MISHAWAKA — It's severe weather season, and strong winds can topple trees in a matter of seconds. That's true for healthy trees, and it's especially true for trees that are dead or dying. But it's not always easy to tell the difference.

One local family found that out the hard way.

"This is us, right here like this, sleeping soundly, a quarter till midnight. [We] hear wind, all of a sudden all this comes down," said Games Slayter, pointing to a hole in the ceiling as he described what happened on April 25.

Slayter said the tree was about five feet from their house and it fell right on the roof.

Frank Martinez and his crew from San-Mar Tree Maintenance helped remove it.

"The dividing wall from the bedroom to the bathroom, if that branch had just come to the left of that knee wall or the right of that knee wall that sucker probably would have been all the way down to the living room," said Martinez.

Thankfully no one was hurt. Strong winds knocked the tree down, but there’s more to this story.

"Black ants started to erode the inside of the tree and it went up almost 40 feet, is what they said," explained Slayter, who said this wasn’t something he expected. "It weakened [it] so the worst enemy here was wind. So it just buckled it and then it crashed."

There are other signs you may need to have a tree removed from your property before it’s too late.

"You see any dead branches up there, you've got to start keeping an eye on it," said Martinez.

The Slayters are having their house sprayed for ants after the tree fell. Also, it’s a good idea to have your lawn sprayed to kill any ants that may try to eat away at trees in your yard.