Ants don’t believe in democracy. Every ant nest is a monarchy, and carpenter ants are no exception.
Although rarely seen, carpenter ant queens are the key to the survival of a carpenter and colony. So if you want to get rid of carpenter ants for good, you’re going to have to find a way to target the queen at the heart of the nest. To do that, you’ll need to know a little bit more about her.
Here’s some info on carpenter ant queens that can help you deal with an ant problem.
TLDR;
The carpenter ant queen is the engine behind every colony. While worker ants roam your home looking for food, the queen stays hidden deep in the nest laying eggs and growing the population. That’s why simply killing the ants you see rarely solves the problem.
To truly stop a carpenter ant infestation, the colony—and especially the queen—needs to be located and eliminated. Understanding her role is the first step to controlling carpenter ants effectively and protecting the wood in your home.
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A little bit about the carpenter ant queen
Most of the ants in a carpenter ant nest are sterile females. Only one member of the nest is able to reproduce and lay eggs, and that’s the Queen. Most Carpenter ants are monogyne, which is a fancy way of saying they only have one queen, as opposed to some other species of ants which are polygyne and have multiple queens.
There is one species of polygyne carpenter ant in BC known as Camponotus vicinus. Fortunately, these ant colonies that can contain more than one queen are not as common as the more widespread Camponotus modoc. Identifiable by their reddish legs and thorax compared to the all-black look of C. modoc, these ants are highly destructive.
It may seem like a huge weakness for an ant colony that may have thousands of members to only have one single individual capable of laying new eggs to repopulate the nest. And that’s true in some ways. But it’s because the Queen and her young, known as the brood, are so important to the nest that ants are as social as they are. Everything an individual ant does is for the good of the colony, because without the queen and the brood, the other ants can’t survive and therefore have no purpose to. Therefore, the queen plays a crucial role in the life of the carpenter ant nest.
Spotted ants inside? If you spot ants inside, that’s a sure sign you have a nest somewhere in the walls or under the floors. Call the ant specialists (that’s us 😁) at Westside Pest Control to get it checked out.
How to identify a carpenter ant queen
By the tiny little crown she wears, of course!
But seriously, put visions of the terrifying monster from the Aliens movie out of your head. Carpenter ant queens don’t look all that different from a regular carpenter ant. They are quite big, around 13 to 17 mm in size or close to 1 inch, compared to regular workers that rarely get bigger than 13 mm or half an inch.
If you look closely at a carpenter ant queen, you may notice that her thorax, the middle segment of her three-segmented body, is pitted and uneven compared to other ants in the colony. That’s because the queen once had wings, and you can still see the scars from where they fell off. Also, the abdomen of a queen ant, the final segment of the body, may show patches of white between the sections of her black exoskeleton. That’s because her abdomen is swollen with eggs, almost splitting the hard exoskeleton from within.
Image credit bugsguide
This is all pretty academic, however, because your chances of seeing a carpenter ant queen aren’t that high. Once they establish a nest, queens never voluntarily leave. Professional pest control technicians who deal with carpenter ants for a living may encounter carpenter ant queens, but most homeowners never will.
Let’s have a quick look at the differences between the worker ants and the Queen.
| Worker Ant | Queen Ant | |
|---|---|---|
 |  | |
| Size | 6mm-12mm | up to 20mm |
| Key differentiators | evenly rounded thorax A distinct node on the narrow connection between thorax and abdomen | pitted and uneven thorax noticeable scars from wings |
Do Queen Ants Leave the Nest?
Most of the time, the carpenter ant queen stays hidden deep inside the colony where it is warm, protected, and close to the brood. Her job is simple but important. Lay eggs and grow the colony.
The only time queens regularly leave the nest is during a nuptial flight, when young queens with wings fly out to mate and start new colonies. After mating, the queen lands, breaks off her wings, and searches for a safe place to build her first nest.
If you are seeing carpenter ants walking around your home, those are almost always worker ants, not the queen.
Carpenter Ant Queen With Wings
A carpenter ant queen with wings is called an alate, which simply means a reproductive ant that can fly. These winged queens appear during swarm season when colonies release new reproductives.
They are much larger than worker ants and have two pairs of wings. After mating, the queen sheds her wings and begins the slow process of building a colony from scratch.
If you spot winged carpenter ants indoors, it can mean one of two things:
- A nearby colony is releasing swarmers
- A colony may already be established inside the structure
Either way, it is a clue worth paying attention to.
The lifecycle of a carpenter ant queen
Just like Elizabeth II, carpenter ant queens are born, not made. There is a genetic component to determining whether an ant egg will grow to be a worker or a queen, though diet also seems to play a part.
Once a carpenter ant nest reaches maturity – after around three to seven years – the queen will start to lay special eggs that will produce ants capable of reproduction (aka swarmers, winged reproductives). Unfertilized eggs hatch into male ants, while fertilized ones hatch into female ants. These reproductive ants are bigger than regular workers and have wings who will gone on to form new colonies.
Carpenter ants reproduce by swarming in what is called a nuptial flight. Here in BC, carpenter ants swarm twice per year, in spring and again in fall. The reproductive ants, both male and female, fly into the air and mate. The males die shortly afterwards, and the females wander off to become queens of new nests.
A mated queen will find a good spot for a nest, ideally in rotten wood like a tree stump or a fence post. There, she will shed her wings and live off the energy stored in her flight muscles while she lays her first batch of eggs. Once these eggs grow to mature worker ants, they will support the queen, bringing her food while she lays the next batch of eggs. From that point on, the queen’s entire life consists of laying eggs to help the nest grow. And finally, once the nest reaches maturity after three to seven years, she will start to produce reproductive ants of her own to prepare for the next nuptial flight.
Carpenter ant queens are extraordinarily long-lived for insects. A single queen can live up to 25 or 30 years!
See related: 7 cool facts about carpenter ants
How to find and get rid of a carpenter ant queen
Without a queen, a carpenter ant nest can’t reproduce. And as long as the queen is alive, the nest can always survive no matter how many worker ants get killed. Therefore, targeting the queen and her brood is key to carpenter ant control.
A mature carpenter ant colony consists of a parent nest, where the Queen lives, and multiple satellite nests. Therefore, the first step in carpenter ant control is often trying to locate the parent nest.
Will she ever leave the nest?
Hate to let you down, but it’s extremely rare that you’ll encounter a carpenter ant queen. Simply because she is doing what’s she’s meant to do – keeping out of danger, while at the same time worker ants of the colony are doing their bit to protect the queen. So she will remain hidden in a wood nest until she’s ready to emerge and head for the skies in the nuptial flight.
Where to look?
Carpenter and queens like to live in areas with high humidity, so rotten tree stumps, wood piles, and water-damaged areas of wooden buildings are a good place to look.
What to treat with?
Once the nest is located, it can be directly treated with special pesticides designed to penetrate the wood and kill the queen and her brood. We usually drill a 1/4 inch hole close to the target area, which is injected with a wood preservative that creates an inhabitable environment for the ants. Over time, ants coming into contact with the treatment will be eliminated.
Caution. Most effective pesticides for this task are not available to the general public, and should only be used by trained and qualified pest control technicians.
Image: Technician spotted them crawling into gaps in your siding, proceeded to rip off the siding to find nesting sites in the exterior walls.
Another option for eliminating a carpenter ant queen is to feed the ants a poison bait. They will take this back to the nest and feed it to the queen and her brood, killing them. Without a queen, the worker ants will soon die.
However, carpenter ants are notoriously difficult to bait in this way. Baiting can be a highly effective way to get rid of other ant species such as pavement ants, but carpenter ants require specialist bait and a huge amount of patience to be effective.
Want more tips? You should check out our recent post with 6 expert tips for carpenter ant prevention.
Or, watch this cool video from Ants Canada on how to identify queen ants.
The verdict?
Now you know a little bit more about the carpenter ant queen.
Carpenter ant queens play a vital role in the survival and growth of their colonies. While they may not be seen that often, they are the key to getting rid of an infestation.
Due to the specialized nature of carpenter ant control and the potential dangers of handling potent pesticides, we don’t recommend you apply treatment measures yourself, unless you are trained to do so.
Save yourself the hassle and call a professional (like Westside Pest Control) who has years of experience in dealing with ant nests and targeting the queens. With the right expertise, tools, and patience, you can successfully eliminate carpenter ant queens and put an end to their destructive reign in your home.
Call, or chat with us to arrange a free carpenter ant inspection.
Want to learn more about carpenter ants?
Check out out ultimate guide to carpenter ant removal.
Westside Pro Tip
If you want to confirm a carpenter ant problem, follow the workers at night.
Carpenter ants are most active after dark. Grab a flashlight and watch where the ants travel along walls, decks, or tree branches. They often follow the same scent trail back to their nest.
Homeowners sometimes discover hidden nests in:
- Deck posts
- Window frames
- Fence rails
- Moist or damaged wood
Finding the nest location is half the battle. Once the colony is located, proper treatment becomes much easier.
FAQs
What Happens When You Kill the Queen Carpenter Ant?
When the queen dies, the colony eventually collapses because she is the only ant laying fertilized eggs. Worker ants may survive for a while, but the population slowly declines as older ants die off. In mature carpenter ant colonies there may be satellite nests, so eliminating the main nest and queen is the real turning point in solving the infestation.
Can Ants Survive Without a Queen?
For a short time, yes. Worker ants can continue gathering food and maintaining the nest for weeks or even months. The problem is reproduction. Without the queen producing new ants, the colony cannot replace aging workers. Over time the population shrinks until the colony eventually disappears.
How Big Is a Carpenter Ant Queen?
A carpenter ant queen is usually 12 to 17 millimeters long, which makes her noticeably larger than worker ants. She also has a broader thorax because that is where the wing muscles were located before she shed her wings. If you ever see one in person, it is hard to miss. She is the heavyweight of the colony.