Ants are known to pilfer fallen crumbs, and their never-ending numbers can be more than a nuisance, especially if the painful pinches start and remind you of their presence. There are countless types of ants in our local area of Greater San Antonio, TX, and carpenter ants are among the most common. Carpenter ants are not only the most common type of ant in the area, but they are the most detrimental. Because they are frequently discovered infesting wooden materials, carpenter ants are sometimes confused with termites. They merely excavate through the wood making galleries, or tunnels, as they construct their nests in the wood, unlike termites, however, carpenter ants do not eat the wood. Causing the wood to be weak and damaged, they are nearly as destructive as termites. Today, we at A Five Star Termite & Pest Control would like to discuss the subject of carpenter ants.
What Does a Carpenter Ant Look Like?
Carpenter ants’ range between 1/8 and 33/64 inches long as one of the largest species of ants in the United States. From the jet black to dark brown as well as variations of orange, light brown, red, yellow, and yellowish tan, though they are generally black, some carpenter ant species can differ in color from the jet black to dark brown. The worker carpenter ants have distinct characteristics such as the large mandibles.
Carpenter Ant Galleries
Carpenter ants are attracted to the decaying, moist, or hollow wood variations both indoors and outdoors. Carpenter ants prefer to excavate galleries to settle in their colonies from the damp or damaged wood. To provide passageways for movement from section to section of the nest, the galleries are tunnels they cut into the grain of wood to form the nests. Carpenter ants are clean, and their nesting site is kept tidy where galleries are smooth, almost as though they were sanded, unlike subterranean termites that line their galleries with moist soil.
Where Do Carpenter Ants Live in a Home?
Both dead and living trees are home to carpenter ants, and outside they tend to nest in rotting log and stumps as well. If their nests have been exposed to extreme moisture, they will frequently invade homes or buildings since they prefer living in natural environments. Carpenter ants do not eat the wood like termites do but will remove the wood remnants into small piles outside their nests, as previously mentioned. Carpenter ants will eat human scraps whenever possible and will also devour other insects also favor the sweets and meats.
How Can You Tell if You have Carpenter Ants?
You can frequently spot the red flags before the damage before it gets extensive, especially if you are more aware of the signs of the signs of carpenter ants.
1) Discovering saw dust, parts of dead ants, and other debris is in an indication of carpenter ants.
2) Rustling sounds in the wood from their daily activities.
3) Finding swarmers that have wings and workers inside the home. These swarmers are reproducers that leave a colony after it matures to begin a new one where workers are wingless and foraging for food or building the tunnels. After the colony is secure, they look for a new location to start a new colony.
Carpenter Ant Inspections, Exclusion, Control, Removal, Management & More in Canyon Lake, Spring Branch, Bulverde, Timberwood Park, Leon Valley, Alamo Heights, New Braunfels, Selma, Live Oak, Converse, Universal City, Cibolo, Seguin, New Berlin, St Hedwig, Adkins, La Vernia, Elmendorf, Losoya, Von Ormy, Macdona & San Antonio, Texas
Call the experts of A Five Star Termite & Pest Control and let our specialists do the rest, if you know you have carpenter ants, or suspect them.
