Ants can be a real nuisance in a home. They get into everything, they’re not always easy to spot, and they can cause quite a lot of damage if you let them.
1. Damage To Food Supplies
Ants can contaminate food supplies, which can lead to health problems for people eating contaminated foods. These pests carry and transfer bacteria, including E. coli, streptococcus and shigella, and other diseases from their feces to foods. Moreover, ants can tunnel through materials used for storage and packaging of food. This can result in a serious cross-contamination issue for businesses that store large amounts of food.
2. Damage To Wood
The most common way that ants can cause damage to your home is through the chewing of galleries inside of structural wood. This damage is more difficult to detect because the ants tunnel through wood and leave behind a fine dusty substance called frass. Carpenter ant nests are usually hidden beneath or behind walls, under shingles and other roofing materials, in the voids underneath your roof, under electrical boxes, etc. They can also be found in crawl spaces, basements, and attics.
3. Damage To Structures
While termites are the most common cause of structural damage to buildings, carpenter ants can also prove to be quite a problem. Unlike subterranean termites, which can only survive in moist environments, carpenter ants will systematically tunnel through wooden structures such as the frame of your home, creating nests in the process. Once they reach maturity, the nests will begin to expand and create a significant amount of visible damage to your home’s timbers. These damages look like someone took a carving knife to your home’s wood, ripping through and damaging it.
4. Damage To Structural Beams
As the ant nests grow and expand throughout the wood, they will weaken support beams in your house, allowing them to warp and collapse in response to severe weather conditions such as storms or heavy snowfall. This can result in sagging floors, sticking windows and doors, crooked walls, and bulging ceilings. If you want to prevent future infestations, make sure you seal any access points on the inside and outside of your home. Apply weather-stripping and caulk around pipes, window frames, doors, and foundations as soon as you discover potential invasions!