how can you tell if you have regular ants or carpenter ants?

Question

i've noticed since the weather has started to warm that there are ants coming into my house, i havent figured out from where but they seem to congregate in my sink, they ants are black and that's about all i can say about them, they don't travel to any other parts of my house just my kitchen sink. i saw some answers to natural ant removal so i will try them but i just want to make sure they are just regular ants and not carpenter ants

Answer 1

You'll know if they bite you they are carpenter ants.

Answer 2

How To Identify Carpenter Ants

Answer 3

Carpenter ants are among the largest ants in seattle washington. There are several species of carpenter ants that may be found infesting homes and other buildings. Normally workers are black, or red and black, in color; and range in size from 3/8 to ½ inch. Winged queen ants may be as large as one inch. However, size is not a reliable characteristic for identifying carpenter ants. Some ants, including carpenter ants, have different sized workers which help the nest with a range of jobs from food collecting to nest defense. The best method to distinguish carpenter ants from other ants is by the following characteristics: A waist with one node (petiole) and a thorax with an evenly rounded upper surface.

Answer 4

Carpenter ants are rather large. shiney black and can be found thruout most of the house. The smaller ants are generally "sugar " ants and mainly stay in the kitchen are as that's where they find spilled food or condiments. You can purchase several ant traps and place them in various areas around the kitchen, I buy a spray each spring that I use around doors, windows and on my patio and front porch area. This is a residual spray and will last for quite a while unless it rains, then I respray the areas again. This also keeps the spiders from coming into my house. I leave a bedroom window slightly open so my cat can come in and out.

Answer 5

ants - small (regular size about 1/16" long and very thin) the Carpenter ants are about 4 times that size.

Carpenter ants only eat wood to build a nest inside the wood. (termites eat wood for food). Regardless the carpenter ants have a queen and hundreds of workers - if left untreated you will get many queens and thousands of workers - in time the wood structure of a house will collapse.

Regular ants just want food in your home - grease, bits of spilled food - packages of food they can get to. These ants usually live under-ground -- they leave a trail of order that they and there fellow workers can take to come back to your home to grab more food.

In both cases - just spraying the workers does nada. You got to kill the queen(the baby makers).

Carpenter ants need an exterminator or some good old fashion chlordane and you need to spray the wood (their nest). Regular ants you need food that is poison so that the workers are tricked into bring it back to their nest. An exterminator is good for this. Keep the house clean inside stoves under refrigerators and tightly sealed packages in cabinets.
Most sprays just kill what you see and the ants will just keep on coming back. Again a good chemical like chlordane or second rated Dursban can be applied as a border around the home to stop the ants entry.

Al Gore ain't going to like my recommendations.

Answer 6

You can tell carpenter ants from other ants by their size. Carpenter ants are considerably larger than other ants. Whoever said they will not bother your home is misinformed. Carpenter ants are almost as destructive to wood as termites. The difference is termites eat the wood, carpenter ants destroy it and use it for nesting. They can do considerable damage to any type of wood structure in your home. They can be either black or red. The pesticides you can buy at the store dont always work because the average person does not know how and where to properly apply them and they are much less concentrated than those used by pest control professionals. I went to one house that was infested with carpenter ants in the attic. They had chewed a huge hole in the ceiling. If you dont have luck trying to get rid of them yourself, you might have better luck calling a professional who has much better quality pesticides.
From your description it does not sound like carpenter ants. They generally do not invade the typical kitchen areas like smaller ants. They also do not travel in trails like smaller ants. They tend to wander about as if they are lost.

Answer 7

That time of year.
If they like your sink & have wings or you see wings lying around, could be flying ants or termites.
Carpenter ants are dark with big heads & bodies around 3/8"
Carpenter ants do not nest in the home.
The others will.
Stick a few to a piece of scotch tape & take it to an exterminator.
They will identify the ants for free & be able to give you what you need to get rid of them. not for free.
Good luck.

Answer 8

I did a paper on carpenter ants when I was a kid. You have carpenter ants and they are attracted to damp wood, potentially underneath a sink. They can tunnel through it to get to food that is in your kitchen.

I got an exterminator at my house when I realized a bunch of ants were coming into my back porch...it is worth the money...they tend to be more visible when it is warmer b/c that's when things are damp in the Springtime. They always can re-congregate and come back. Think of the spot under the sink as leading to an area in a basement or under your house that these ants are entering repeatedly like an old stump.

Answer 9

Carpenter ants are very large ants, you would know the difference. If you are worried about them being carpenter ants because your afraid of damage to your home its not a big deal anyway, Carpenter ants are not Termites. Termites eat wood. Carptenter ants chew wood and it has to be soft to begin with. They can not chew through dry solid wood, it has to be decaying. They do not eat the wood they chew, they just tunnel in it to make a home. Unless you have a very old rotton house they will not do any damage! The best way to remove ants from the home is to remove their food source, thats the only reason they are comming in. Keep everything clean and food containers put away and sealed tight. They will stop comming in if they find no food and will focus their energy elsewhere (outside!).

Answer 10

Carpenter ants are larger and eat wood, ants in your sink are either regular ants or if very small they call them sugar ants, get an ant trap and leave it on your counter, also wipe your counter with vinegar (but then you run the risk of your house smelling like a douche), bleach out your sink.

Answer 11

Carpenter Ant that nests in decaying wood in which it bores tunnels for depositing eggs but the regular ants are just ants who love to travel around the house and get/pick and store food into somewhere.Better clean always your sink