Carpenter Ants can create a lot of damage to a home quickly. With their large mandibles they can create tunnels through the walls of your property. You may see them wandering around your home, usually alone. Carpenter Ants mainly feed on dead insects and meat, so if you leave our ant baits or traps, they may not eat it if other options are available. Carpenter ants can be easily identified by their large mandibles and large thorax. If you’ve seen small black or red ants around your home, check out our Ants page. Our technicians know that finding carpenter ants or seeing the damage they cause can be scary, and getting rid of them can be challenging. Here at Sweets Pest Control, we work to help you live pest free.

• Carpenter ants can cause serious damage to your property by tunneling through wood. It’s important to recognize them when you see one.

• Carpenter ants have a constricted “waist” and three body regions.

• These ants are often up to 5/8 of an inch long, but the queen can be as long as one inch.

• Some of them may even have wings, making it easy to confuse them with termites.

• Both carpenter ants and termites have two pairs of wings. There is a front pair and a back pair. On termites, both the front and back pair of wings are the same length. On carpenter ants, the back wings are significantly shorter than the front wings.

• Carpenter ants seem to prefer building their nests in wet or damaged wood outside. However, this does not mean they won’t build nests inside your walls, as well.

• Once carpenter ants develop a primary nest, they will create satellite nests providing the large queen ants places to lay more and more eggs.

• Move all dead or moist wood as far away from your property as possible.

• Seal all cracks to prevent carpenter ants from getting inside your property.

• Trim branches away from your property that could be used as bridges for carpenter ants.

• Reduce excess moisture in and around your property. Ensure water drains away from the foundation.

• Clear gutters to ensure proper drainage away from property.

• Seal all rotten wood areas if possible. Carpenter Ants do not eat rotten wood but it creates an easy entrance for them.