Carpenter Ant Damage

This page is a general DIY guide for identifying signs of carpenter ants and their damage. Using the products and methods suggested can help to quickly control populations. Follow this DIY guide and the products recommended for complete control of carpenter ants.

Despite other species of ants, carpenter ants are the most capable of damaging a homes wooden interior. Commonly these pests are mistaken fortermites since they target moist, rotting wood during the warmer months of the season such as spring and summer. However, unlike termites they do not feast on wood, but rather chew or burrow through it to create nests and pathways to food sources.

Although these pests do not cause immediate damage, they can create extensive home repair costs when left untreated for long periods of time. Commonly carpenter ants can invade homes through damaged or moist wood. Like other ant species, they can invade through cracks and crevices in wall surfaces, and underneath and around doors or windows.

Typically, carpenter ants will form two types of colonies known as the parent and satellite colony. A satellite colony can be formed inside or outside the home in dry areas such as the insultation in attics. They will be used as a base for a large portion of worker carpenter ants, but no queens, eggs, or larvaes. Worker ants will travel and return to these satellite colonies when they cannot find a moist environment for their parent colony or to return food or pupae for the colony to raise.

Unlike satellite colonies, parent colonies need to have a moist environment for their queen, eggs, and larvae to survive in. These colonies main function is to create a birthing center away from the worker ant colony to raise and create carpenter ants in. Once in the pupae stage, worker carpenter ants come and carry the young back to the main colony to increase their population and provide more breeding space for eggs.

Read on to learn how to professional identify and treat current carpenter ant infestations within your home and property in a quick and affordable manner. To learn more about this invasive pests, then follow the attached links and products or speak with a trained professional through phone or email.

Signs of Carpenter Ants Damage

A complete and thorough inspection of your home and property is one of the best things to do in a carpenter ant control program. This is often easier said then done, but by following the listed signs below then you can quickly identify these pests without using unnecessary products.

Presence of Carpenter Ants Themselves

Carpenter Ants can be found on the inside and outside of your home. Depending on whether the carpenter ant is a worker their appearance can be different. Worker carpenter ants are wingless whereas the swarmer's will have wings connected above their waist and extend past the rear.

Both swarmers and workers, will dark brown to black colored bodies and sometimes red depending on the species. Each species will range between 0.25 to 0.75 inches long granting them to be the biggest species of ant compared to other species. Most species of carpenter ants that homeowners face will be black, which grants them the term big black ant due to their size and coloration. However, each species will share large mandibles that will help them to chew through wood and other surfaces.

Sawdust Piles

As previously mentioned, carpenter ants travel throughout homes and wood surfaces to access areas containing food and create pathways for other members of the colony which leaves behind piles of sawdust (also known as frass). These sawdust piles will mostly be found around trees on the outside of your home and within corners, dark areas, crawlspaces, and around small circular openings inside your home.

You may also see piles of frass on the outside of your home on trees or the areas surrounding them. If you do not witness the carpenter ants outdoors, observe trees or other outdoor wood surfaces as decaying, hollowing, and quick death of foliage will occur.

Trees or outdoor wood surfaces containing a small knot, crack, hole, or fissure will gain the attention of carpenter ants and within several months they may create a parent or satellite colony.

Shed Wings

Most homeowners assume there is no carpenter ant infestation when there is no presence of the pest and their activities. However, as most wood tunneling damages are done underneath the wall of your homes interior it can prove to be challenge for proper identification.

If you are seeing frass then most likely you will find shed carpenter ant wings near the area. Swarmer carpenter ants will lose their wings during swarming and mating activity. Where you find these wings could indicate a new established colony near or underneath the site it was found in.

How to Prevent Carpenter Ant Damage

For complete Carpenter ant control, you will have to treat the inside and outside of your home since these pests will have two colonies (satellite and parent).

Before beginning a pest management program, you will have to wear the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) such as gloves, long-sleeve shirt, long-sleeve pants, and closed toe-shoes because a bite from a carpenter ant can hurt.

Step 1: Remove Excessive Vegetation

Carpenter ants are wood and moisture dependent pests that will survive in multiple wood surfaces. To reduce these ideal habitats you will need to remove tree or bush branches too close to the exterior of your home to reduce their paths of travel and shade.

Shade produced from overgrown foliage can create moisture and eventually wood root, which carpenter ants depend on to create their nests.

Step 2: Seal and Treat Gaps, other Access Points, and Wettable areas

Due to the amount of damage and traveling carpenter ants do between their colonies it would be best to seal off any gaps, cracks and crevices around pipes, windows and door frames, voids, and other small holes with a sealing caulk.

Inspect the inside and outside of your home to look for water leakage or obstructed gutters as this can cause overflow of moisture. If left untreated these conditions will attract carpenter ants to the area.

Step 3: Do Not Disturb Infested Sites

Witness sites where carpenter ants activity has been witnessed, but do not move or rip apart these areas as this can cause pests to move and spread colonies further into home and yard. Thus, increasing the carpenter ant population and damage further.

Step 4: Apply Fipro Foaming Aerosol in Cracks and Crevices

As a a preventative and curative measure, spray FiPro Foaming Aerosol into cracks and crevices, gaps, and other voids to treat pathways hidden underneath walls to eliminate carpenter ants.

This product is a non-repellent, which will work to completely kill the entire colony of carpenter ants since these pests will carry their findings back to other colony members.

Once they have come into contact with FiPro Foaming Aerosol, carpenter ants will perish within 10 minutes.

Step 5: Treat Outdoor Surfaces with Supreme IT

Spray Supreme IT as a preventative and curative application, as one treatment from this liquid insecticide will remain for up to 90 days to fight against carpenter ants and many other insects.

This effective liquid insecticide can be used around your window and door frames, perimeter of your home, concrete surfaces, fences, lawn, and other types of vegetation. However, this product may not be used on firewood.

Spray 0.5 to 1.0 oz. of Supreme IT per gallon of water per 1,000 sq. ft. Use this same rate on tree trunks with carpenter ant trails or evidence of foraging activity. Apply to the bark, completely wetting it from the bottom of the tree to the highest point of the tree trunk.

Key Takeaways

Where to Inspect Carpenter Ant Damage

• Carpenter ants will forage and tunnel through wood surfaces such as the interior of walls, fences, trees, fallen tree branches, and sometimes your floor.

How to Tell if There Are Carpenter Ants in Home or Yard

• Common signs of carpenter ant infestations is sawdust, small circular holes, big black ants (the carpenter ants themselves), and shed wings or dead ants.

How Do Carpenter Ants Invade Homes?

• Carpenter ants will invade homes through cracks and crevices in your homes foundation such as around window and door frames, where the plumbing meets the wall and through overgrown tree branches that are too close to your home.