While there are “wood ants” that can be a nuisance and cause minor issues, they don’t eat wood like a termite and certainly won’t destroy your home.

There are two types of ants that can burrow into wood — carpenter ants and acrobat ants. Neither of these do major damage, though they can create small tunnels and galleries in moisture-damaged wood, softening them up further. They go into the wood, often near the top of a home around eaves, and make pathways. They are of course coming from a main nest or colony outside so it’s good to catch them “in the act,” which makes it easier to follow them back to that nest.

Carpenter ants, in particular, are often more active after dusk. You can actually walk around your house with a flashlight to see if they are crawling on your home. These are big ants, between 1/4 and 1/2 an inch, and fairly easy to spot if they are present. They’re usually dark red or black.

Acrobat ants are often easier to spot and have more noticeable trails. They are red and black, but a bit smaller than carpenter ants. Another distinctive feature is they raise their butts up, which makes it appear like they are crawling on just their front feet, giving them their name.

In either case, if you have these crawling on your home you’ll want to treat them.

We look for the source colony near the home, but even if that is not found we will treat your entire exterior with a combination of spray and bait. The spray is undetectable to ants, which is key. Don’t ever spray these with consumer brand pest bug sprays or even natural sprays! These have strong chemicals or heavy odors and other signals that will disperse the ants like a bomb was dropped near them. They will go off in all directions and often will show up elsewhere. It also makes it more difficult to professionally treat them when we show up.

If you are seeing large ants on or inside your home give us a call at (512) 443-0123 or fill out our website form for a fast, free quote!