Talk:Black carpenter ant

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[edit] Synonymous Names

Camponotus herculeanus japonicus Mayr (Yasumatsu & Brown, 1951) from: http://ant.edb.miyakyo-u.ac.jp/E/Taxo/F80902.html

Should probably be mentioned on the page somewhere. If nothing else, this'll serve as a note for me to add it in when I get the chance.--Wynler | Talk 20:51, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Carpenter Ants: Control Measures

Carpenter ants generally live in nests of up to several thousand individuals. The queen and all of the workers need to be killed to eliminate the problem. Since they favor moist wood as a habitat, any condition that promotes moisture should be eliminated. The easiest of these is keeping gutters clean so that water does not run down the side of the structure or gain entry. Ants are not stupid. Moist wood is much easier to chew. These ants do not eat the wood, but remove it to create galleries for their activities. The galleries run parallel to the grain, as they are created in the softer, non-lignin portions of the timber. The galleries have a sandpaper-like feel, due to fecal remnants, but the mud-tubes produced by termites will not be seen. With greater amounts of destruction, one can see sawdust-like piles accumulating below sites of activity.

Any wood in contact with the ground can be a source of entry, and water running toward the structure will also encourage these ants. Sloping the surrounding ground away from the structure will remedy this method of entry. Leaks inside the house from plumbing or appliances can also create the moist conditions that encourage these species.

One can spray the insects with common household insecticides to kill them, but this is unlikely to penetrate enough to reliably kill the colonies deep in the wood (or elsewhere!)

THE CRITICAL ELEMENT IN ANT CONTROL IS TO LOCATE THE NEST SO THAT IT CAN BE DESTROYED.

This can be done by following the foraging workers, who are generally females. Winged males leave the nest to reproduce, so there is little point in following them. They go in search of sunlight, so they are often seen near doors and windows (as exit points.) If winged ants are seen, there is a colony not far behind, so do not ignore this important warning sign. Structural damage can be intense by the time external damage is visible, such as sawdust or bubbling paint.

Various kinds of pesticide measures are now used, including granular chemicals, biologicals and soil poisoning. The latter is the least environmentally sound. The granular chemicals exploit the insects fondness for sweets. The granules are carried back to the nest, where the more slow-acting will eventually be fed to the queen. Mgrossmdjd 02:34, 12 November 2007 (UTC)