CARPENTER ANTS
Carpenter ants achieve pest status when a colony invades wood in buildings. Carpenter ants may forage for food in houses, and they may cause serious damage to the structure if they nest within the wood. Carpenter ants also use old abandoned nests or wood that has been "hollowed out" by termites. Nests also may be located in hollow doors or small void areas produced during construction. Carpenter ants may move from decaying portions of the wood into sound lumber in the process of enlarging the nest. Unlike termites, they do not feed upon wood, but merely use it as a place to nest.
Occasionally, people call us about carpenter ants in yard trees. The ants will not invade a healthy tree but instead move in to sickly trees with rotting interiors. These trees are usually beyond saving.
Carpenter ants are generally jet black, but some southern subspecies are reddish in color. They are among the largest ants; their size ranges from one-quarter to one-half inch in length. This size variation is species dependent. In addition, colony members include "major" and "minor" workers as well as the "queen," the reproductive member that produces all additional members of the colony. These "castes" are different in size and appearance.
Carpenter ants keep occupied galleries clean. So look for removed wood in the form of a coarse sawdust-like material, which they push from the nest. This often results in a cone-shaped pile accumulating just below the nest entrance hole. This pile may include, in addition to the wood fragments, other debris from the nest, including bits of soil, dead ants, parts of insects and remnants of other food they ate. Find and destroy the nest within the building, and then replace the damaged wood.
Mark Blevins , Horticulture Agent
 |  |  |  |  |