Author: Kurt Treftz, Cascade Pest Control
Carpenter Ant Infestation Home Damage
While in the process of a home remodel, this video reveals the damage that a carpenter ant infestation can do to homes in the Seattle region.
Shown on the floor, here, are some of the many carpenter ants that fell from an exposed nest site.
The process of home remodeling opened the sheetrock revealing this carpenter ant nest and its associated damage to the ceiling, attic, and roof framing.
This carpenter ant species has multiple nest sites – for each colony. As many as ten or more nests per colony – and these colonies can be spread over hundreds of feet.
So, some nests were in this house and other nests, from the same colony, were in tree stumps and logs outside of the home.
Now we peek into the crawl space of another home infested with carpenter ants. They had nested, extensively, into the framing directly above this foundation – and the damage had extended up into an exterior wall and all the framing around several windows.
What looks like sawdust is in fact millions of tiny shreds of wood that the carpenter ants tore up with their mandibles. This material is known as carpenter ant frass.
As it turned out, there was much more frass beneath the plastic paper barrier, as well as within the wall voids up above.
These images show some nesting in and among the sub-flooring insulation. More of the carpenter ant frass and some damage to foundational timbers.
It should be noted that the home owner only occasionally saw ants indoors – and thought that when she sprayed, and the ants were not showing up inside, that the problem was gone! Obviously, the carpenter ants were well established and did a lot of damage hidden in the walls.
Carpenter ants are a major wood-destroying insect in the Pacific Northwest and must be guarded against!
Call Cascade Pest Control 888-989-8979 to protect your home from carpenter ant infestation today – or Request a Quote online.
