Ant & Carpenter Ant Control in Missoula

Ant control in Missoula usually starts in spring. Ants that spent the winter quiet begin foraging again, and a kitchen with crumbs, pet food or something sweet is an easy target. Spraying the trail you can see kills a few workers, but the colony keeps sending more.

Carpenter ants are the bigger concern. They don't eat wood, but they hollow it out to nest, and they favor wood that's damp or already damaged. Left alone for years, a colony can weaken window frames, sills, decks and framing. In a region with this many wood-framed homes, cabins and decks, they're worth taking seriously.

AAA Pest Control handles both: everyday ants in the kitchen and bathroom, and carpenter ants in the structure. The approach is the same in both cases. Find the colony, treat the source, and fix the conditions that drew them in.

Most small ants in the kitchen are nuisance ants. They're annoying and they get into food, but they don't damage the house. The goal is to find the colony, often outside or in a wall, and treat it.

Carpenter ants are larger, usually black or black and red, and most active at night. The clearest signs are frass, the fine wood shavings they push out of their galleries, and winged swarmers inside the house in spring. Swarmers indoors usually mean a colony nearby, sometimes inside the structure.

Carpenter ants often start in wood that's wet: around leaky windows, roof edges, decks, logs and stumps near the house, or firewood stacked against a wall. Fixing moisture problems and moving wood away from the foundation help keep them from coming back.

Before Brian comes, don't spray the trails with store-bought products if you can help it. Scattering the ants makes the colony harder to find. Wipe up food, but leave the trails visible.

After treatment, you may still see ants for a short time while the treatment works through the colony. That's normal. Keep food sealed, fix leaks Brian points out, and call if activity doesn't taper off.