With a name like carpenter ant, you would expect them to be helpful builders. You may even imagine them building out a nice addition for you and your friends for your deck. Sorry to break it to you, but this is not the case. Here is what you need to know about what carpenter ants do to a deck.
What do carpenter ants do to a wood deck?
Carpenter ants love wood. They especially love soft wood. What carpenter ants do to a deck depends on how well-kept the wood is. With a nice, hardwood, they are going to be less inclined to stick around. When water gets into the wood, it is another story. It only takes a small crack in the seams or paint/varnish coating for moisture to soften up the wood.
Once the wood is soft, it is harvest and carpenter time for the carpenter ants. These destructive menaces get to work ripping and tearing out chunks of wood to make way for their galleries. These long runways allow for them to:
- hide from predators
- make and protect their eggs
- raise their brood
- store food
- enjoy protection from the elements
What do carpenter ants do to a wood deck? They turn it into their home. Depending on which parts get the moisture softening, this can cause hundreds to thousands of dollars in deck damage.
What do Carpenter Ants do to a composite deck?
Don’t get fooled by the protection of composite materials in your deck. Most composite decks still have some railing or support beams that are made of wood. The composite nature lures deck owners into a false sense of security allowing for soft spots in the wood to develop. Having perfectly sound composite runners doesn’t help much if the support beams are failing or the railing collapses.
Often overlooked with composite materials is the underlying nature of the carpenter ants’ desire. Since they just want some nice hollows to hide from predators, avoid the elements, and store their livelihood, pre-fabricated voids, and hollows can fit the bill perfectly. When selecting a composite material, select one that will not provide hollows and voids for carpenter ants to use as their home.
What Carpenter ants do to a deck over time
Ants are small. It seems like their galleries should be small too. Unfortunately, these wood-ripping critters can create extensive damage rather quickly. Since they find obscure entrance points into the wood it can go undetected for long periods of time. It is important to have decks and other structures inspected regularly for activity and vulnerable points. It is not fun to find out what carpenter ants have been doing is undermining your social gathering point without a chance to defend it. It is also hard to determine how many ants are hard at work undermining your structure.
What do Carpenter Ants do to Rove’s customers
With the protection of Rove Pest Control’s Carpenter Ant Crew, carpenter ants either find a new place to nest off the protected property or die. It can be difficult to distinguish between carpenter ants and other ants. Remember to look for the evenly rounded thorax and single node corporal construction. Most importantly, if you don’t even want to think about them, get your deck protected by Rove.