Jan 12
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There are over 1,000 sorts of carpenter ants. The majority of of them are big, between a quarter of an inch and an inch long, and black, although there are red ones too. There are even a few species in South East Asia which will explode if attacked, ejecting a gluey liquid out through their heads which immobilizes the invaders. The exploding carpenter ant dies.
Carpenter ants are said to do a lot of damage to timber, as they gnaw their way up the middle through its length. However, this is a popular myth, unlike termites, carpenters do not eat wood, they gnaw their way through it to get somewhere. They spit the chewed wood out. This is called frass and it can often be seen in heaps like sawdust. It is a good sign that carpenters are active in or around your house.
Carpenter ants like to travel through the length of damp or rotten dead timber in much the same manner as termites do although they do not consume the timber. Carpenters feed on dead insects, dead animals and honeydew from aphids and scale insects outside the home, but if they come inside your home they will be looking for dropped or uncovered food, especially anything sweet and sugary. Therefore, hygiene is an important factor in clearing carpenters out of your home.
These ants will walk up to a hundred yards while foraging, but they like to be near a regular supply of food. A characteristic of carpenter ant colonies is that they may build satellite nests away from their central colony. This is often why they go into a home.
If they regularly find spilled food in the kitchen, they may make a nest in the wall to take advantage of it, particularly if the window or door frame is a bit decayed. Inside the home, they will probably nest in a cavity wall, outside the home they prefer to construct nests in decaying tree stumps.
It is no good spraying carpenter ants with insecticide if you want to get rid of them – particularly if you kill large numbers of them. This may seem odd, but the reason is that the colony will miss these workers and so the queen will increase her production of eggs to compensate it. If she over compensates, you are in a worse position that you were before spraying.
The only way to destroy a nest of carpenter ants is to kill the queen and the entire colony with poison. This is not difficult although it does take a bit of exploratory work. Carpenters are most active between twilight and midnight, so put out honey on glass or sticky tape where they are active and follow them when they take it home.
Do not forget, they may have a number of nests in their colony. If you have to have light, wrap red cellophane over a normal torch, because ants can not perceive red light. When you have found their nests, put poison down outside each nest as directed on the label. Do this for several days in a row until you do not see anymore carpenter ants. If you are still seeing them, you have missed a nest.
Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on many topics, but is at present concerned with Getting Rid Of Carpenter Ants. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Killing Carpenter Ants.
