Carpenter Ants

Introduction
Carpenter ants are a very common pest species in southern Ontario. They are probably the best known species because of their ability to do structural damage to houses and other buildings.

Physical appearance
They are the largest of our common ants and vary in size from ¼” – ½” in size. The carpenter ant is normally blackish in colour with large jaws or mandibles. They are normally nocturnal however are also seen during the day. If it is a large black ant in your house, you can assume it is a carpenter ant.

Habits
Carpenter ants eat insects, sap, juices, over ripe fruit, and household foods such as sweets, raw and cooked meats. Carpenter ants commonly gnaw into wood to build the galleries for their colony. In the forest they play an important role in decomposing decaying trees. Unfortunately this trait may be destructive to man made buildings. Damage is usually not nearly as serious as termites as termites eat wood instead of just gnawing into it to live. Carpenter ants use the wood as protection from predators. You may find course sawdust ejected from the galleries through preexisting cracks or slits made by the ants. This may be an indication there is a colony existing close by. Sometimes you can actually hear them working in the walls of your dwelling. Commonly, they are found in wood made damp by water leaks, roof leaks, or around bath tubs, sinks, old windows, door frames or behind dish washers.

There are two types of colonies:

1. Parent – egg laying queen and over 2000 working ants
2. Satellite – large number of working ants and no queens

Life Cycle
Carpenter ant colonies have just one queen who may live as long as 25 years. Colonies take approximately 3 years to reach maturity at which point they may have several thousand inhabitants and 5 or 6 satellite colonies. When a colony reaches maturity hundreds of fertile females and males are produced that have wings, these fertile ants leave the colony and fly to new sites to establish new colonies. The males mate and then die soon after. Queens are only required to be fertilized once during their lifetime. They lay eggs that go through larval and pupal stages before becoming adult worker ants. These workers have specific jobs, caring for the young, foraging for food and if needed defending the colony from threats.

Pest Service And Control
A pest service technician will come out to your property and do a thorough inspection. This information will enable the technician to determine the location of the nest and the best method of control. The technician will then perform an extermination in order to control the pest problem. The extermination may may include drilling small holes in walls and injecting pesticides, perimeter sprays and placing bait stations. Finally the technician will show you what has attracted the Carpenter ants to your property and make preventative recommendations. Aanteater exterminators believes in removal of the root causes not in masking the symptoms. You will be required to leave your house for 4 hours at the start of the application in order to allow the treatment to dry. Please feel free to call or send us an email for your free quote or for more information 1-888-390-7378.