Content:
- How To Identify Carpenter Ants?
- Diet
- Where Do They Live and Where They Can Be Found?
- Carpenter Ants Mating Habits and Colony Development
- Carpenter Ants Behavior Through Seasons
- How Long Do Carpenter Ants Live?
- Final Note
If you’ve ever seen a carpenter ant scurrying around your house, you know they can be intimidating – but have no fear! This comprehensive guide will help you understand everything that there is to know about these creatures. From what they eat, how they mate, where they live, how long they live, and more, this post has all the answers.
So settle in for an informative ride – let’s tangle with these tricky critters together and figure out just why it is that carpenter ants are such a nuisance.
How To Identify Carpenter Ants?
Carpenter ants belong to the mysterious world of the genus Camponotus. These fascinating creatures come in all shapes and sizes, particularly in the United States – some species can grow up to twelve inches long! Imagine that, a foot-long ant!
But size alone is not a good enough indicator of what species they are; carpenter ant colonies are known for their polymorphic workers. The workers vary in size and usually have minor, intermediate, and even major distinctions.
Carpenter ants have captivating features that make them stand out among other insects. Their thorax is typically uniformly spherical when viewed from an angle and is accompanied by a singular node situated at their waist, known as a petiole.
As far as coloration goes, worker carpenter ants are split into two groups: those wearing black and red, versus those wearing red and black. The length of these workers ranges anywhere from 3/8 to 1/2 of an inch; though some species don’t even reach the length of more than 3/16 of an inch!
Even within the same species, carpenter ants can exhibit size differences; some being substantially larger than others. If that were not enough, both males and queens come equipped with wings that allow them to soar through the sky!
Now once they settle in and build a new nest, their wings tend to fall off naturally – only for the queen ant, however – since queen carpenter ants can reach up to a full inch in length when fully grown.
Queen Ant
The regal queen carpenter ant is the bar to entry for any ant colony looking to thrive. Without her, the colony is nothing more than a group of worker ants doing their part with no end goal in sight.
As the sole queen of her colony, she is a remarkable creature. She stands alone among other carpenter ants as she can be between 13 and 25 mm long and may present a distinct range of colors, from dark browns and reds to striking yellows and blacks.
In spite of her inferior wings, she displays strength and control as she maintains the operations of her entire colony without fail. It is undeniable that without this wonderful figure, many colonies would simply remain dormant forever.
Diet
Carpenter ants have a complex diet, as they can consume foods from both inside and outside the home.
While outdoors, these ants feast on sugar and protein-rich live or dead insects such as honeydew created by aphids and scale insects. On the other hand, indoor carpenter ants consume substances such as pet food, syrup, sugar, and jelly.
Although often mistaken for termites since they both feed on wood, carpenter ants do not actually eat the material with which they construct their nests; instead, they damage wood while building their galleries and tunnels that are used to breed.
While their feeding hours vary due to seasonality, it is important to note that in quest of food carpenter ants usually wander up to 100 yards away from the nest during evenings or nights – especially within spring and summer.
Where Do They Live and Where They Can Be Found?
Carpenter ant nests come in two varieties: parent nests and satellite nests. Parent nests are generally the larger of the two, used for colony growth and survival.
Since carpenter ants like wooden structures and moist environments, they are frequently found outdoors in decaying wood such as tree stumps and roots, logs, or boards that have fallen to the ground. Indoors, you can look for them near windows or around areas where wood touches your home’s foundation.
Common locations inside houses include behind bathroom tiles, around showers, dishwashers, sinks, and bathtubs, under the subfloor insulation, in attic beams, and under the roofing; meanwhile, carpenter ants may make their way into voids in walls or hollow objects such as curtain rods and doors due to damp conditions caused by water leaks or inadequate air circulation. Even more alarming is that these industrious little critters can build their nests in foam insulation too!
Parent carpenter ant colonies have an efficient system for colonization, using satellite nests to achieve their goal of enduring multiple environments. Satellite nests are typically located in dry places like insulation, hollow doors, sound wood, and wall voids as the eggs are prone to drying out in lower-humidity climates.
The ants that inhabit these satellite colonies travel back and forth between the parent colony and their own nest -with workers, pupae, and even adult larvae sheltered within. It’s admirable how these ants have adapted to create this fascinating system in order to expand through multiple locations.
Carpenter Ants Mating Habits and Colony Development
Summer is the time of the year when carpenter ants come out to play! During these hot, summer days and long, summer nights, they begin to partake in a fascinating behavior called swarming. This usually occurs around sunset or during the late evening hours when the atmosphere is right.
The males emerge first without wings and emit a pheromone that serves as an invitation for female ants to abandon their nests and join them in the sky. It is quite a sight to behold—the sky becomes full of ants heading toward destinations unknown! Because of this action, the wingless male’s pheromone has been referred to as “the love call”.
After an arduous mating flight for a female, she sheds the wings used for traversing the sky in order to settle down and start creating her new home. She uses her keen senses to identify found wood from both natural and man-made sources that could become her nesting spot.
Little does anyone know, this property damage will result in the creation of a carpenter ant colony. The Queen is quite productive; upon choosing a home she immediately lays 15-20 eggs which she dutifully monitors until they are ready to fully develop into sterile workers.
These tireless ants take over managing all responsibilities surrounding nest-building and collecting food, allowing for production rates to double as the Queen directs all efforts toward birthing brood after brood. It’s safe to say nothing escapes the attention of the surprisingly organized carpenter ant!
Carpenter Ants Behavior Through Seasons
Spring
Springtime often sweeps in a variety of unwelcome visitors, one of them being Carpenter ants. Identifying where the ants originate from becomes a priority to determine if and where the nest lies – is inside the structure or outside.
Although the presence of these ants does not guarantee an infestation situation, finding their source is key to eliminating any potential issue. The telltale sign of a nest could be concealed for longer periods later in the season, but it’s observable right away if they are emerging during the early spring.
If you have noticed an influx of flying ants in your home, chances are that you have a nest inside. While discovering one or two winged queens may indicate the presence of a nest, they could also just be looking for the perfect place to start their colony after mating.
During this time the queen will lose her wings, making her no longer able to fly. Because of this, finding wingless queens inside your home is not necessarily a sure-fire sign of an indoor nest– they could still be scouting a place to begin their new family!
Winter
Carpenter ants are active year-round, and may even be found inside your home during the winter. Surprisingly, most of these have been carried in unintentionally: when firewood is moved indoors for warmth, worker ants can come along for the ride and find their way into your property. That said, these ants are harmless: they will not make nests or damage homes in any way.
At night, carpenter ants become quite active. They emerge from crevices and crack to search for moisture near cupboards, dishwashers, tubs, or sinks; where the nest can absorb warmth from the sunshine or heat from indoors. If you’ve noticed a few extra visitors zooming around on a particularly sunny day, it is likely that you have carpenter ant activity in your house.
Unless they find a spot with enough inside heat or sunlight, such as a south-facing wall, these ants will hide away in their nests and lay dormant until spring. To ensure that you have nothing more to worry about than a snowstorm, remain vigilant of the signs of ant activity in your home during the winter months.
Take the time now to inspect any crevices around doors and windows, peek behind furniture and large appliances, and keep an eye out for stray ants wandering through the rooms – better safe than sorry!
How Long Do Carpenter Ants Live?
Carpenter ants are remarkable creatures with a surprisingly short life cycle of six to twelve weeks. But, in particularly cold weather, their lifecycle can be considerably longer, as much as ten months, when the temperature begins to rise again in the spring.
Even with this extended timeline, it usually takes three to six years for carpenter ants to reach a stage where they have formed a substantial and healthy colony. Though their lifespan may be considerably shorter than that of humans or some animals, carpenter ants still manage an amazing feat of community-building on such a short timeline.
Fun fact – all ant species can survive up to two weeks without food and five days without water – though more data is needed on this subject!
Final Note
That’s it for the first part of our comprehensive guide to carpenter ants! Stay tuned for next week when we’ll be discussing how damaging these ants can be, as well as how to get rid of carpenter ants once and for all.
In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns about these pesky critters, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’re always happy to help!
[…] the first part of our comprehensive guide on the carpenter ants, we learned how to identify them, and discussed some of their features, as […]