Pests

Pests

Structure infesting pests in the Northwest can be categorized in several groups; the main group being nuisance ants.  We at Washington Pest Services have management strategies for all of the pests in these groups and are happy to offer solutions to your structural pest concerns.

Nuisance Ants

While not necessarily the most important group in some minds, due to the fact that they cause no structural damage, nuisance ants tend to generate a large portion of calls.  These include Odorous House ants, commonly called Sugar ants or Grease ants due to the types of foods you tend to find them trailing to and from in your kitchen.  All ants eat the proteins in meats and oils for developmental growth, and carbohydrates and sugars for energy as adults.

Nuisance ants can also include the Pavement ants, Cornfield ants, and various other types of Moisture ants that live among the cracks and edges of driveways and sidewalk areas, mainly to capitalize on water runoff. 

Thatching ants, also known worldwide as Field ants, such as the Northwest’s ever popular Western Red Thatching ants, are responsible for the huge mounds of Fir needles and other plant debris.  These are considered beneficial due to their cleanup efforts and for the huge amounts of other insects the remove from around us.  Thatching ants would rarely, if ever, be found inside structures.  However, if provoked, they will bite and spray formic acid into the wound. 

More important, and the number one structural pest in the Northwest, is the Carpenter ant.  There are several species of Carpenter ants, but here we mainly deal with Modoc and Vicinnis. These ants are important because their nesting habits can result in structural damage. They mine wood structural members leaving the same damage as Termites; the difference being that the ants don’t eat the wood but merely remove it, leaving piles of frass, or sawdust.

It is said that in our environment, it’s not a matter of if you’ll get Carpenter ants, but when?

Recently discovered having migrated to our area are the Velvety Tree ants.  Their migration and nesting habits are currently being studied by DR. Laurel Hansen, one of our nation’s leading ant experts and authors, and her team at Spokane Falls Community College.  She has discovered that they also mine wood like Carpenter ants, but are fairly small, like Odorous House ants.

Pest Infestations that we Treat

• Subterranean Termites
• Dampwood Termites
• Carpenter Ants
• Yellow jackets
• Bald-faced Hornets
• Bees
• Bed bugs
  
• Mice
• Rats
• Moisture ants
• Odorous House ants
• Sugar ants
• Grease ants
• Pavement ants
• Thatching ants
• Earwigs
• Pill bugs
• Sow bugs
• Spiders
• Springtails
• Psocids
• Red Flour beetles
• Confused Flour beetles
• Cigarette beetles
• Drugstore beetles
• Black Carpet beetles
• Varied Carpet beetles
• Indian Meal moths
• Mediterranean Flour moths
• Fleas
• Flies
• Fruit flies
• Centipedes
• Millipedes
• Velvety Tree ants
• Weevils
• Anobiid beetles
• Powderpost Beetles
• Flat-headed Wood Borers
• Ladybugs
• Stink Bugs
• Cornfield ants
• German Cockroaches
• Oriental Cockroaches
• Brown-banded Cockroaches
• Box Elder bugs
• Mites