Carpenter Ants:- The Silent Destroyers
- Carpenter ants are named so because of their features. These ants are found in the forests throughout the world. In the group of these ants, there are small species of ant workers which are 4 to 7 mm, and large species of workers which are generally of size 7-13 mm, and male ant groups which are 5 to 13 mm long in size.
- These ants are generally found in different colors like brown, red, and black. There are numerous species of such ants approximately more than 1000 species. They create their nests outdoors and indoors, if they are building their nests outdoors then they usually prefer moist and damp woods, and indoors they build their nest in decaying wood which has holes such as windows, doors with gaps, and ceiling walls.
- The specific name of these ants is Componotus. These species use their strong jaws to build their nests. Carpenter ants are found in forests, urban areas, agricultural lands, and moist areas. Normally, these ants are found everywhere except some regions like Greenland, Antarctica, Iceland, and certain Islands.
Carpenter Ants And Their Habitat Preference
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Carpenter ants like nesting in areas with moisture and in areas with high humidity levels. Their habitat preference is dead, decaying, and moist woods, if we talk about houses food areas like the kitchen and pantry attract these ants.
Unlike Termites, these ants don’t eat wood but create spaces in them for their living. The idea behind choosing moist wood as their habitat preference is that, it will become easy to chew and make their space for living along with this, the moist wood attracts fungus as it is the ideal environment for the growth of fungus and it became a food resource for the ants for consumption.
Carpenter Ants As A Structure Destroyers
The Carpenter ants in order to build their nests, excavate wood, and make tunnels as a result the base of the structure of the houses weakens, that’s why they are called structure destroyers. Additionally, they set up in different buildings and lived there with their colonies. They entered the house and buildings through door gaps, cracks, open, sealing parts, and cracked windows, when they entered they searched out for dead, moist, and decaying wood.
House inspection is required regularly to check whether these structure destroyers are there in your house so you can take necessary steps to remove them, also, the sealing part, moist wood, and cracked windows must be repaired soon so that it won’t allow these ants to build their nests in your house.
Carpenter ants make the structure of the houses or buildings hollow to make their nest resulting in very costly expense in repairing the house or building. So it is better to take preventive steps soon so that these structure destroyers stay away from your residence.
How to identify componotus?
Componotus is the scientific name of carpenter ants that can be easily differentiated from other ants as they are generally bigger in comparison to ants of different species, these ants are structured with a waist that has one petiole which helps increase flexibility, a thorax which helps in side view, and an abdomen that has a reproductive system with some vital organs known as gaster.
They are usually black in colour but some of these species are red or yellow, and to differentiate from other ants, they also have wings, elbowed antennae,
Large mandibles are used for holding, biting, or cutting food. A single colony contains multiple queens, but it is easy to differentiate between queen and worker ants as queen ants are one inch larger than the worker ants and mostly reside in the nest most of the time to protect the colony.
If you find such ants in your house matching this description then it is confirmed that they are Componotus and you need to beware and find solution to get rid of them as soon as possible.
Do carpenter ant bites?
- You can easily guess the male ant as they don’t have stingers and they come towards you aggressively to protect themselves in their defense.
- But female ants have a stinger and female carpenter ant bites you many times. Unlike male ants, female ants sting you when they get provoked. They don’t want their nest to get disturbed by anyone. To protect their nests carpenter ant bites that person in counter of self defence.
Symptoms after ant stings
Carpenter Ant Sting Causes Mild Pain
Secretion of Formic acid by Carpenter ant
Carpenter ants stings contain formic acid, also known as methanoic acid and carboxylic acid. This acid generally found in red ants, honey bee, scorpians, head lice. When these ants sting formic acid enters in body and leave red coloured bumps, irritation and itching or any allergic reactions. These all symptoms need to be cured immediately so that it not cause you any kind of harm in the future.
How carpenter ants are different from Termites
The ants have more variation in the colours but termites are only of red or brown colour. Termites have paddle shaped wings but ants have needle shaped wings. The termites don’t have any black spot on their wings but these ants usually have black spot on their front wings. The last difference is that termites not bite humans but carpenter ants do bite humans for their safety or when they feel danger.
How to treat carpenter ant bites?
The first thing to do is that you need to wash the stinged area with soap and fresh water. You can apply any antibiotic cream or coconut oil after wash or, you can apply an ice pack on the stinged area. If you feel itching for a long or you find any allergy then you can consult a doctor without any delay.
Different ways to eliminate carpenter ants from your house
- There are different ways to eliminate carpenter ants from your house. These ways are as follows:
- First you need to repair dampness or moisture in the walls from your house, repair leaking areas like taps so that it won’t create moisture as moisture attracts these species.
- Secondly, fill cracks in your windows, doors so that these ants can’t enter your house.
- Thirdly, there is one more way from where such ants can enter your house, that is, the way through your garden. You need to take care that these ants don’t enter into your house with the help of the plants.
- Fourth, pest control or any ant spray is the best way to eliminate carepenter ants from your house or building.
- Fifth, keep infested wood away from your house as the ants are attracted by moist wood, they search for these kind of dump, dead and decaying wood so that they make their nest inside and outside the house easily because it would be easy for them to build nest in such woods with their strong jaws.
- Sixth, you can made home solution also to treat the ants using boric acid, water and sugar.
Carpenter ant- an environment engineer
1. Aerification Of Soil
Aerification of soil is a process of mixing air into liquid or with other substances in the soil. When they bury it helps to aerate the soil which helps in the filtration of air and water. This process helps in maintaining ecological balance.
2. Seed dispersal
With the help of waste management practices, the carpenter ants help in seed dispersal. As ants for survival collect food, some of the food contains seeds and they are brought to their nest for their consumption, after consumption of the other part of the seed, they leave that seed outside their nest. These seeds germinate and then grow into new plants in a suitable environment.
3. Make soil rich in Nutrients
The primary work of Carpenter ants is making their nest where they can live in colonies and gather their food. They love to make their nest in wet or moist wood as it becomes easy to churn up the wet wood and make tunnels there, while churning the wood, the very small particles of wood mix with the soil which makes the soil rich in nutrients.
Moreover, their ability to scavenge results in the breaking down of organic matters such as dead plants and animals into finer particles helps in the occurrence of the process of decomposition which aids in increasing the level of nutrients in the soil as well as the fertility of soil increases.
Carpenter ants helps in balancing food chain
Carpenter ants are well-known predators with strong jaws and mandibles, these ants specialize in hunting other insects like other species of ants, beetles, and caterpillars which helps in controlling the population of other species.
How colony of carpenter ants developed?
The worker ants take care of new young ants and provide food to them. After they become mature colonies they produce males and winged females for reproduction.
Then the female ants leave their old nest and become the queens and afterward, they start their own colonies and this process continues. Some of them are soldier ants also their role was to take care of their nest and protect their colony from their rival ants.
Are the carpenter ants reside at your home?
How do you come to know whether these ants residing at your house and destroying the structure of your house silently? You need to inspect your house at least twice a month to keep it safe from termites and carpenter ants.
Now let’s see how you check these ants.
3. Shredded wings over the floor or you found some remains of dead insects.
FAQ
Carpenter ants are one of the ant species different from the other ants because of their size. These ants have four wings, their front wings are larger than their back wings. Unlike Termites, they don’t eat wood but make holes in the wood with the help of their strong jaws.
Carpenter ants are also known as silent destroyers as when they enter the house they choose moist and damp wood or cracks to make their nest for laying eggs and collecting food in their nests which causes structural damage to your house.
Carpenter ant hates the strong smell of garlic, lavender, essential oils, and vinegar. These ants get disturbed and irritated by such smells. These smells can help you to make these ants to stay away from your residence.
Usually, the carpenter ants are not harmful to human beings unless and until their nests get disturbed. When you are too close to their nest then only there is a chance that these ants sting you.
Lemons are relatively stronger and more effective as compared to the other scents although they don’t kill the carpenter ants, but the smell of the lemon changes their way, and the smell covers the other odors.