Carpenter ants are a species of insect that typically create nests in wooden structures. Large colonies can be found in any type of wooden environment from trees to outbuildings to inside your home. Once a carpenter ant colony has taken up residence, it’s hard to get rid of them without professional help. In addition to the main colony, you also have to worry about flying ants and how they contribute to the reproduction of the colony. Here’s everything you need to know about flying ants and how to deal with them to get rid of an infestation.

What Are Flying Ants?

Most carpenter ants do not have wings. You may see them scurrying around your house in search of food to take back to the nest, but you do not see wings. Only a few members of the colony have wings, and these ants are responsible for reproducing and growing the colony. Winged ants are the only members of the colony that are capable of mating.

How Do Flying Ants Benefit the Colony?

Ants that are born with wings are solely designed for reproduction. The male ants have no other purpose than to mate with the females to start a new colony. For this reason, most winged male ants die within two weeks of mating with a female.

Female winged ants, however, become queens of new colonies. After mating, they search for a suitable place to create a nest. They lay their eggs and raise the offspring alone. Once the first batch of eggs grows up and matures, the queen ants have a new workforce and allow the young worker ants to take over all of the work of running the nest. The Queen focuses on laying more batches of eggs to keep the colony strong and thriving. Therefore, if you see a flying ant around your home, it is likely a future queen ant looking to start a colony.

How Can Truly Nolen Help With Professional Carpenter Ant Removal Services in Waterloo?

It usually takes at least three years for a carpenter ant colony to mature, so once you start seeing flying ants, you are probably dealing with a large colony that is difficult to remove without professional assistance. The presence of swarmers also means that you likely have satellite nests in the vicinity, so failing to get rid of even one nest means that you have not eliminated the investigation. At Truly Nolen, our expert technicians know how to look for and identify satellite nests so we can be sure we eradicate the entire problem when we are dealing with an infestation.

When you call us for help with carpenter ant pest control, we first analyze the evidence to make sure we are dealing with this type of pest. We then lay special chemicals that the ants carry back to the nest. These chemicals are toxic to ants, so they effectively destroy the entire colony. Once we have eliminated the colony, we can give you tips on how to make your home a less hospitable environment for carpenter ants so you can keep them from returning in the future.

Schedule an Appointment Today

Removing a colony of carpenter ants from your home is tricky because there are often multiple nests, and you can’t forget about flying ants if you want to eliminate the problem. Trust Truly Nolen in Waterloo to provide efficient carpenter ant pest control in Waterloo instead of trying to tackle the problem yourself. Our technicians are experts in residential pest control, and we have the right tools and knowledge to remove entire colonies of carpenter ants from your home. Contact us today to schedule an appointment for home pest control.