Carpenter Ants in Old Bridge, NJ

I was sent to a residence in Old Bridge, NJ after the homeowner found his foyer invaded by large ants. Upon inspection, I determined that these large ants were carpenter ants. I was able to trace their pheromone trail to their large nest, which they built in a tree approximately fifty yards from the house.

Carpenter ants build or hollow out galleries in decaying or moist wood. The shavings they create are called frass, and frass piles underneath their bored-out holes are one of the tell-tale signs of a carpenter ant infestation. Unlike termites, carpenter ants do not actually digest wood. Like most ants, they prefer sweets and honeydew. They cause damage to wood when they bore out holes to lay their eggs. Carpenter ants can forage for more then one hundred yards for food. Although they tend to be larger than other ants, you can’t determine whether are carpenter ants based on their size alone. Carpenter ants can come in many different sizes. Also, carpenter ants are nocturnal and tend to forage for food at night.

The ants had been working on this tree for quite some time because there was a huge pile of frass at the base of the tree. I used an application to probe the knots in the tree, then treated the cavities with a residual dust. I completed the treatment with a liquid residual  around the base that will kill any returning foraging ants. Between these applications, as far as these ants were concerned, their fate was permanently sealed.

I showed the homeowners the “home base” of these infesting ants, and assured him that his carpenter ant problems would no longer be an issue. These ants won’t be going anywhere, let alone half a football field distance into his home.