Carpenter ant plays an important role in the environment. A necrophage,it feeds on small dead animals and several types of insects. In nature, it contributes to the dispersal of bacteria that can harm the environment. This ant removes about 60-90% of the small dead corpses in the wild that they carry in its anthill.
Ants when found in our house, locate water infiltrations and settle down causing great damage to the structure of the building by digging galleries.
There are two types of ants that are particularly difficult to eliminate(the carpenter and the pharaoh). It is recommended to call on an expert in parasitic management on Greater Montreal. We have been qualified and professional exterminators since 2008.
We travel to the premises of your home to give you an expertise and a personalized quote with several alternatives. If the price is right for you, we can start work immediately to prevent the infiltration of this type of insect from taking hold in your home.
Physical description of the carpenter ants:
There are several species of ants in Quebec.
The carpenter ant has several types of ants in its colony. There are winged males and females for reproduction of other satellite and master nests that are found only after the third year of the royal nest or (master).
There are also workers, nannies, looters, soldiers or guards who protect the colony, grinders (those who dig in wood or in urethane), not to mention the largest queen of the nest, there is only one per royal nest.
Its black body has a greyish stripe and three pairs of easy-to-identify legs that can measure from 1/4 to 3/8 in length. The Queen, on the other hand, can reach nearly an inch long in some cases.
Life cycle of the insect:
The Queen lives an average of 25 to 30 years, her nest can reach up to 6,000 individuals, depending on the season, heat and humidity. The male lives on average one to three seasons maximum, after mating the sexual virgin.
The future queen no longer needs the male, because her abdomen contains a sperm library, which can produce thousands of eggs. The workers live on average from one year to five years, and then they are replaced by other workers laid by the queen.
Mores and life in the anthill:
A well-established colony varies on average from three to six years and can range from 2000 to 6000 individuals. The queen is the only breeding of the nest, her eggs her well guarded and fed. The queen is fed by her workers and does not leave her nest. Fertilization takes place in mid-flight. The well-known theme is “bridal flight.”
The queen takes care of her first brood herself. Subsequently, it was the latter (the workers) who took over the whole colony and maintained it and all the next offspring. In this way, the queen devotes her whole life to laying eggs and ensuring her survival.
Why are they harmful?
When it enters our house, the ant locates water infiltration, or a breakage near the salting of an opening near the water points inside the house, for example: toilet, kitchen, sink and shower. They can also enter through the attic, brick joint, windows and doors, fascia, and the foundation of our house the smooth or smooth (smooth seat).
Appeler René Gélinas Votre exterminateur local, Expérience et intégrité dans la gestion parasitaire
Tel 514 830 2819
Hantavirus, definition and mode of transmission
Hantavirus is a severe lung syndrome caused by a virus. It is secreted in the urine, feces and saliva of infected animals. Most often these are rodents. When humans come into direct or indirect contact with these secretions, the virus is transmitted to them. Ditto when they are bitten by infected rodents.
However, the virus is not transmitted from human to human, only from animal to human. This type of disease is called zoonoses because they can only be transmitted to humans through an animal. It has been found that domestic animals (apart from the domestic rat) and livestock cannot contract hantavirus so there is every reason to believe that only rodents can carry it.
Symptoms of hantavirus
Being a lung disease, one of the characteristic symptoms of hantavirus is difficulty breathing. At the beginning of the disease, the infected person begins to feel fever, chills, headache and muscle pain.
It is about two weeks after the appearance of the first symptoms that they are usually accompanied by a feeling of shortness of breath. Nevertheless, this last manifestation of the disease can be observed after two days as after six weeks; it depends on the organism of the individual.
Hantavirus can also lead to kidney disease or infection. And although they are rare and very few people are prone to them, there is currently no treatment to combat these ailments. It is therefore better to be careful not to contract them.
Avoid infestation with a little discipline and prevention:
It is important to act quickly before the ants settle into the kitchen or keep it in the kitchen, they can cause considerable damage. It is recommended not to store anything near a wall, wooden rope or anything else, constantly check the intruder’s whereabouts, carefully observe their tracks(transport of eggs, food and sawdust)to remedy them quickly.
Here are the ways we offer:
Our professional, dynamic and courteous team offers adequate treatments to root and destroy the colonies of carpenter ants in your home.
Once at the scene, we can give you a quote and suggest a means of prevention or intervention to eliminate the nests (colonies) of carpenter ants. If the price is right for you, we can do it on site within minutes of the estimate. Be reassured of our discretion and kindness.
Appearance and Behavior
Males and females are very different. Males are 9-10 mm long. Their small rounded head has globular compound eyes and small mandibles. Their paws are fragile. All males have two pairs of wings.
Females have a more robust constitution. Their heads, longer and wider, have small compound eyes and strong mandibles. Their legs are more powerful than those of males.
Female individuals are either queens or workers. Among females, only future queens have wings. In both males and queens, the forewings are much longer than the hind wings.
The queen is the largest ant in the colony. She is usually several times larger than the workers. The queens of the genus Camponotus are the largest ants in Quebec. They reach 18 mm in length.
The queen of a colony of carpenter ants has a well-developed abdomen. It contains the maximum number of ovaries for the species as well as a spermatheca.
Within the same colony, the workers take on a different appearance depending on the functions they occupy: nurses, foragers, soldiers, etc. There are small and large workers. The largest are the soldiers, who protect the colony. The presence of large workers indicates a more mature colony, which has lived in the same place for a long time.
Mating carpenter ants usually takes place in May. Each young queen mates with a single male, and copulation takes place in flight. The queen’s abdomen contains a spermatheca. This small spherical receptacle receives sperm from the male during mating.
The spermatheca produces nutrients that keep the seed alive for several years, allowing the queen to lay thousands of eggs without having new contact with a male.
After bridal flight and mating, the fertilized queen drops her wings by rubbing them with her paws. She then looks for a suitable place to set up her colony. For example, it is a tree trunk, a large stump or a piece of wood. Once in her new home, the queen lays her first small white eggs.
She takes care of this first brood alone, which she feeds from her own reserves.
The first adult workers are very small. This first generation of workers, and all subsequent generations, take charge of the anthill’s work: maintenance, expansion of the shelter, refueling of the occupants, etc. The queen is the only female who lays eggs in a colony and she devotes her life to this occupation.
A colony is well consolidated after three to six years, while it has 2,000 or more female workers. From this moment on, the queen produces winged and sexualized individuals (males and future queens) at the end of each summer. These new breeding adults accumulate reserves and hibernate in the anthill.
Power
Camponotes are omnivorous insects. In nature, they feed on honeydew produced by aphids and other homoptera, dead or living insects and small invertebrates, as well as juices of various plants and fruits.
Food is often consumed on site by ants responsible for refuelling, then regurgitated to the queen, larvae and other workers when they return to the nest. More rarely, food can also be brought back intact and stored in the nest. The workers move up to a hundred meters from the nest in their search for food.
When they enter our homes, ants add to their menu a host of sweet foods, meats, pet food and fat. They can eat almost anything humans feed on. They grow the fungus in the rotting wood that it has located in a damp area of the house’s frame, for example: during water damage.
When a new queen founds a colony, she feeds the first larvae with food eggs, which contain only nutrients. The queen herself sometimes has to feed on her own eggs to survive until the first workers take office. Later, in case of severe stress to the colony, the queen can resort to cannibalism to ensure her survival.
More information
All houses are vulnerable to infestation and damage caused by these ants; very difficult to control; colonies can contain from 2,000 to 6,000 individuals.
