In the world of carpenter ants there are two things that are the upmost importance to them, increasing the size of the colony and the survival of the colony.  When a carpenter ant colony moves into a structure and begins increasing in size, one of the first things that they do is pick out two or three other areas in the structure to live and work in.  They do this for a couple of reasons.  If the colony is discovered and limited treatment is done to that one area of activity only, the colony will not be wiped out due to the fact that it already has parts of the colony divided and working in other areas of the structure.

In these pictures, we discovered one main part of the colony.  One of the first things the ants did was start grabbing larvae and moving them.  The other thing you will see is how they mine the wood in the direction of the grain. This makes mining easier and allows the ants to expand the colony faster than if going against the grain. We could all learn something here, lol. 

Remember that carpenter ants do not have to have damp wood to infest a home or structure.  This Home was completely dry, and had limited conducive conditions.  Carpenter ants are opportunists and a home makes a great Incubator for rearing young carpenter ants quickly due to the safe, dry environment it provides. 

-Elmer Bensinger