You’ve just discovered a line of ants marching across your kitchen counter. No need to get a magnifying glass for a closer look; an ant is an ant is an ant and they better turn around and march right back out again.
However, distinct ant species can wreak distinct types of havoc and there are over 1,000 species of ants in the U.S. Identifying which one is in your home determines how to prevent them from getting in and how to stop damage once it starts.
Luckily, here in cool, wet Maine, we have two species to primarily contend with: carpenter ants and pavement ants.
“We can pretty much tell just by looking, but I don’t expect everyone to be able to do that,” said Thomas Tripp, General Manager of Modern Pest’s Portland, Maine office. He gave us a few other tips on how to better know which formic invertebrate is swarming your baseboards.
Carpenter ants
If you have carpenter ants, you are not alone. The number one pest control complaint in Maine is—you guessed it—carpenter ants.
Carpenter ants are bigger than pavement ants and make their nests, called galleries, in soft, rotted wood. These industrious creatures will hike to your home from a tree as far as 20 feet away. They also prefer sweets to other foods, which has earned them another common name, “sugar ants.”
Carpenter ants have a more sinister nickname, too: silent destroyers. When they build tunnels in your home’s timber, they often do it without an external hint of damage. If left unchecked, their galleries can cause structural damage that will require expensive repairs or, in extreme cases, a building collapse.
If they do leave clues, they will be subtle: look for a powder-like sawdust called “frass” falling through cracks or winged ants (which are male scouts) on windowsills, inside and out.
Pavement ants
Pavement ants are smaller than carpenters. They are fans of protein but will eat almost anything they can access. They live in underground colonies, marked by mounds of sand or dirt that you see along cracks and edges of sidewalks and driveways.
Pavement ants work as a team to scout and transport morsels from your floor or counter back to their headquarters. They get in through foundation cracks, focusing their efforts where their antennae and teammates have guided them. Evidence of just one in your pantry is enough for you to start an infestation investigation.
How to fight back
DIY solutions to ridding your home of ants include mixing baking soda and powdered sugar and placing it along floor cracks and interior edges of windowsills. You could also rub lemon and eucalyptus oil on these areas too. However, these tactics are often not enough to complete the job.
“We have a process to get rid of both kinds of ants,” said Tripp. “As part of our contracted service, we will come out and treat the inside and outside of your home. On the inside, we apply a gel pesticide near areas you have seen pavement ants, but where humans cannot access. Ants think this is food and for the most part, it kills them.”
If all goes according to plan, and your house is clean, pavement ants should be gone within 24 to 48 hours.
On the outside, Modern Pest identifies where the colony is, where ants are entering, then they use a repellent insecticide that would be unsafe inside the home. “The key is having the knowledge of which applications to place where,” said Tripp. He added that it is important to keep children and pets away from the treated areas until the application fully dries.
Carpenter ants are the more tenacious of these two species. Even after this procedure, Tripp said a second visit may be necessary. Based upon experience, a service technician will look deeper and use insecticide dust, which will be carried through tunnels and into galleries by the unsuspecting targets themselves.
Having ants in your home is disconcerting at the least and harmful to your property at the worst. However Tripp said, “Spring and summer is ant season, but with product safety, ongoing service and strategic applications in mind, it doesn’t have to be.”
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