Carpenter Ants and the Damp Wood in Old Covington Houses

They don't eat wood, they hollow it

Carpenter ants are the big black ants that show up in a century-old Covington house. Unlike termites, they don't eat wood, they excavate it to build smooth galleries for the nest. They only bother with wood that moisture has already softened.

That's why they turn up in the same places every time: damp basement joists, porch columns and steps, window and door frames under a slow leak, and the wood behind a gutter that has been overflowing for years.

The signs

Coarse frass, like a small pile of pencil shavings, below a tiny hole is the classic tell. You may hear a faint rustling inside a wall on a quiet night. Big black ants indoors in the middle of winter almost always mean a nest inside the structure, not a foraging trail from outside.

Don't confuse the tiny ants streaming across the counter after a spring rain, those are odorous house ants or pavement ants, with the large carpenter ant. The small ones are a nuisance; the big ones are a moisture and structure question.

Treatment, then the water

Treating carpenter ants means locating the nest, treating it directly, and dealing with any satellite nests. Spraying the ants you see does almost nothing, the colony is elsewhere.

Then fix what invited them. Repair the leak, clear the gutters, replace the rotted sill or column, regrade so water runs away from the brick. Without the moisture fix, a new colony finds the same soft wood a season or two later. It's the same lesson the termites teach.

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