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Most Common Pest In Maryland
7/10/13
If you talk to a pest control professional in Maryland and ask what pest they get the most calls about in the summer, you can bet the answer will be ants. Ants are a problem for many Maryland homeowners throughout the year, but in the summer, the populations of these pests seem to explode and the call volumes at pest control companies echo the severity of this problem. There are two categories of ants that are a problem for MD homeowners and they are “nuisance ants” and “wood-destroying ants”. Ants that fall under the category of “wood-destroying” are carpenter ants; these ants will burrow into a home’s structural timber to create a nest. “Nuisance ants” are ants that typically nest outdoors but will come into a home looking for food to take back to their colony. The specific ant that are especially troublesome this summer are pavement ants and even though their name may make them seem harmless enough, when they invade in large numbers their presence is enough to make you want to scream!
What do pavement ants look like? These ants are small at around 1/8 of an inch long and usually black or brown. They tend to live under pavement (that’s where they get their name) and you can see the entrances to their nests as small, ‘volcano-like’ mounds of dirt. These nest entrances are usually between the cracks and crevices in pavement and sidewalks as well as landscape pavers. These ants will sometimes infest buildings, especially when that building was built on a concrete slab and that’s when these pests become problems for home and business owners.
Why do they enter structures? Pavement ants will enter your home or business looking for food; actually, it’s just the foraging ants of the colony that come inside your home and these ants make up about 10% or less of the colony’s population. The foragers are looking for anything they can eat and if they find it readily available in your home, they’ll think they’ve struck gold. They’ll be telling all their foraging friends about their great food find by leaving pheromone trails throughout your home. This is basically a beacon to other foraging ants that your home is a good place to forage.
Is there anything you can do? Getting rid of pavement ants inside your home isn’t an easy job, especially when done without the assistance of a professional. You can kill as many ants as you see inside your home, but until you attack the nest, you’ll continue to have an ant problem. Closing up gaps in the exterior of your home or filling cracks and crevices in the foundation can limit the problem, but chances are that you’ll continue to see foraging ants throughout your structure. There are some DIY products that you can purchase that are advertised as being able to totally eliminate your ant problem, but these products are not capable of getting rid of the entire ant colony because they lack the customization for the particular type of ant you are dealing with. What you can do is locate the area where the ants are getting inside and try to close these areas up. If that is unsuccessful, contact a pest control professional for further control options.
What can a pest control professional do? Pest control operators are trained to find foraging ant trails that may be present around your home and property. They will seek out the ant colony and then use the appropriate materials to completely get rid of nest, which should eliminate any new foragers entering your home. Pest control professionals can also offer you advice on how to prevent these pests from making their way indoors in the future.
At American Pest in Maryland, the pest control professionals can eliminate a pavement ant colony without the need for treating the problem indoors. They put the safety of your family and your property first, treating the exterior of your property carefully and with as little material as possible. For more information on the pavement ant control solutions offered by American Pest, or for information on the other Maryland pest control services offered by American Pest, contact them today!