Carpenter ants are swarming!  This picture was sent to me by a new client that saw these buzzing around her bathroom.  Turns out they had a carpenter ant infestation and the swarmers (i.e. ants with wings) were coming out in their bathroom.  Unfortunately carpenter ants are wood destroying insects so you don’t want to leave them alone for long or they’ll do a number on your property.

Swarming carpenter ants are capable of reproduction and each year take a coordinated flight in search of mates.  We wrote extensively about this and other carpenter ant behaviors and biology in another post called "Have You Seen These Flying Ants?”.  Read that post for further detail.

Of course the best way to determine if you have a carpenter ant infestation is by having a highly trained professional perform a thorough inspection.  However, there are three main signs you can look for if you suspect carpenter ants.  Remember, only the reproductive ants will have wings as you will often see many more without wings.

1.        Live Ants or Dead Ants

a.       Obviously if you can see them with your naked eye, then you can easily suspect a problem.

b.      Check our Pest ID page for some examples.

c.       Carpenter ants are very large, queens can be up to ¾ inch long.

2.       Sawdust or “Frass”

a.       Carpenter ants remove their waste, loose particles, and dead bodies out of openings to their nest (see picture to the right).

b.      Piles of bug parts and wood chips can be found in corners of rooms, windows, or baseboards.

3.       Moisture damaged wood or limbs touching your house

a.       Moisture damaged wood is an intoxicating lure for carpenter ants, this is the first place to look in many cases.

b.      Tree limbs and shrubs should all be trimmed back away from the house to prevent easy access to your home.

Each fall most old queen and worker wasps die off as cold weather sets in.  However, new queens, or foundress queens, that have found harborage over the winter will survive and emerge in Spring to begin a new colony.  These new queens will have been fertilized in the fall and found a safe haven in and around your property...often the worst is when you find them in the attic, or playhouse! 

Luckily, when new queens emerge in the Spring, they're typically a bit sluggish and not as aggressive.  They set out to start a new colony and will not reuse the old paper nests, instead opting to build one anew.  A treatment of the eaves, balconies, and other overhangs of your home in the Spring will discourage any new nest building.  We also always make sure to scrape down any old unsightly paper wasp and dirt daubber nests as a regular part of our services. 

If you find a wasp indoors, it's not always the end of the world.  Sometimes it will have emerged from the attic or in through a doorway and is not typically aggressive and can be swatted or caught fairly easily.  It is always best to perform wasp control in the Spring to prevent their numbers from increasing rapidly and becoming more of a nuisance and potential health threat around your home.  We can also control ground nesting species like yellow jackets and cicada killer wasps if necessary. 

If you've never seen a cicada killer in action, those are cool and you can see one in this video below dragging it's prey back to its nest!

Watch out for new wasp activity this Spring and call Venus Pest Company when you need help.

I recently attended two conferences where data on Altriset was presented, a new product out on the market for control of termites.  The first thing you need to know about Altriset is that it is a green insecticide, super green really.  In fact, I would argue it is the “greenest” insecticide on the market right now.

No Signal Word

If you look at most household cleaners, detergents, or a variety of other products (including insecticides), you’ll find a “signal word” in large bold print.  This is an indication of how toxic the product is and you’ll typically see CAUTION, WARNING, or DANGER.  The EPA allowed Altriset’s registration WITHOUT a signal word.  Even organic insecticides have a signal word!  What does that mean?  Alriset poses little or no threat to humans or otherwise, except termites.

First aid instructions:  No worries.

Altriset does not require any specific first aid intervention if anyone is accidentally exposed.  Wow!

Gloves, goggles:  Who needs ‘em?.

The person applying Altriset is not even required to wear gloves or protective eyewear.

Give bees a chance

Altriset is not a significant risk to bees, earthworms, birds or even fish.  The only caution issued here is with aquatic invertebrates.  I am guessing this means things like dragonfly larvae or daphnia can be affected.

How does it work? 

Okay, so we know people and animals are safe, but what about the termites?  I sat through no less than 15 presentations from independent University researchers, Pest Control Operators, and a couple of DuPont representatives that prove yes, it slaughters termites.  In fact, if I have to sit through another presentation, I might not be as nice next time I talk about Altriset...it works, I get it!

Altriset targets receptors on the termites’ muscles that we don’t have and must also be metabolized by the termites before it can even work.  Those two factors make it incredibly toxic to them but not to us.  The effect on the termites is an immediate stoppage of feeding, then slowing and loss of coordination, then finally death.

This effect is actually fun to watch (if you’re an Entomologist) and is demonstrated in this video.  The video was made by Dr. Phil Koehler at the University of Florida.  Ink from some pens mimic the termite trailing pheromone, so they will actually follow a line drawn from a pen like they are following another termite.  In the video, Dr. Koehler exposed termites to different levels of Altriset and recorded them following or trying to follow the line.  It’s a lot like watching a field sobriety test on an episode of Cops.  The more they are exposed, the more drunk they appear and eventually are left paralyzed.

Venus Pest Company is offering Altriset treatment for termite control right now as one of our Bee Green Pest Control services.  The pricing is quite similar to that for our conventional termite treatments with Termidor, which is why we’re so excited to be able to offer this new service.