Carpenter Ants are large ants that destroy wood but do not eat the protein substance derived from wood particles like termites do. However, they are classified as a wood destroying insect.
The most common in North Texas is the Red and Black Texas Carpenter ant. The only external indication of infestation other than of workers and/or swarmers is the appearance of small openings or windows on the surface of the wood. Through these, the workers expel debris which consist of saw-dust like material or shavings and/or fragments of insulation and dead ant body parts. This is the result of enlarging a void cavity in order to move the queen and/or queens in and to also make room for the care of brood.
The first sign of an infestation is usually seeing foraging workers outside along the structure of your home. The workers usually forage up to 300 ft. from the nest. They typically enter structures around door and window frames, plumbing areas, utility lines, shrub and tree branches in contact with the structure.
Sometimes you can even hear the rustling sounds in walls produced by the workers moving wood to expand the nest. Their sightings are minimal during the day because carpenter ants are more active between dusk and dawn with peak activity between 10:00 P.M. and 2:00 A.M.
Carpenter ants do not have a stinger but will bite and have the ability to inject formic acid while doing so. This can be quite painful when injected into the wound at the time of the bite.
If you think that you have a problem with these pest call us at 214-827-0090 today to schedule an inspection.
The Blotched-Water Snake (photo) If this snake can’t get from the danger it finds itself in, this reptile will flatten it’s head and neck and strike several times in succession. Yet most of its strikes are bluffs, and those that do connect ordinarily result in only a warning nip. This snake ranges in most parts of Texas and will move on into homes and live in the attic of a rodent infest structure. It does need water all of the time. Food source however for these types of snakes are usually fish, toads, frogs, skunks and geckos and They will eat rodents if that is the only nutritional support that they have at the time. They have dark-bordered pale bars that are generally dimly evident along the spine, while the belly is yellow, the larger of these reptiles have scale plates that are light colored brown along the edges. The anal plate is divided on this snake. These snakes are confused with the western cottonmouth snake all the time but, the round pupils and the more narrow head makes the identification easier. The western cottonmouth has a sizable dark heat-sensing pit between the eyes and nostril and an angular head whose flat, undercut cheeks abruptly intersect its crown. The cottonmouth has a rather thick body.
Venomous. Often very common in areas of ideal habitat, typically light to moderate ground cover under a leafy sylvan canopy-including wooded suburban residential areas. Prime deciduous forest-meadow may support as many as 7 snakes per acre. These snakes are live-bearing and the mating period is both late fall and early spring. Then she goes into her winter retirement. The young can be born during the latter part of July all the way through September. Four to eight neonates are 7-1/2 to 10 inches long and generally have paler dorsal pigmentation than their parent. There are various other snakes that do resemble copperheads so if there is a snake sighting or any inclination that there might be one please call Nature King Pest Management. for professional assistance. Pictured below is a Broad-Banded Copperhead that was photographed in the back yard of their house. When this type of snake is in the back yard its time to perform some means of snake control and prevention.
Despite the cottonmouth’s formidable reputation, comparatively few people are bitten. Only about 7 percent of Texas’ snake bites involve the cottonmouth, while throughout the United States the mortality rate is less than one person per year. Though rarely fatal, is often serious in terms of tissue death, for while it’s toxins have far less lethal potency than those of the western diamondback rattlesnakes, their destructiveness toward blood cells and plasma is nearly 9 percent greater than those of the diamondback. Frogs are this viper’s most frequent prey in most locales, but they are an indiscriminate feeder whose diet alters with the availability of different vertebrate prey, including fish, mammals as large as the young of muskrats and cottontails, water birds, and sizable water snakes, as well a copperheads and smaller cottonmouths. These snakes are live-bearing and have from 3 to 12 young (the average is about 5). The length is from 71/2 to 11 inches.. The coloring of the cottonmouth is dark and the body sometimes seems large in the middle but that is normal for this snake. The cottonmouth is a water snake and has been confused with all types of water snakes. If you have a snake encounter it is always critical to call upon a professional Like Nature King Pest Management.