Ant Pest Control

Proudly providing ant control service to Seattle,
Olympia, Bremerton, Puyallup & Tacoma.

Carpenter Ants

For most of us, living in the northwest means periodically sharing our house with carpenter ants, the only large black ant in this area. Carpenter ants can be very destructive, as well as quite a nuisance if you don't take steps to prevent them from damaging the structure of your home.

Signs That You Have Carpenter Ants

• You see worker ants foraging regularly in or around your home.
• Sawdust extruded for galleries.
• Swarming of winged reproductives.
• A crackling or scratching sound produced by ants within walls or timbers.
• Possible entrances, which may include wood in contact with soil and unfinished openings in the structure like wiring and plumbing.
• Outside nest locations such as wood piles or railroad ties.

If you are seeing carpenter ants regularly on the outside of your home, but not indoors, an outside perimeter treatment may solve your problem. However, if you are seeing them regularly indoors and out you probably have one or more established nests in the home. Usually nests in homes are associated with an outside "Parent Colony" in a stump, tree or other wood in the area. We treat the nests in your walls by drilling and injecting into the exterior wall voids from outside, spraying the outside perimeter and crawlspace under the home and dusting the attic. We also attempt to locate the "Parent Colony" and destroy it as well. For more information on Carpenter Ants, please see our Carpenter Ant control page.

Odorous House Ants

Odorous house ants (little ants, sugar ants, sweet ants) have become a major pest in structures all across the Pacific Northwest. They often prefer sweets, but will also seek out protein sources as well depending on the needs of the colony. Once a food or water source is found, a trail is established to deliver as many ant workers as possible to the source. This is when contamination to food can occur, often making it inedible. After all, it’s not a pleasant experience to discover hundreds of ants on a maple syrup bottle just as you pull it out of the cupboard in anticipation of a pancake breakfast!

Our treatment focuses on colony elimination rather than a quick fix. We treat inside and out and use a combination of baits and sprays appropriate to the situation. If we are called soon after ants are first seen, we have a better chance to eliminate a colony quickly. So make Whitworth Pest Solutions your first option for relief from these tiny pesky invaders. For more information on Odorous House Ants, please see our Odorous House Ant control page.

Pavement Ants

Like odorous house ants, pavement ants have also become a major pest. These ants are often mistaken for odorous house ants, as both species are close to the same size and because they’re so small, distinguishing characteristics are hard to see. Relative to the odorous house ant, this ant tends to be a little lighter in color, on the tan side rather than dark brown.

Again, our treatment focuses on elimination of these ants and then after elimination—prevention from re-infestation. It’s very important to act quickly when recognizing a pavement ant problem so that neither damage to slabs nor contamination of food occurs. For more information on Pavement Ants, please see our Pavement Ant control page.