Like termites, New York City and New Jersey carpenter ants swarm in the late spring to expand their colonies. When carpenter ant colonies reach maturity, specialized winged reproductives are produced. Flying off in mating pairs, carpenter ants bite off their wings when they land and crawl off to establish new colonies. Carpenter ants are such poor fliers, reproductives don’t go far, often landing on the same commercial property. Multiple carpenter ant colonies may be located in close proximity, multiplying the amount of damage these wood-destroying insects can do to commercial structures.

Unlike termites, carpenter ants do not ingest wood, they hollow out large galleries in foundation timbers, building trim and wooden structures to house their massive nests and nurseries. Frass, the sawdust-like by-product of their excavation activity, is sometimes found where carpenter ants are active. More often the ants themselves are spotted as they forage for food.

The largest ant species in New York and New Jersey, carpenter ants are typically black and grow to 5/8 inch long. Due to the prodigious numbers, a colony of carpenter ants can cause considerable structural damage to commercial buildings over time. In fact, carpenter ants can be expected to attack 1 in 4 New York and New Jersey buildings. If you notice large black ants in or around your property, you have carpenter ants. Call Stern Environmental for effective commercial pest management.

Carpenter bees can be a problem for New York and New Jersey home and business owners in early spring and summer, particularly if these wood-destroying bees nest near entry doors, garages or backyard decks where people gather and children play. The dive bombing behavior of aggressive male carpenter bees can terrorize children, pets and business customers who come too close to nesting sites.

Unlike honey bees which live in large social colonies, carpenter bees are solitary bees that live in mated pairs. They chew long nesting tunnels into unpainted or weathered woods where they lay their eggs and overwinter. They have a preference for the soft woods typically used to build and shingle homes, such as redwood, cedar, cypress and pine.

Carpenter bees tend to remain in one location throughout their lives, overwintering in nesting tunnels. Multiple pairs frequently colonize the same site and can cause significant damage to wooden porch roofs and eaves, cedar siding, picnic tables and backyard play sets over time. Their presence is distinguished by the perfectly round entry holes these bees drill into wood as they begin each tunnel. Sawdust-like remains of chewed wood under entry holes is another telltale size of a carpenter bee problem.

While only the female bees sting, aggressively attacking males make carpenter bee extermination a job for experienced New Jersey pest control professionals.

Your children aren’t the only ones grabbing lunch at New York City school cafeterias. Rats and cockroaches may also be feasting on cafeteria mac and cheese and hot dogs. In an NBC New York review of health code violations, most city school cafeterias passed periodic health inspections with flying colors. However, some city schools, including public schools in Bushwick, Harlem, Bensonhurst and Far Rockaway, were cited by the public health department for rats in the food area, cockroaches, flying insects, liquid waste, contaminated food, inadequate hand-washing facilities and other stomach-churning violations.

A number of the schools took responsible action and received passing marks when reinspected, but a few schools (NBC singled out Bensonhurst and Far Rockaway)  actually fared worse on repeat inspections. When interviewed by NBC, parents of students expressed “shock” and “horror.”

Mice, rats and cockroaches are persistent problems in large metropolitan areas like New York City. These noxious pests carry and spread dangerous diseases and their feces and dried droppings can cause serious health problems, including childhood asthma and deadly Hanta virus.

Stern Environmental provides expert commercial rat and mouse exterminating services and superior  commercial cockroach control services. Introduced to fight bed bugs, our cutting-edge Cryonite insect treatment system has proved to also offer extremely effective, non-toxic extermination of cockroaches and other insects.

When pests invade, call Stern Environmental for fast and effective action.

Left untreated, carpenter ants can cause serious damage to New York and New Jersey businesses. Carpenter ants live in large colonies that can number in the tens of thousands. In May and June, business owners may discover large groups of winged ants milling around foundation landscape plantings  or battering against sunny interior windows. Discovery of winged reproductives means you have a carpenter ant problem on the premises that should be addressed quickly before additional damage is done to the structure.

Unlike termites, carpenter ants do not ingest wood; but they do tunnel into wood to excavate large galleries where they live and raise their young. Carpenter ants may be hiding in plain site. These ants will frequently hollow out a window frame, baseboard or structural timber with their tunneling, leaving a thin veneer of wood in place. Carpenter ant colonies frequently go undetected until a worker inadvertently punches a hole through hollowed wood trim while performing maintenance or cleaning tasks.

Taking a do-it-yourself approach to pest control of any ant species, including carpenter ants, is typically counterproductive. In fact, non-professional ant control products, while they may kill the few ants that come into direct contact with the poison, will usually force the colony to relocate or split, making it that much more difficult for licensed carpenter ant exterminators to identify and exterminate your commercial carpenter ant problem.

One in five building in New York and New Jersey will be invaded by wood-eating termites this year. Termites cause $5 billion damage to U.S. property every year, according to National Pest Management Association estimates. A small colony of Eastern subterranean termites, the species native to New York and New Jersey, can munch their way through a yard or more of pine 2×4 in a year. The problem is that most termite colonies are not small, but number in the millions, multiplying their destructive power.

Complicating the issue for commercial property owners is the fact that termites typically go unnoticed until colonies reach maturity and produce winged reproductives to expand the colony, a process that takes about 5 years. By the time business owners notice puddles of what look like winged ants milling around foundation plantings, termites may already have caused extensive damage to the wooden studs, joists, subflooring, door frames and trim of the commercial building. Termites will attack any wood they come in contact with, including concrete framework.

Including termite inspections in your annual commercial pest management services is the best way to protect your New York or New Jersey commercial property from termite damage. If you notice signs of termite activity — flyers, mud tubes on concrete walls or floors or piles of scale-like wings on windowsills — call Stern Environmental immediately for expert commercial termite extermination.