Decks, Docks and Boathouses
Wood that sits over or near the water stays damp for months. Deck ledgers, rim joists under a lake-facing deck, dock framing and boathouse sills are where we look first on a lakefront lot.
Lake Stevens carpenter ant exterminator
Ant Control in Lake Stevens, WA
Big black ants in the kitchen at night, sawdust under a window, or a trail of tiny ants to the sink. Carpenter ants are one of the two things we get called for most in Lake Stevens. We find the nest, treat it, and show you the damp wood that drew them in.
Call now (425) 332-6566
5.0 from 64 Google reviews. Family-owned and based in Lake Stevens.
Free Lake Stevens Ant Control Quote
Step 1 of 2Photo: brewbooks, CC BY-SA 2.0
Ant Control in Lake Stevens Starts With Which Ant
Carpenter ants are large, a quarter inch or more, usually black, and busiest at night. They do not eat wood; they hollow it out to nest, and the sign is fine sawdust, called frass, under a window, a baseboard or a deck board.
Sugar and odorous house ants are tiny and trail toward food. Spraying them can split the colony and make it worse, so they get bait instead. If you are not sure which you have, carpenter ants vs. sugar ants walks through the differences.
Where Carpenter Ants Nest Around Lake Stevens
Carpenter ants need wood that stays damp. In a town built around a lake and surrounded by woods, there is plenty of it.
Older Homes Off Vernon Road and Around Hartford
Decades of wet winters soaking into window framing, sill plates and old siding leave softened wood, which is what carpenter ants hollow out. A leak that was fixed years ago can still be the spot.
Wooded Lots and Old Stumps
Many lots in Lake Stevens back onto second-growth woods, and stumps, buried roots and woodpiles make good outdoor nests. The parent colony often lives out there and sends workers into the house.
Carpenter Ants Inside in Winter Mean the Nest Is Inside
Outdoor colonies go quiet in the cold. So when big black ants are walking across the kitchen floor in February or early March, the colony is almost always living in the house: a wall void, the framing around a window, or the subfloor under a bathroom.
That is the most useful time to call, because the ants lead us right to it. Spraying the ones you can see does nothing to the nest. If a crawl space with a failed vapor barrier is what kept the wood damp, we can fix that too with crawl space cleaning in Lake Stevens.
How We Get Rid of Ants for Good
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01
Identify the ant
Carpenter ants and sugar ants need opposite treatments, so we confirm which one you have before anything is applied.
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02
Follow the trail
Carpenter ants keep satellite nests away from the main colony. We follow the trails back to find the parent nest and the satellites.
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03
Treat the nests
We treat the parent nest and every satellite we can trace. Sugar and odorous house ants get bait they carry back to the colony, not a spray that scatters it.
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04
Point out the moisture
Dry wood is not somewhere carpenter ants can nest. We show you the damp spot that drew them, so it gets fixed and the colony does not move back in.
More on the method on our ant control service page, and for the spring flying-ant scare, flying ants vs. termites. Brian holds WSDA applicator license #112338.
5.0 from 64 Google reviews
What Customers Say About Our Ant Control
"Best pest service I've ever had. I had ants every year once the weather gets warm and since I've been using Pure Guard I haven't seen any. I highly recommend them."
"Anthony did a detailed job on the inside and outside of our home ridding spiders webs and spraying to minimize future ants/bugs. Very professional and customer service oriented pest control company. Highly recommend. We got dramatic results in two visits and now do monthly maintenance to keep the critters away."
"I am very happy with the service this company has provided. They immediately came to my home to solve my ant problem. They are easy to talk to and have very fast service! Highly recommend them."
Questions, answered
Lake Stevens Ant Control Questions
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I See Big Black Ants Inside in Winter. Is That Bad?
- It is worth a call. Outdoor colonies are inactive in the cold, so carpenter ants walking around inside in late winter or very early spring usually mean the nest is inside the house, in a wall void, a window frame or the framing under a bathroom. That is the nest we want to find.
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Is It Carpenter Ants or Sugar Ants?
- Carpenter ants are big, a quarter inch or more, usually black, and most active at night near damp wood. Sugar and odorous house ants are tiny and trail along counters toward food. We confirm the species on the first visit, because the treatment for each is completely different.
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Do Lakefront Homes Get More Carpenter Ants?
- They have more wood that stays wet: docks, boathouses and the framing under lake-facing decks. That gives carpenter ants more places to nest close to the house, so we spend more of the inspection below the deck and along the water side.
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What Does Ant Control in Lake Stevens Cost?
- It depends on the species, the size of the colony and whether the nest is in a wall or out in the yard, so we quote after a look rather than over the phone. A one-time carpenter ant treatment is priced differently than an ongoing program. You have the number before we start.
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Are Your Ant Treatments Safe for Kids and Pets?
- Yes. We use products rated for occupied homes and apply them to trails, entry points and nests rather than across living space, and we walk you through every product and where it goes before we treat.
Free quote · Lake Stevens, WA
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What you are getting
48 hrs
Guaranteed to get someone out
Stinging-insect calls get priority.
Home
From our base to Lake Stevens
Our base is in Lake Stevens, so this is the shortest drive we make.
100%
Warranty-backed
Pests come back inside the window, so do we. No charge.
#112338
WSDA applicator license
Checkable on the state lookup. Ask us for the link.
Something other than ants? See everything we do for pest control in Lake Stevens.