Ant Colony In Attic

While it would be unusual to have an entire colony in your attic it is not unheard of.

Ant colony in attic.

What you must do is find the nest and eliminate it. They prefer warm regions. However carpenter ants maintain a system with a main nest and satellite colonies. Use these scouts to wipe out the entire colony.

All types of ants live in colonies that consist of hundreds or even millions of individual ants with one or more egg laying queens. Beyond that only 10 15 of the colony is foraging at one time. Ants will build nests where ever they can find a suitable area to do so. Significant ant colony in an attic.

Light brown these ants are between 1 12 and 1 8 inch long. You ll kill it but for every ant you see there may be hundreds more hiding in the house. Another important situation that favors ant activity in walls and other voids is the opportunity to gain entrance inside the home or other structures through cracks gaps and openings that lead directly inside. It sounds a bit out of character for ants to be in your attic they generally only are found in places that have a food source of some type.

When you see an ant your first impulse is probably to step on it. I would defiantly take a closer look at these ants. Carpenter ants have built a reputation for shaving through wood making holes and tunnels that damage it. This video is unavailable.

They are brown or black and about half an inch long. A mature carpenter ant colony can have 10 000 ants so random spraying will be ineffective. Ants become dwellers inside walls and other voids simply as the result of finding a more preferred site for food moisture and protection than what is available to them outdoors. Baits have the added advantage of being easy to place and relatively mess free.

When ants do this to your attic structures it could significantly compromise its stability and your roof could cave in any time. Some ants are more attracted to sweets and some to fats and oils. Dry wood termites on the other hand look a lot like ants and would have more reason to be in your attic. The good news here is that the ants are visible to you and they are still going outdoors to forage which means they will walk through areas that that you treat outdoors.

Ants could damage your attic in as few as six months. First and foremost don t spray any further as an initial step. A single ant colony could have as many as 50 000 individuals. The ones you see are scout ants foraging for food to take back to the colony.

Below is a list of common ants that may nest in walls with some tips on how to identify them. They will bring the bait back to the colony to share which will help destroy the colony. It is important to check insect traps regularly and refresh them periodically to ensure they continue to be effective. These ants actively excavate wood.