Calgary Herald

Carpenter ants flying to work early this year

- BILL KAUFMANN BKaufmann@postmedia.com on Twitter: @BillKaufma­nnjrn

Balmy weather has carpenter ants taking early flights, says a local entomologi­st and pest control experts.

The big, wood-chewing ants have become the talk of pest-averse Calgarians, say those at several exterminat­ion outfits contacted by Postmedia.

Calls from Calgarians bugged by the insects are piling up, said Pam Cowdery of Canex Pest Control Ltd.

“I had three calls yesterday,” she said.

The unusually warm El Nino spring has the company doing ant and other insect exterminat­ion work six weeks earlier than normal, said Cowdery.

“Normally, our exterior spray jobs don’t begin until mid-May and we started doing these a couple of weeks ago,” she said.

The ants’ appearance is a boost to business, said entomologi­st Taz Stuart of Poulin’s Pest Control.

“People are panicking — they fly, they’ve got big wings and they’re out early,” he said.

Calgarians have been noticing a few different species of carpenter ants that range in colour from black to red and can measure up to two centimetre­s in length, said University of Calgary entomologi­st Robert Longair. Those with stored wood or firewood are most likely to attract the insects, who take flight from one nest to establish other colonies, he said.

“They build nests in usually decaying and rotting wood and get into old stumps where they excavate burrows,” said Longair.

There’s no question the earlier arrival of warm weather has hastened the ants’ appearance, he added.

“I wouldn’t normally expect them to appear before the end of April — typically anything that doesn’t get undergroun­d before that is snowed-on or frozen,” said Longair.

A telltale sign of their presence are small piles of sawdust or chewed wood left by their excavating activity, he said.

While carpenter ants have strong mandibles and can bite, and even spray a painful acid, they’re not a huge threat to property in Calgary, he said.

Exterior house cladding, cement and pressure-treated wood pose barriers to the insects, said Longair.

“There’s not much of a problem of them getting into structural wood, but it can happen on occasion,” he said, adding they pose more of a menace to rural cabins or buildings in the U.S. South.

Nonetheles­s, commercial exterminat­ors use a spraying, dusting and baiting routine to eliminate the ants, said Canex Pest Control’s Cowdery.

“We use a chemical spray that lasts for 30 days,” she said.

Wasps are also emerging in Calgary earlier than normal, say exterminat­ors.

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