"Will it chew through my house?" is the first question I hear from a first-time ant-keeper or any ant-keeper's parents when they look at carpenter ants.
A quick disclaimer: your house will be safe as long as it's not made from a crumbly and rotting foundation. There will only be ants if there's water leaking through.
A virgin carpenter ant queen crawls out from under a flat rock in the desert night in spring as the sun sets. For her, and a hundred brothers and sisters, it will be the last time they see the nest. As a warm air floats about, she is suddenly compelled to spread her wings, and for a few hours, the air is filled with queens and drones looking for a suitable mate. Back to our queen, she's digging a small burrow into a wet patch of sand along with a group of 2 friends she's found on the way. Camponotus vicinus is one of the only ground nesting, as well as one of the only polygynous (Can have multiple queens) species to Camponotus in Canada. With a more narrow head, she's unable to dig through wood.
This species prefers low humidity from 30-50%, and slightly higher temperatures at 25-27 degrees Celsius. It's the fastest growing Carpenter ant species with workers ranging from 7-16 mm and queens reaching 18mm.
Image Courtesy of Jacob Liao. Check his website out here!