Carpenter ants are tricky customers, that’s for sure. They can cause serious damage to your home if left uncontrolled.
It’s best to educate yourself on how they operate and the damage they can cause, so you can put preventative measures in place.
In this Ultimate Guide To Carpenter Ant Removal, we hope to help you not only win the battle, but the war too! So firstly, let’s take a closer look at the make-up of this ant and how we can spot one.
How To Identify Carpenter Ants
In the Vancouver area and the surrounding area carpenter ants are completely at home thanks to a wet climate that creates ideal conditions in homes and other structures. Contradictory to popular belief, most carpenter ants on the west coast do not require a rotten house that is falling to the ground to build their homes in.
Carpenter ants are usually easy to spot when they appear in a home. The structurally damaging insects are unmistakably large usually black in colour. The challenge sometimes in identifying and locating carpenter ants is that their nests usually reside in exterior walls of a structure, showing no signs on the inside of a home. It’s always best to have a trained eye properly inspect for carpenter ants. Westside Pest Control provides free carpenter ant inspections and quotes for residential and commercial structures.
How big are carpenter ants?
This picture shoes your the size of a carpenter ant with a finger for reference.
What do Carpenter Ants look like?
Here is another picture of what a Carpenter Ant looks like, taken by our technician Jake
Carpenter ants are large usually black/reddish-black in colour, measuring approx 6-12 mm, bigger in size than your typical pavement ant.
Those little ants you see around your yard and patio during the summer are likely harmless pavement ants. They are a nuisance themselves. typically more trouble for your patio pavers as they excavate beneath, whereby carpenter ants stick to timber structures like rotten wood and stumps, trim, siding, etc.
| Pavement Ant (aka tiny black ants) |
Carpenter Ant (Modoc/Vicinus) |
||
| Colour | black | reddish-brown and black | |
| Length | 2.5mm-4mm | 6mm-12mm | |
| Nest(s) Location |
Underground in soil; patio, driveways, cement pavers |
rotting wood, inside or outside | |
| Colonies | Multiple Parent nests + Satellite colonies |
Multiple Parent nests + Satellite colonies |
|
| Swarming season | Late spring, early summer | Summer |
.
The two most common species of carpenter ant found here in Vancouver is the Camponotus Modoc and the Camponotus Vicinus.
Here is a breakdown of the differences between the two:
Carpenter Ant – Modoc |
 Carpenter Ant – Vicinus |
||
| Colour | black | reddish-brown and black | |
| Length | 6mm-12mm | 6mm-12mm | |
| Nest(s) Location |
various locations, usually places with higher humidity |
various locations, often under stones, places with high humidity |
|
| Nest(s) | One Parent nest + Satellite colonies |
Multiple Parent nests + Satellite colonies |
|
| Queen(s) | One Queen | Multiple Queens |
.
And here’s a close-up video of the Camponotous Vicinus caught on camera by one of Westside’s technicians. Notice their distinct rusty-red thorax.
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Camponotus Vicinus Carpenter Ant
The Camponotus Vicinus is quite common on the North Shore and in the Tri-Cities. This type of carpenter ant can have multiple queens and multiple parent nests. This carpenter ant, distinguished by its dark red legs and thorax, is very similar in appearance to its more common cousin, Camponotus Modoc.
Don’t be fooled, Vicius is far more destructive. If you see more than 10 or 12 carpenter ants in your house we recommend calling in pest control professionals. Westside Pest Control does free inspections for carpenter ants, so chat with us for more info on that.
Identifying carpenter ants by inspecting the wood
As we’ve mentioned, carpenter ants can cause serious structural damage to your home as they tunnel through your timber frames to make their nests.
Here’s carpenter ant damage looks like
Pretty artistic isn’t it?
These grooves are carved out as the carpenter ants burrow their way deeper in the wood looking for a perfect to make a nest.
Good to know: It’s a myth that carpenter ants eat wood, but their mandibles are powerful enough to turn wood into sawdust for burrowing and nesting purposes. They aren’t going to bring your house down, but they can do damage some serious damage to your structure.
Carpenter ant Vs Termite tunnels?
Carpenter ant tunnels and galleries will be neat and smooth, they have the habit of cleaning and polishing their way to their nests. Whereby, termite tunnels and galleries will have a rough feel and be dirty, as use soil and mud to build their nests.
Look for sawdust
Ever see bits of sawdust clinging to cobwebs on the side of your house, or resting on the concrete below the fascia?
Yep! Bits of sawdust-like material is often an indicator of carpenter ants or termites. Called ‘frass’, this substance is made up of wood shavings and dead insects, disposed by carpenter ants through the tunnels. Frass is a surefire tell that one of these two pests has invaded your home.
Of the two, termites are the nastiest when it comes to wrecking your home, but carpenter ants can also do significant damage if left to their own devices for enough time.
Carpenter Ant Destruction (frass) unearthed during a renovation
When are they most active
Carpenter ants in the Metro Vancouver region are generally most active between April and October, although they can groggily appear as early as late January.
Parent nests must maintain a good level of moisture for the queens eggs to survive. A parent (or primary) nest can have many satellite nests. Satellite nests do not contain eggs and therefore do not require moisture. This enables carpenter ant colonies to have multiple satellite nests within an individual structure.
Spotting a large number of winged ants inside of your home is a clear sign that a nest exists in your home.
Are carpenter ants harmful?
Carpenter ants can bite. They have powerful jaws and their bites can be painful. They may also inject formic acid into the bite wound, creating a burning sensation. Typically though, this does not pose a significant threat to your health.
The main threat is structural; so your home, shed, any other wood framed property. In extreme cases when an infestation is really bad, with multiple nests inside of structure beams, and left uncontrolled for many years, this could cause an entire structure to collapse.
And of course that means they are harmful to your finances too, from any repair work required from their damage.
Yep, there are not an ant you want to mess with!
Westside Pest Control is the no1. Ant Control company in the lower mainland. In addition to carpenter ants, we also treat for Fire Ants and Pavement Ants. If there is a need for professional help to tackle a carpenter ant infestation, we offer free inspections. So please contact one of the team today on 604-559-9060, we would be happy to help.
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