Carpenter ants are a wood destroying insect, but they don’t eat wood they chew through it and build nests within it . Most often carpenter ant colonies are located around an area of moisture or at the location of a recent leak. For this reason carpenter ants are typically found in damp wall voids, window frames, door frames, chimney frames or around showers and sinks. Unfortunately, carpenter ants are clever and also have the ability to nest in perfectly dry areas. In fact, we once found a colony in a bedroom door.

When carpenter ants are damaging wood they leave behind a substance called frass. This sawdust like material is the garbage from the nest. It will contain discarded pupal casings, insect parts and wood shavings. Carpenter ants also have the ability to travel 300 ft from their nest, so just because you see them in the kitchen it doesn’t always mean that’s where the nest is.