Carpenter ants pose a much greater risk to your home than any nuisance ant ever could. Carpenter ants are a wood-destroying insect that attacks the wood that makes up the structure of your home.

Carpenter Ants are among the largest ants in the United States measuring 3.4 to 13 mm in length. They are typically black in color but some species may be red, orange or a combination of these colors.

How serious are carpenter ants? Should I be worried?

Carpenter ants, like termites, can go undetected for long periods of time. By the time you know you have them you have an infestation that is not easily corrected. The damage caused by carpenter ants is often confused with termite damage. Remember, termites eat and digest the cellulose found in the wood, carpenter ants simply hollow out galleries to use as nests in wood.

Even though Carpenter Ants are a wood-destroying insect, they don’t actually eat the wood. Instead they spit the wood out as they tunnel through it to create their nest. Their diet consists of food that people eat, including sweets and meats. They also prey on other insects and small organisms such as caterpillars, crickets, earthworms, etc.

Carpenter Ants play an important role in the environment by acting as major decomposers of dead or fallen trees within the forest, however, since they are very efficient destroyers of wood, they can become a very serious economic pest when they enter man made structures.