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February 13, 2012
Carpenter Ants
Carpenter ants are not hard to miss. They're big, up to ½" long, though they seem much larger, and are jet black to reddish in color. Though they enjoy a varied diet of living and dead insects, aphid honeydew, sweets, meat, and fats, they do not eat wood.
Their lifestyle
Carpenter ants nest in hollow trees, logs, posts, stumps, landscaping timbers, just about any soft, moist or rotting wood. They are extremely important because they enhance the decay of wood and only qualify as a pest when they invade buildings.
They enter trees through old, open wounds and build galleries through the soft wood for their nests. Sometimes they cut into the softer parts of green wood as the colony expands but they will not kill a living tree. They are fastidious housekeepers, shoving the sawdust-like pieces of wood out the entrance to pile up in a cone at the trunk's base. The pile also includes their garbage: bits of soil, dead ants, parts of insects and remnants of other food.
You usually see them crawling down trees in the late afternoon as they leave the nest to forage at night, traveling as far as 100 yards away. In the early morning they return with food either intact or ingested for feeding to the stay-at-home members of the colony. Carpenter ants do not cause rotten trees but they have figured out how to make a living from them.
Living with them
Carpenter ants in trees don't warrant control. Because they are not directly harmful killing them will have no bearing on the health of the tree. Remember they are actually cleaning up existing dead wood. Baits won't work. Their diet is so diverse that only a few will be killed and the queen will continue to produce new workers. The only way to totally eliminate them is to destroy the nest. That is difficult and unnecessary. Do not plug or seal tree cavities or treat tree wounds with dressings. Not only is it detrimental but it will not prevent decay or carpenter ant activity.
If you have any questions about your landscape plants call, visit or e-mail us. We'll be happy to help.
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Hoerr Nursery | 8020 N Shade Tree Drive | Peoria, IL 61615
Just North of the Shoppes on Route 91 | 309.691.4561 | Contact Us
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