admin Do you keep seeing big black ants in your house, especially in the kitchenette and toiletries? These are carpenter ants. The carpenter ants size is comparatively bigger than a normal-sized sugar ant.
Moreover, these ants are very hard to get rid of. Whether you spray them or use some kind of pest, the chances are that they will make a painfully noticeable comeback after quite some time. This blog will help you understand their behavior so that you can deter their movement from the core.
Their Biological Composition
The carpenter ants sizes vary differently. They even differ in color. Their size ranges from ¼ to ½ inch, while their length ranges from 3.4 to 33mm. Normally, you may find blackish carpenter ants; however, you may notice red, orange, yellow, brown ants in coloration as well. Occasionally the carpenter may occur at the end of the spring. Even if you manage to spot one, be assured that the ant’s colony is nesting somewhere inside your structural composition.
Difference Between Ant And Termite
One can easily fall into the trap of confusion by thinking termites to be carpenter ants. However, the winged carpenter ants can be easily distinguished from the termites by their differentiated size, shape, antennae, wings, and waist.
Habits Of Carpenter Ants
By noticing the habits of carpenter ants, you will be easily able to find the nesting colony. Normally, the carpenter ants damage the wood by making it hollow for nesting purposes. They tend to excavate galleries in wood with a smooth appearance.
Woods that the ant damages will not have a mud-like texture. Moreover, it will contain fragments of dead ants and bits of insects. It is an indication that the best of the carpenter ant is nearby. The carpenter ants tend to nest in moist and dry wood. However, they prefer wood with higher humidity content.
That is why you may find their nest in a region filled with dampened wood. For example, areas affected by water leaks, around sinks, bathtubs, poorly sealed frames of doors and windows are some of the probable places for nesting.
How To Locate The Nesting Area Of Carpenter Ants?
One of the shockingly effective methods of locating the hidden best is by tapping it along baseboards and other wood surfaces using a screwdriver. It will help you hear the hollow sound of the damaged wood, which is another indication that this wood indeed is the nesting ground.
Although the carpenter ants offer to make their nest in damp woods, you have to keep in kind the can be either inside or outside the structure. Carpenter ants follow two kinds of nesting patterns. One is the parent colonies, which after maturing, contain an egg-laying queen.
Moreover, it will have more than 200 worker ants. The second nesting colony is known as a satellite colony. It will have a larger number of ants, but it won’t contain the queen, eggs, or larvae. In other words, their nest may be the parent colony or the satellite colony that is more likely to be found inside the interior of your house.
How To Control It?
The damage is determined by the size of the colony, as well as its structural composition. However, controlling it is comparatively easier as well.
- You can use their trailing behavior to locate the ants and eliminate the nest. The carpenter ants respond to scent trails which helps them to recruit their nest-mates to food.
- After successfully tracing their location, you have to treat the place by carefully drilling a series of small, preferably ⅛ inch holes into it. Insert puffing boric acid in the suspected place.
Summing It Up With
As for the outdoor nest, you can use a strong solution of insecticides such as carbaryl (Sevin), diazinon, or chlorpyrifos (Dursban) to get rid of them. You need to find them around doors, holes, openings, pipes, and other structures as well.
