Carpenter Ants Discovered in Oakurst, NJ home

A homeowner in Oakhurst, NJ while doing laundry in her basement, observed several large, black ants and some fine-sawdust like material on the floor. She immediately got on the phone and contacted Cowleys. 

It was a good thing she did! These large ants were wood-destroying carpenter ants. These ants are sometimes difficult to identify because that are not uniform. Rather they are polymorphic, which means they come in several sizes. The sawdust material on the floor is called “frass.” These ants, as their name implies,  burrow out channels in mostly moist, decaying wood. Unlike termites, they do not actually eat the wood. They carve out galleries in wood to establish pockets of space in which to nest. These ants forage for the same foods as most other ants. Their diet consists of honeydew, meats, pet good, sugar, and other sweets.

Upon entering the basement, I followed the trailing ants to a cavity in the wood. Using an aerosol pyrethrum, I probed the cavity to flush the nest out of hiding. These ants can run, but they can’t hide! I found a carpenter ant nest that I treated with a residual dust that will soon eliminate the queen and the entire colony.