There's a lot to Learn About Carpenter Ants

Carpenter Ants Habitat:

The Carpenter Ant species reside both outdoors and indoors in moist, decaying, or hollow wood, and most commonly found in forest environments. One of the biggest misconceptions about Carpenter Ants is that they only become a problem once they enter your home and invade your carpet. #MythBuster

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An easy assumption to make, hence their name is Carpenter Ant, however, Carpenter Ants come in from the outside, and stopping them before they get into your home is critical! 

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Maintaining your property with a routine Pest Control Treatment Plan provided by Four Seasons Exterminating will prevent Carpenter Ants. Meaning, you are be proactive and no reactive!

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Carpenter Ants do serious damage when they are not addressed.  They cut "galleries" into the wood grain to provide passageways to allow movement between different sections of their nest.

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Certain parts of a house, such as around and under windows, roof eaves, decks, and porches, are more likely to be infested by Carpenter Ants because these areas are most vulnerable to moisture. Carpenter Ants like moist areas.

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Carpenter Ants have been known to construct extensive underground tunneling systems. The tunneling systems lead to a food source – often aphid colonies, where the ants extract and feed on honeydew. These tunneling systems can also be found in trees.

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Carpenter Ant Colonies typically include a central "Parent" colony surrounded and supplemented by smaller satellite colonies that support the Parent. 

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Food:

Did you know that Carpenter Ants are considered both predators and scavengers? It's true. Carpenter Ants are foragers that typically eat parts of other dead insects.  And they also eat substances derived from other insects. Common foods include insect parts, "honeydew" produced by aphids, or extra-floral nectar from plants. They are also known for eating other sugary liquids such as honey, syrup, or juices. Carpenter Ants can increase the survivability of aphids when they tend them. They tend to many aphid species but can also express a preference for specific ones.

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Omnivorous - eat honeydew, sap, living and dead insects, etc. Carpenter Ants do not eat wood, only nest in it, and usually only after fungi have softened it.

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Carpenter Ant create these galleries, and they are smooth and very different from termite-damaged areas.  Termite damage have mud packed into hollowed-out areas. However, Carpenter Ants can be identified by the general presence of one upward protruding node, looking like a spike, at the "waist" attachment between the thorax and abdomen (petiole). 

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Biology and Habits:

Carpenter Ants, vary in size and color but are usually large (1/4-1/2 inch) and are blackish.