This procedure is especially effective at night during summer months.Ī primary defense against carpenter ants is to avoid moisture-damaged wood. Look for wood shavings and sawdust discarded from the nest. Carpenter ants use trees and other plant material as bridges to enter structures. They are scavengers that eat sweets and some insects. Smaller species may live in pre-existing voids, such as curtain rods, hollow-core doors, or between studs in walls and around windows. More commonly, carpenter ants nest in existing cavities, or in soft or rotting wood of higher moisture content. carpenter ants may damage sound, structural wood to excavate nests. They can nest in buildings especially in areas of moist wood. They nest primarily in wood including live trees with heart rot. If you live outside of Texas, contact your local extension for management options. Management If you live in the State of Texas, contact your local county agent or entomologist for management information. The presence of 3/4 inch long winged forms in the home is an indication that structural damage may be occurring. Winged forms swarm during May through late July. Carpenter ants are social insects and live in colonies made of different forms of ants or “castes.” Mature colonies contain winged male and female forms (reproductives), sterile female workers of various sizes, and a wingless 9/16 inch long queen. Development from egg to worker ant occurs in about 2 months. Larvae are legless and grub-like and pupae are a cream-colored to tan cocoon which are often mistakenly called “ant eggs”. Life CycleĪnts develop through several stages: eggs, larva, pupa and adult. Carpenter ants typically forage in late afternoon and night, up to 200 yards from the nest, and carry food back to the colony. Nests may also be constructed in wall voids, insulation, hollow doors, or wood furnishings or fixtures.Ĭarpenter ant nests are kept clean, with frass, sawdust-like wood shavings, dead ants, and other debris pushed out of the gallery through a crack or slit, creating telltale dump piles that look like sawdust from a distance.Ĭarpenter ants will eat fruit, insects, meat, and sugars including insect honeydew. Water-damaged or other softened wood is especially conducive to nesting, with gallery expansion into adjacent sound wood as the colony grows. Foraging worker ants leave the nest and seek sources of sweets and other foods such as decaying fruit, insects and sweet exudates from aphids or other sucking insects. Occasionally carpenter ants, particularly Camponotus rasilis Wheeler, nest under stones or in other non-wood cracks and crevices. These piles accumulate as the nests are excavated and usually also contain parts of dead colony members. Nests can be located by searching for piles of sawdust-like wood scrapings (frass) underneath exit holes. Galleries (nesting tunnels) produced by carpenter ants usually follow the grain of the wood and around the annual rings. However, damage is often limited because these ants tunnel into wood only to form nests and do not eat wood. They often appear to prefer moist, decaying wood, wood with dry rot or old termite galleries. Ant colonies are often located in cracks and crevices between structural timbers, but the ants can also tunnel into structural wood to form nesting galleries. These ants usually nest in dead wood, either outdoors in old stumps and dead parts of trees and around homes (in fences, fire wood, etc.) or indoors (between wood shingles, in siding, beams, joists, fascia boards, etc.). They feed primarily on honeydew produced by aphids (Homoptera). These ants are much smaller and have a heart-shaped abdomen that is often held up over their bodies. The acrobat ants, Crematogaster sp., also occasionally nest in wood. Ants have elbowed antennae, distinctly veined wings of different sizes (large forewings and small hind wings) and a narrow portion of the body (waist) between the thorax and abdomen. Winged reproductive carpenter ants should not be confused with winged termites (Isoptera). Also the attachment between the thorax and abdomen (pedicel) has but a single flattened segment. They can be distinguished from most other large ant species because the top of the thorax is evenly convex and bears no spines. Worker ants range in size from 1/4 to 1/2-inch. sayi Emery, have workers that are dull red bodied with black abdomens. Common indoor species, Camponotus rasilis Wheeler and C. The largest species is the black carpenter ant, Camponotus pennsylvanicus (Fabricius) and is found primarily in wooded areas outdoors. Article author: Mike Merchant Most recently reviewed by: Janet Hurley & Pat Porter (2018) Common Name(s): Carpenter Ants Pest LocationUrban Structural Descriptionįourteen species of carpenter ants occur in Texas.
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