Carpenter ants are one of the most common types of ants to find in your home. These ants can cause serious damage to your home’s wooden structures and leave unsightly mounds outside.
Carpenter Ants
Carpenter ants are large black or sometimes reddish brown insects that may grow up to 1/2 inch long. The worker ants have large heads, thoraxes and abdomens and their antennae have 12 segments. Carpenter ants have wings but they don’t fly. Instead, they use their wings to help them escape when disturbed by humans or other predators. They usually nest outdoors underneath trees but will build tunnels in wood near their nests if needed. People usually confuse carpenter ants with forest ants but they are not the same at all as you can learn from this article – stokkmaur versus skogsmaur.
Carpenter Ant Life Cycle
The life cycle of carpenter ants is similar to many other types of ants; however, it takes a little longer for carpenter ants because they live for several years before reaching maturity. They begin as eggs laid by queens in spring or summer which hatch into larvae that feed on fungus within the colony until fall when they develop into pupae which overwinter until spring when they emerge as adults ready to mate and start new colonies themselves.
There are several ways to get rid of carpenter ants using pesticides and repellents:
Use insecticide dusts or sprays to treat the affected area where you see them entering your home or yard. The dusts are applied around entry points such as windowsills, doorsills and siding; they kill ants on contact when they walk over it.
Spray can be applied directly onto mounds when you see them outside; it’s less effective than dust since it doesn’t kill ants on contact but instead kills them by ingestion or contact with residue that stays on their bodies after they come into contact with treated surfaces
