Cold weather & Carpenter Ants Indoors

Carpenter Ants under leaking shower pan.

As the weather cools, carpenter ant colonies that may have moved in to structures over the summer can be more apparent indoors.  This is because as the outdoors becomes too cool for foraging, the inside of  a heated occupied structure will be the only foraging areas left.  The pictures here show a colony that moved in under a shower pan with a leak. This black mass is a large group of ants in the exposed rotted wood under the shower door.  Wet wood is ideal carpenter ant nesting material.  The arrows show other ants on the shower door base. As noted by Paul Fisette in thisUMASS article on Carpenter Ants and Termites, "if you see ants in your home and the ground outside is frozen outside, you have a problem."

 -Lauren Greenhow, General Manager, GreenHow, Inc.
GreenHow.com. Effective Organic and Low Impact Solutions, Lawn Care, Pest Control and Termite Control in Newton and Metro Boston.