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FLORIDA ANTS
Your source for information
on Ants |
| Carpenter Ants |
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Appearance:
Carpenter ants vary in color from dull black with reddish legs, a combination of red and black or completely red or brown. Also known as the Florida carpenter ant.
Size:
Range from 3/16-inch to 1/2-inch in length.
Behavior:
A parent carpenter ant colony may establish one or more parent colonies, which contain an egg-laying queen, brood and workers; they also build satellite nests in sound wood that contain large numbers of workers but no queen or larvae. They then may move from an outdoor parent colony to an indoor satellite nest, which does not require moisture since there are no eggs present.
Carpenter ants are omnivorous, and feed on plant juices, fresh fruits, insects (living or dead), meats, syrup, honey, jelly, sugar, grease, fat, honeydew, etc. They feed readily on termites and usually never co-exist with them in a home. Workers are known to forage for food as far as 100 yards from their nest, and have strong jaws which readily bite when contacted.
Habitat:
Outdoors, carpenter ants nest in live and dead trees, rotting logs and stumps, porch pillars and roofs, windowsills and wood in contact with soil. They are also known to live in telephone poles and other man-made structures, and prefer to be close to food sources and safe from environmental hazards such as flooding or heat.
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Indoors, they tend to nest in wood, which may be softened by moisture, and in dry wall voids. Workers cut galleries and tunnels in wood, expanding the nest size for the enlarged colony. They have also been found to nest in foam insulation. The presence of 20 or more winged and/or wingless ants indoors is usually a sign of indoor infestation.
Unique Characteristics:
Indoor carpenter ants nest in dry wood, building “galleries” in which the walls are smooth and clean, giving it an almost sandpapered appearance; any debris, such as sawdust-like wood fragments, that is caused by the nest construction is carefully deposited outside the nest. This smooth, clean work often appears as if it were done by carpenters, hence the name.
Control:
When using baits made specifically for carpenter ants, they often do the work for you, carrying the bait back to be fed to the ant colony. Trim all trees and bushes so they do not touch exterior walls. Fix leaky roofs and plumbing to reduce excess moisture; painting and/or sealing wood before it becomes wet is also good.
Replace wood previously infested by ants or termites or any rotten or water-damaged wood such as dead stumps, and store wood for later use (firewood, plywood sheets, etc.) off the ground and away from the house.
Do you live in Florida and have an ant problem in your home or office? Floridabugs.com offers specifically designed pest control treatments to regulate and eliminate these pests! FloridaBugs.com – the finest in Florida pest control.
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