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Winged Carpenter Ants

Below are pictures of male winged Carpenter ants.  Note the pointed gaster (last body section) Pictures of female winged Carpenter Ants follow.

Male winged Carpenter ant reproductives only perform a select few functions: they monitor temperature and humidity to know when to swarm, the release a pheromone signaling the reproductive females when to swarm, and they mate in flight.  They cannot feed themselves and die soon after the mating flight

Winged Carpenter ants are reproductives.  Carpenter ant swarms occur in the spring time when they fly off to start brand new nest sites.  They are a drain on the nest they swarm from as they do no work and have to be fed by the workers. 

Workers can actually be seen sometimes pushing winged carpenter ants out of nests, as if saying to the swarming carpenter ants, enough already, I'm sick of feeding you. 

If you see large winged ants in the spring - chances are you are seeing a winged Carpenter ant.

The winged carpenter ant female is much larger than the males.  In the picture to the right: the bottom row of ants are all workers.  Worker ants come in three different sizes and they are all sterile females.  Yep, no male workers.  Insert joke here.

It can be very hard to tell which type of ant you are looking at by looking at a Carpenter ant swarmer (winged reproductive).  Any ant with wings has extra muscles on its upper back to work the wings, which can cover up distinguishing characteristics.

It is most common, in our area, for winged Carpenter ants to swarm from satellite nests and not main nest sites.  They are a very good indication of a well established healthy main nest site at least 5 to 8 years old.

If you look close enough on this video, you will see a female winged Carpenter ant emerging from this satellite nest in a customer's attic. 

Satellite nests can be dry, but main nests sites must always be somewhere that never dries out and never freezes - like a tree stump or dead wood in a still living tree.  Main nests sites can be 300 yards or more from a satellite nest.

A single winged Carpenter ant in your home does not mean you are infested - but you should have your home inspected. Swarming Carpenter ants can only fly a half mile, at the most, which means you probably have a main nest site fairly close to your home.

For more information including additional pictures and videos on the identification of carpenter ants, carpenter ant prevention, and carpenter ant treatment visit our carpenter ant main page.