How Long Will A Carpenter Ants Live
Since all the workers are sterile the ants do not survive for long without the queen.
How long will a carpenter ants live. And it depends upon the species of carpenter ants that the mature colony makes it. The damage caused by carpenter ants depends on how many nests are inside the house and how long the ants have been active. Their diet includes insect parts and tissues honeydew extra-floral sweet syrup and honeydew.
Compared to other ant species carpenter ants Camponotus are larger in size ranging from 34 mm to 13 mm in length. Carpenter ants are a group of ants belonging to the genus Camponotus of which there are over 1000 species. Carpenter ants use knots cracks holes and old insect tunnels to find entry into these areas.
Control is not necessary for the trees health. It is important for you to know that it is very common for the population of these ants to reach between 2000 to 3000 workers. Cold weather can stretch the development time of carpenter ants up to 10 months.
Queens can live up to 10 years and female workers can live up to 7 years but males die soon after mating. The queen on the other hand is the most long-lived ant. Control of carpenter ants in trees is important if ants are entering homes from colonies in trees.
It takes three to six years to establish a large and stable colony. Carpenter ants queens live somewhere between 7 to 10 years and sometimes up to 20 years depending on the conditions while worker ants live up to a year. As long as the wood of your home is well kept and dry carpenter ants will most likely pass you by this fall and winter.
Worker ants live anywhere between a few months and a few years. However if you have leaks or water build up damaging the wood of your home--more destruction may be on its way. The only way they could survive is if the queen left behind some female larvae which could be nourished by the workers so as to become a fertile queen ant.