We control termites at your home using termite bait. Baits are effective and only impact termites. This bait works by preventing termites from molting. Molting is how termites grow from nymphs to adults. Without being able to molt, termites die at the stage they are in when they are exposed to the material. The colony and queen depend on the termite workers for food. When the workers die, the queen dies and the attacking colony is dead. The stations are left in the ground to kill the next termite colony that moves into the neighborhood.

Effective spider control starts with sanitation. A brush on an extension pole is a handy tool to remove spiders. A vacuum is effective for spiders with limited or no webbing like yellow sac spiders. Vacuum and brush aggressively in an area larger than where the web or spider was seen to be sure to remove it all. Many spiders use structures around lights and light sources to capture prey. Others will take advantage of dark moist areas. For cellar spiders, use a dehumidifier in addition to your spider and web removal to reduce the population.

It is unlikely the spiders you have are dangerous. Many people have arachnophobia, but the actual danger presented by spiders in New England is very low. Brown recluse are not native to the area and black widow bites are rare.

Carpenter ants easily excavate foam insulation to build nests. When water leaks in, the foam holds moisture and heat against the wood. Moist, warm wood is the perfect environment for carpenter ants to thrive. Pay attention for water leaks and ant activity if you have blown in foam insulation. A routine pest inspection of accessible spaces with blown in foam insulation may allow for early detection of insect infestation. The inspector will look for live and dead ants, excavated wood and foam insulation, and evidence of water stains. Excavated wood and foam insulation will be pushed out. This excavated material makes piles sometimes right under the nest opening. In some cases, the ants will carry and drop the frass a distance from the nest opening.

Similar to the issues presented by rigid foam insulation many years ago, the pest control industry is keenly aware of the opportunities and challenges the widespread use of foam insulation has created. Foam insulation and tightly built homes can make small water leaks harder to detect. Carpenter ants love wet wood to start a nest. The insulation has the additional benefit of being very warm keeping the carpenter ant nest active much later in the year. A home with this type of insulation needs a regular inspection by pest control technicians.

This video shows a large number of termites that can come out of a tiny piece of wood. The termites come in all sizes. They all start as eggs that hatch into nymphs, then the molt (shed their exoskeleton) as they grow. Our termite control takes advantage of this by preventing termites from producing chitin, thus preventing them from molting, leading to the death of the colony.

Carpenter ant frass looks a lot like sawdust. It is excavated wood the ants removed to build a nest. Two ways to tell frass from other sawdust. First, the frass will have black insect parts in it. These are body parts from other dead carpenter ants removed from the nest. Second, the frass will usually be in a conical pile. This pile forms under where the worker ants drop it, but not necessarily under the nest. Carpenter ants can and will carry frass many feet from the nest opening before dropping it. For example, it may be dropped at the end of a beam, where the nest entry point is in the middle of the beam.