I shouldn’t be too surprised seeing ant activity in a home as we’re moving into late winter, but I sort of was. This observation occurred after some snow and seriously cold weather. Odorous house ant (Tapinoma sessile) is a very elusive and therefore troublesome pest species that I’ve only rarely found actually nesting in homes during the summer. Most of the time when I’m lucky enough to find them it’s because of their strong trail making tendencies outdoors leading into the home. They’re often found nesting under stones or man-made objects around the perimeter of the home. In the instance above, this home was probably an 1800’s era Cape style home with a very shallow dirt (heavy wet clay in fact) crawl space.

The client was having issues with rodents that were likely gaining entry to the living areas from this crawl space. While under there, I didn’t see any ant activity at all. The house has been undergoing some construction activity (new kitchen and some other renovations). The appearance of the ants coincided with the renovations and I asked the client if she’d having any issues with them during the warmer weather and the answer was no. Given the age of the house and unique situation, this property owner would greatly benefit from Colonial Pest Control Inc.’s Semi Annual Preventive Maintenance Service Program. Do you own a property with some challenging circumstances like this one? Give us a call.