Few, but the problem of carpenter ants is the ability to infiltrate a house with a lot of wood everywhere and be difficult to find before they become enough to create problems. Periodically, especially if you have had these problems or in your area there are people who have had them, you should at least have your home checked by entrusting it to a professional ant extermination service. Spending money on massive disinfestation and subsequent repairs is much more demanding and knowing how to get rid of ants in the bathroom can protect your property.
A carpenter ant queen usually lays around 20 eggs at a time. Not surprisingly, in fact, it takes at least three years, and sometimes even up to six, for carpenter ants to create a stable colony.
The problem, however, is precisely this. The period of life of the carpenter ants begins with the “nuptial flight”, that is when the males are used for swarming and mating. A period that occurs only in a short period of time, from late spring to summer. After this task, the males die and the females lose their wings, returning to the nests in order to grow.
The task of the females is to look for a new place to create a nest so as to create new colonies and expand the species even more. The queen’s task is only to bring the first group of eggs into the world, feeding them, but then she will take care of the whole new brood. Both to build the nest and to bring into the world the subsequent broods.
All this in a relatively long period of time to be able to notice the carpenter ants in the house and eradicate them, but you will rarely notice it in this period. Since there are still few, at first, the damage in the house will be irrelevant and therefore you can rarely notice it. Moreover, since the carpenter ants search for food mainly takes place at night, it will be difficult to notice as long as they are little. And it will still be the second brood, because the first is fed and raised by the queen inside the nest, then in the cracks of wood or insulating foam in which she has decided to settle to grow the first brood.
Realizing it later, when there are many, it may be too late. Or rather, it could force you to invest in a series of pest control activities. Especially because the growth period of a carpenter ant, from the egg to the adult ant, can go from 6 to 12 weeks, usually, or up to 10 months in case of particularly cold climates. As a result, you may have a colony of carpenter ants at home large enough to work briskly to nest in the wood of your home, but too small to be noticed right away.
Moreover, carpenter ants do not die in winter, the cold only makes them dormant. This means that you may not notice them for a long time, even for years, from one mating period to another, until the colony is too large and very invasive and “destructive” for your home.
Winter, in fact, is the best time to try to hire a professional pest control Toronto service. Since ants mate in summer, and need to grow for at least two months, in winter you would still be in time to have your home checked for possible infestations.
