cases ants around leaky showers are going to be taken care of in one of a few ways.
- Applying specialized gel baits formulated for ants that will slowly poison a colony
- Drilling into the wall from an adjoining closet, drilling a subfloor from beneath
Old windows are haven for carpenter ants
The most common area to find carpenter ants nesting in a wall is around old leaking windows. The reason is that ants have the most access to it from the outside. When ants are in leaking windows they’ll usually leave telltale signs that the experienced professional will easily pick up on. They include ants walking on the walls, sawdust on the floor under the window and seeing ants disappear behind the trim.
The best method to eliminate ants from window frames is by drilling a series of holes under and around the window. Once this access has been made a specialized dust is injected into the the hole. If in fact the ants are there any contact with the dust will eliminate the problem.
Ants in homes are the most common type of pest control your pest management professional deals with. For the experienced operator it’s just another day.
Do you have ants that may be carpenter ants? If so, call Envirocare Pest Control at 1-888-879-6481. We’d love to help you.