As you may have guessed, Carpenter Ants like to excavate smooth tunnels inside of wood. These colonies are smaller than White-Footed ant colonies with large colonies only housing around 50,000 ants.
A colony of Carpenter Ants will not produce swarmers until the colony is older than two years old. They swarm in warm months (May through August.)
There is only one sign of a Carpenter Ant infestation, other than the presence of swarmers, and that is an external appearance of small openings on the surface of the wood. The ants expel the chewed and excavated wood through these holes and it often creates a debris pile that includes tiny wood shavings, insulation, and insect body parts.
Carpenter Ants prefer wood that has been made soft by fungus growth and moisture problems, so treating wood and maintaining wood structures around the home or business is crucial to prevention.
As previously indicated, Carpenter Ants prefer moist wood or wood that has previous moisture damage. They will continue to excavate through damaged wood into dry, undamaged wood.
The carpenter ant will travel into structures a number of different ways, including:
These ants primarily feed on insect honeydew, plant and fruit juices, insects, sweets, eggs, meats, cakes, and grease. The workers will forage for food up to 300 feet from the nest and in the hours from dusk until dawn.
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