Males and females are very different. Males are 9 to 10 mm long. Their legs are fragile while females have a more robust constitution. The female’s head is longer and wider, and her legs are more powerful than those of males.
Females are queens or workers. Among females, only future queens have wings. In both males and queens, the forewings are much longer than the hind wings. All males have two pairs of wings, which is necessary for mating that does so in mid-flight: the male clings to the female and fertilizes it.
Description of carpenter ants
| French name | Carpenter ants |
| English name | Carpenter Ants |
| Latin name | Camponotus spp. |
| Class | Insects |
| Order | Hymenoptera |
| Family | Formicids |
Carpenter ant queen
Ant Habitat
The anthill is generally well organized. It contains several lodges connected by traffic galleries, which are also called satellite. Each room is used for specific and different activities depending on its location; either on the surface or in depth depending on the time of year.
Each entrance to the nest is guarded by guards also known as guards or soldiers. Its appearance is different with its big, strong head.
Morals of the formicids
How are soldiers compensated for their services?
It seems that their mandibles are so big that they cannot chew their food themselves. That is why, when a soldier is hungry, he rubs the head of a worker with his antennae. It means: “Give me food!” The worker reacts by placing regurgitated food in his mouth.
The breeders, the king and queen, live in the royal chamber, in complete darkness.
Royal Ants
The queen is gigantic compared to her tiny companion.
His abdomen, swollen with eggs, attests to his prodigious reproductive abilities. It is estimated to lay between 4,000 and 10,000 eggs per day.
It is not surprising that it is called an “automatic laying machine”.
However, the royal couple does not have much privacy. A whole team of workers is there to take care of them. They surround the queen, look after her immediate needs and feed her. As the eggs are laid, the workers transport them with their mandibles to the incubation chamber.
When a new queen builds a colony, she feeds her first larvae with food eggs and salivary secretions. The queen herself sometimes has to feed on her own eggs and draws on her fat reserves to survive until her first workers take office.
How to prevent an infestation?
When they enter our homes, the ants add to their menu:
- sweet foods,
- Meat
- pet food
- Fat.
They can eat almost anything humans feed on. They grow the fungus in the rotting wood that it has located in a damp area of the house’s frame, for example: during water damage, or water infiltration, it can also attack healthy woods.
React to the slightest alert and involve your exterminator.
Exterminate the ant
The main nest is always outside the house, but when we find ants inside, it can come from a satellite nest or a second main nest. This means that a future queen of the main nest has re-entered your house to build her own nest.
During our inspection, our job is to locate the source or even the nest.
Notice from your exterminator in Montreal
It is recommended not to place your logs or wooden ropes stuck on the wall of the house, as this increases the risk of infestation inside the house. Do not leave food lying around the counters and make sure to seal sugary foods tightly.
