If you are having issues with an ant infestation or simply ant control issues, then you have come to the right place. Task Force Pest Control can handle whatever your size of problem whether the ants are in your home or mounding in your yards we can handle this and any pest control issue you have.
Some of the most common household ant control calls that we are receive are: Acrobat Ant, Allegheny Mound Ant, Argentine Ant, Carpenter Ant, Citronella Ant, Field Ant, Fire Ant.
Ants can enter through the tiniest of cracks, seeking water and sweet or greasy food substances. Just like rodents with urine marking, Ants leave an invisible chemical trail which contains pheromones for others to follow once they locate a good food source.
They can nest about anywhere in and around your house; in lawns, walls, stumps, even under foundations. Colonies can number up to 300,000 to 500,000. Compared to hornets and many other insects, ants & their colonies can live an exceptionally long time. Worker ants may live for many years, and the Queen may live as long as 15 years.
The most common problem for home owners is the Carpenter Ant.
- Common Name(s): Carpenter Ant
- Order: Hymenoptera
- Family: Formicidae
- Common Species: Camponotus pennsylvanicus
- Commonly Confused With: Field Ants
Characteristics
How to Identify?
Carpenter ants are uniformly (solidly) color, but they come in a wide variety of colors: black, red, brown, tan. They can also have hairs covering their backside (abdomen). They are the largest pest ant in West Virginia, ranging from 0.6 to 1.7 centimetres in size. You can differentiate termites and ants by looking at the antenna. Ants have an antenna that looks bent or elbowed while termites have a straight, beaded looking antenna.
Habitat
Where do they live?
These ants usually live outdoors in soft, rotting, or moist wood. Railroad timbers, such as those used as retaining walls or decoration, are often great habitats for carpenter ants. They do not eat wood but hollow it out to create nests in the cavities. Indoors, colonies are commonly found in foam insulation or damp and damaged wood in crawl spaces or wall voids.
Food Source
What do they eat?
Outdoors, carpenter ants usually feed on honeydew produced by sap-feeding insects. They protect the sap feeders and, in return, the sap-feeders allow the ants to feed on their honeydew. They also hunt or scavenge for insects as a form of protein. Indoors, they search for protein or sugar sources to eat, preferably sugars or sweets.
Activity
What do they do?
These ants do not have a stinger and, as such, are incapable of inflicting a sting. They can be rather tricky to treat as they are nocturnal and forage for food mainly at night. Most people think these ants eat wood, but this is not true. They inhabit moist or damaged wood, so carpenter ants can be a sign of a greater issue at hand. While these ants cannot sting directly they should not be handled as they can bite and spray formic acid into the wound, which can cause pain.