Ants - New York, New Jersey, Connecticut

Ants are becoming a major problem all over the country and New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are not immune. They can be difficult to control, but there are some things you should know about how ants' behavior can lead to big headaches for you and your home:

Entry: Ants can enter through even the tiniest cracks seeking sweet or greasy substances in the kitchen pantry or storeroom areas.
Scent trails: Ants leave an invisible chemical trail known as pheromones for others to follow once they locate the food source.
Nest locations: They can nest about anywhere in and around your house; in lawns, walls, stumps, even under foundations.
Colony size: Can number from 300,000 to 500,000 and whole colonies can uproot and relocate quickly when threatened.
Nature's way of protecting the colony: With comparative freedom from natural enemies, a colony can live a relatively long lifetime. Worker ants may live seven years and the queen may live as long as 15 years.
Do-it-yourself ineffectiveness: Most do-it-yourself approaches only kill the ants you see, whereas a truly effective treatment will penetrate and destroy their nest to prevent them from returning. Also, home remedies don't account for the fact that different kinds of ant infestations require different treatments.

Carpenter Ants

Appearance

Among the largest ants, from 1/4- to 3/8-inch long. The most common species is black, but some have reddish or yellowish coloration. Workers have large mandibles.

Habitat

Resides both outdoors and indoors in moist, decaying or hollow wood. They cut "galleries" into the wood grain to provide passageways for movement from section to section of the nest. Can leave "sawdust" behind that provides clues to nesting location. If this wooden complex happens to be a wall frame within your home, structural damage may result. Moisture is the key component to look for, when managing this species.

Diet
Does not eat wood, but will feed on nearly anything people eat—particularly sweets and meats. Will also feed on other insects.

Ant Reproduction
Queen lays 15 to 20 eggs the first year and up to 30 eggs the second year. Eggs complete their life cycle in about 60 days. Worker ants can live up to seven years, while a queen may live up to 25 years.

Other Carpenter Ant Information

All kinds of buildings, regardless of age or type of construction, are vulnerable to infestation and damage by carpenter ants. They are very difficult to control. Colonies can contain up to 50,000 workers. Tips for Control – Successfully controlling carpenter ants requires certain skills, knowledge and experience. Carpenter ant control involves tracking down and treating as many satellite colonies as possible inside and outside of the home as well as attempting to find and treat the parent colony. Accessing the parent colony may be difficult because it might be located high in a tree or on a neighboring property. In such cases, your service professional may use carpenter ant baits, but these may have varying results because of the carpenter ants’ finicky feeding habits. If conditions on your property (such as a large number of trees) create a high risk for re-infestation, your service professional may recommend regular pest management services to help prevent new infestations.
These tips will help you limit carpenter ant infestation:

Store any firewood away from your home and remove any dead wood or wood scraps from around the foundation.
Trim dead limbs from trees and remove stumps. Rid your yard of these potential nesting sites.
Make sure that all plumbing or roof leaks are sealed, and check crawl spaces for excess moisture.
Water from rain gutters should be directed away from your home and not be allowed to accumulate close to the foundation.