Carpenter ants are one of the threats that homeowners should never shrug off. They are indigenous to several parts of the world and can be destructive. They are one of the largest ants in North America.
They usually nest outside in rotted, damp wood, where they build their nests. They chew through the wood to create passageways to access their nesting areas, also known as galleries.
A colony of carpenter ants can cause severe damage to your home’s structural integrity. Their life cycle revolves around chewing moisture and wood. So if your home has moisture problems, they can build a colony and cause some damage.
Carpenter ants build two types of nests: satellite nests and parent nests. Satellite colonies consist of pupae, older larvae, and workers. In comparison, parent colonies comprised workers, a queen, and her brood.
Identifying carpenter ants is crucial in preventing damage to your home’s foundation. Carpenter ant workers may vary in size. They are typically not longer than half an inch and are black, yellowish, red, or a combination of colors.
Carpenter ants’ body structure is also different from other ants. They only have one node between their thorax and abdomen. Also, the tip of their stomach has a circle of hairs, and the thorax has an uneven, round shape.
These pests can be scary and dangerous, but when you deal with them quickly and adequately, the problem won’t worsen.
This guide will help you identify the signs of carpenter ant infestation in your home and how to eliminate them properly.
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How Carpenter Ants Get in Your Home
Carpenter ants belong to the group Camponotus. They love moist, moldy wood. So moisture problems in any part of your home will attract these damaging ants.
However, they don’t always enter your home by chewing wood. They can also get inside your home through tiny openings and cracks. They also use branches or climb-up wires and pipes to get inside.
Carpenter ants are not typically dangerous, but their infestations can weaken your home’s structural integrity. They usually live in damaged trees but enter homes and buildings to look for food and water.
In homes, you can find carpenter ant nests in logs, hollow trees, tree stumps, landscaping timber, and wooden areas. These places are their shelters for their eggs and larvae. They make colonies when they find good moisture levels in woods and sustainable food sources.
Also, carpenter ants eat several animal and plant-based foods. They are attracted to fresh fruits, honey, jelly, sugar, aphid secretion, plant-sucking insects, grease, and meat.
When carpenter ants build their nest indoors, they settle in wall voids, hollow-core doors, and window sills. One of the easiest ways to find their nesting locations is by looking for frass or sawdust-like shavings.
7 Signs of Carpenter Ants in Your Home
Knowing the indications of carpenter ants infestation in your home is vital to eliminate them and prevent the problem from worsening. Here are some signs you have to look out for.
1. Faint rustling sound
Ants colonies have several worker ants working hard to find food and water. Larger carpenter ants colonies can host around 10,000 to 20,000 workers and may grow up to 100,000 total ants.
As the colony grows, you may hear them building their nest. Listen for rustling sounds as they tunnel through the wood to make their homes.
Listen to these rustling sounds when it is quiet, especially at night. Most species of carpenter ants look for their food at night. You may test the walls by tapping the structure to check if the wood sounds hollow.
2. Spotting giant black ants
While it may not be easy to spot termites as they keep hidden, carpenter ants often send out some scouts to look for food. Worker carpenter ants are black to brownish and 13 mm long. Also, they have only one node between their abdomen and thorax.
Black carpenter ants are usually nocturnal wanderers and can be observed in the kitchen, searching for food on the floor and other surfaces. They also look for food outside, feeding on honeydew from aphids, pollen, sap, fruits, nectar, and dead insects.
If you spot one or two giant black ants in your home, there might be hundreds or thousands of them, just out of sight inside your walls.
3. Long ant trails
Carpenter ants travel long distances to look for food and take it to the nest. They release a pheromone signal to create a trail where they can find a food source.
A simple ant trail test can help you find their nesting locations. And you can use this to set a little trap.
4. Finding giant winged ants
Seeing giant winged ants, also known as “alates,” in your home can signify carpenter ants infestation. Winged carpenter ants can be seen briefly, usually in spring or fall.
These giant winged ants are sent out from a mature colony to start new colonies when the original has matured. They appear for about half an hour to find a mate and disappear inside a new area of infestation.
People often confuse winged carpenter ants with termites. But they can be distinguished from each other as carpenter ants are larger and have different shapes of waist, hind wings, and antennae.
5. Ant droppings
Ant droppings consist of soft, fibrous pieces of wood and fecal matter loosely compacted together. They also sometimes contain parts of other dead insects.
6. Piles of sawdust
You may notice moist wood shavings or frass from damp wood near door casings, window sills, and baseboards. When carpenter ants excavate into the wood of your home, they leave the excess wood somewhere. Therefore, they leave trailers and piles of sawdust.
Look for sawdust near the wooden areas of your home, such as door frames and window sills. Also, search on attics and crawl spaces, where there may be water damage and moist wood.
7. Spotting shed wings
If you miss the giant flying ants, you will still see their wings as they shed their wings disappearing again. You can see these shed wings in places like basement walls and windowsills.
How To Get Rid of Carpenter Ants
Carpenter ants infestation in your home can cause severe damage. Therefore, it is essential to remove them to prevent more problems. Here are some methods to eliminate carpenter ant infestation in your home.
Use bait
Baits consist of various toxic chemicals mixed with carpenter ants’ favorite food. Place these baits in narrow pathways where you can’t spray an aerosol or pesticide. This method is easier and safer than other techniques involving toxicants.
You may also create bait using chemicals designed for carpenter ant control, such as boric acid, fipronil, hydra menthyl non, and abamectin. Ant workers fall for these and pass the insecticide to the queen and eggs.
However, not every carpenter ant colony falls for bait, as some may accept a particular type of bait. Therefore, you must determine which kind of bait works for you.
Try to create bait using a variety of foods, such as meat and vegetables, as carpenter ants feed on them, and they can be more effective.
You may also buy ready-made carpenter ant-specific baits in gel or granule form.
Get rid of the nesting site
When you spot carpenter ants’ nests, apply an insecticide dust, aerosol, or anti-carpenter ant foam directly to the infestation. You might have to create tiny holes with a drill and fill them with insecticide.
Pesticide dust effectively eliminates carpenter ants’ nesting as it can go through the cavities. Also, the ants are more likely to carry them to the queen and eggs.
Furthermore, it would be best to slow down or prevent wood decay in your home to avoid carpenter ant infestation. Use wood preservatives on your doors, windows, attic, pantry, plumbing areas in the bathroom and kitchen, and other areas where carpenter ants can build their homes.
Remove scent trails
Carpenter ants depend only on pheromone trails to look for food sources and to travel. They make a permanent trail through grass and other surfaces when they get a reliable food source.
By cleaning surfaces and eliminating the scent trails where they have traveled, you will destroy their map to your home.
You may use essential oils such as lemon, tea tree, cedarwood, or orange on a cotton ball to wipe the surfaces to destroy these trails. Or you can make a solution using one part of dish soap and two parts of water. Pour them into a spray bottle to kill ants when you find their nest.
Did You Know?
Carpenter ants are neat freaks. They remove the wood debris, old food, and dead ants from their tunnels and nests. They even collect resin to disinfect their nests.
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