Northern Virginia Ant Control

Small, Dark, and in a Line

That is the odorous house ant. It is about an eighth of an inch long. It shows up at sinks, dishwashers, and pet bowls. One colony can hold many queens, so killing the workers changes very little. Our page on ants in the kitchen explains what draws them to that one corner of the counter.

Big, Black, and Out at Night

That is the carpenter ant. Workers run a quarter to a half inch long. You tend to see one or two at a time, after dark, near a window, a bathroom, or the kitchen sink. Our technician Daren has a plain rule for them. Carpenter ants do not attack sound wood. They dig out wood that is already rotted or wet. Find the wet wood and you have found the nest.

Small, Brown, and Piling Sand

That is the pavement ant. Look for little heaps of fine soil along a driveway seam, a garage threshold, or a basement floor crack. They live under the concrete and come up through the joints.

Has Wings

Stop and look closer. Ants and termites both swarm here in spring. An ant has a narrow waist and bent antennae. A termite has a thick, straight body and four wings of equal length. Our guide to carpenter ants vs. termites puts them side by side. If it looks like a termite, go to Northern Virginia termite control.

Find the Water First

Daren, one of our technicians, tells a story about a kitchen that would not clear. Several treatments had been tried. The ants kept coming back to the same wall. The answer was upstairs. The grout around the bathtub had cracked, and water was running down inside the wall next to the kitchen. Once that was sealed, the ants were done. He now checks the tub on any job that does not add up.

His worst ant house had the same root cause on the outside. Rotted trim ran all the way around the home. Mulch had been stacked against the wall year after year. The owners had fought ants off and on for about ten years. They fixed the rot, and it was over. We tell you what we find, even when the fix is a carpenter's job and not ours.

Then Treat So It Reaches the Queens

We use non-repellent products. Ants cannot sense them, so they keep walking their normal routes and take the material home. For some species we add bait at the trail. Outside, we treat the foundation line, the mulch edge, and the slab joints, which is where the next colony would cross. Between visits, the steps in our guide on how to keep ants away make a real difference: pull mulch back from the siding, fix drips, and trim branches that touch the roof.

Ants Are Part of a Bigger Plan

The same plan that covers ants also covers spiders, crickets, millipedes, and the other crawling pests that turn up in homes here. See Northern Virginia pest control for what is included.