What carpenter ants really feed on and why they are dangerous

Question: I’ve been seeing lots of big, winged black ants around this spring. I assume these are carpenter ants. Are they scouting for more food, aka the wood of my house? What should I do?

Answer: Carpenter ants, large black ants, survive mainly on aphid honeydew, not wood. They don’t eat wood, but they nest in it. In the spring, winged ants are commonly seen. These are the swarmers, reproductive males and females, dispersing and looking for a mate and for a suitable home, such as a hollow stump or hollow house wall.

Seeing these winged ants doesn’t mean you have an infestation, as carpenter ants naturally live out in hollow trees and stumps as well in human structures. But it is always good to check your home and outbuildings once a year for pests.

Carpenter ants may enter a house via the telephone, television or electrical cables, especially if they pass near trees that harbor aphids.

Do you have shrubs near your house? These may be host to aphids that attract the carpenter ants. Best to trim them back away from the house or remove them. Honeydew is a sticky, sweet liquid secreted by aphids. Ants may “tend” the tiny, plant-sucking aphids, much like shepherds tend their flocks. Carpenter ants also scavenge for food and even can be predators.

To make their nests, carpenter ants scrape out sound, dry wood, wall voids, tree stumps, attic insulation or anything else that can be made into a cavity. They can wreak havoc on a house, causing thousands of dollars of damage.

Do you see small sawdust piles or trails of large ants leading into your house? They may enter through a crack or under siding. Are you hearing scraping sounds? This could be worker ants excavating, as they enlarge the nest inside a wall.

The cavity the ants seek out may not necessarily need to be wood. All they need is protection. For example, rigid foam insulation may be used to nest in.

Seek out professional help or advice if you really think you have a problem. But there are ways to reduce carpenter ant populations yourself.

There are borate baits especially formulated for carpenter ants that you can place around the foundation of the structure the ants are inhabiting. Laced with something enticing, the baits are taken by the worker ants back to the queen and the nest.

To learn more about carpenter ant control, go to livingwithbugs.com, specifically livingwithbugs.com/carpenter_ant_baits.html.

Life still in fig tree

Q: I have a fig tree (Black Jack), and so far, no new leaves or fruit have appeared on the main tree, but I have a new shoot coming up down by the ground. If the upper is dead, could I save shoots on the ground and start a new tree?

A: The new shoot tells me that some of your fig tree roots still are alive. Prune off the dead part, leaving the sprouts. Fertilize and water well, and in a few years, with luck, the fig will grow large again and bear fruit. Don’t fertilize past July or your fig will be more susceptible to cold damage the following winter.