There are over 1,000 species of carpenter ants. Most of them are large, between a quarter of an inch and an inch long, and black, although there are red ones too. There are even a few species in South East Asia which will explode if threatened, ejecting a sticky substance out through their heads which immobilizes the attackers. The exploding carpenter ant dies.

Carpenter ants are thought to do a lot of damage to timber, as they gnaw their way up the middle through its length. However, this is a popular myth, unlike termites, carpenters do not eat wood, they chew their way through it to get somewhere. They spit the gnawed wood out. This is called frass and it can often be seen in heaps like sawdust. It is a good sign that carpenters are active in or around your home.

Carpenter ants like to travel through the length of damp or rotten dead timber in much the same manner as termites do although they do not consume the timber. Carpenters feed on dead insects, dead animals and honeydew from aphids and scale insects outside the home, but if they come inside your home they will be looking for dropped or uncovered food, especially anything sweet and sugary. Therefore, hygiene is an important factor in clearing carpenters out of your home.

These ants will walk up to a hundred yards while looking for food, but they like to be close a recurring supply of food. A characteristic of carpenter ant colonies is that they may construct satellite nests away from their main colony. This is often why they go into a home.

If they regularly find spilled food in the kitchen, they may make a nest in the wall to take advantage of it, particularly if the window or door frame is a bit decayed. Inside the home, they will probably nest in a cavity wall, outside the home they prefer to construct nests in decaying tree stumps.

It is no good spraying carpenter ants with insecticide if you want to get rid of them – especially if you kill large numbers of them. This may sound odd, but the reason is that the nest will miss these workers and so the queen will increase her production of eggs to counteract it. If she over compensates, you are in a worse situation that you were before spraying.

The only way to destroy a nest of carpenter ants is to destroy the queen and the entire colony with poison. This is not difficult although it does take a bit of investigative work. Carpenters are most active between dusk and midnight, so put out honey on glass or sticky tape where they are active and follow them when they take it home.

Do not forget, they may have several nests in their colony. If you have to have light, wrap red cellophane over a normal torch, because ants can not see red light. When you have found their nests, put poison down outside each nest as indicated on the label. Do this for several days in a row until you do not see anymore carpenter ants. If you are still getting them, you have missed a nest.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on many subjects, but is at present concerned with Getting Rid Of Carpenter Ants. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Killing Carpenter Ants.

If you are thinking about buying an ant farm, there are a few things that you ought to realize about keeping ants before you set up or at least colonize your farm. In fact, even before you buy your ant farm, you should look around for which varieties of ants you can get hold of and then read up on what kind of colonies those ants create.

Do they build nests above and below ground or only below ground? Most regular ant farms are not designed to cope with anthills, although some, shaped like a flat-bottomed egg are built to deal with a slight anthill.

Once you know what kinds of ants you can have, you can select the variety and acquire the appropriate shaped ant farm. Most novices begin with harvester ants, which will live very happily in a normal ant farm. Your colony may grow to a few thousand members, so the next thing to think about is food for them.

Harvester ants will eat a range of different types of food, but it is simpler and cleaner if you give them sugary, crisp vegetables and fruit. For example, bits of carrot, celery and apple are very good. They are readily cut up and transported by the ants, they are nutritious and they will not decay or begin to smell bad rapidly.

You will have to weigh up for yourself how much food to put down, but it is far better to put out fresh food every day, than leave a large lump of something lying in the farm for days on end. If you notice that food is being left, cut back a little.

On the other hand, if the colony is increasing in number and the food is disappearing put a little more down. Working this amount of food out is part of your job. Mould is a health hazard to ants so be on the look out for it on the food at all times.

Ants will get a lot of the moisture that they need from the food that you provide them, but they do require water as well. Not much to be sure, but you ought to drip two or three drops – literally only two or three drops of water – onto the ground every day. Whatever you do do not tip so much water that a puddle forms, even a very small one.

If you want to give your ants a real delicacy, put a few granules of sugar into half a teaspoon of water and tip that onto the soil. They will love it and it will also give them a shot of energy, just as if you were to eat a chocolate bar.

Owning an ant farm should be educational and enjoyable. Watching the ants work together to make a nest and rear their young will teach adults and children alike a lot about how insects live. It will also help remove some of the illogical fear that many people have for insects in general, including ants.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on quite a few topics, but is at present involved with how to kill fire ants. If you would like to know more or check out some great offers, please go to our website at Killing Carpenter Ants.

The average American homeowner invests a considerable amount of their income in their home, so it only makes sense to take care of that home so you can enjoy the home owner experience!

Here are 5 helpful home ownership guidelines:

DOUBLE JOB – If you want to save up to 50% on your heating and cooling bills you will need to install double pane windows throughout your home.

The investment required to buy and put in your new windows can usually be recovered in about 2 years.

FIXING TO MOVE – If you are looking to fix up your home to improve the resale value, a Forbes report indicated that the best investments when modernizing include the kitchen, bathroom improvements and any increases to the interior square footage.

Although swimming pools can make your home more desirable and easier to sell, they do very little to increase your home’s value.

AWAY WITH THE OLD – Replacing an aged air conditioner, heater or furnace with a newer, more energy-efficient item can save huge bucks on energy bills.

Changing from a unit that works at 80% efficiency to one operating at 95% capability can pay for itself in under 4 years.

DON’T PAINT YOURSELF INTO A CORNER – Using high quality interior and exterior paints around your house will save you more money that you can save by going cheap.

The higher quality paints last longer and cover much easier which means you do not need as much in the long run. They will keep your house looking clean for a long time into the future.

INSURE WHAT’S YOURS – Now that you are taking time to read hints and tips on maintaining your most valuable possession, don’t stop there.

Update your home insurance policy to ensure you are fully protected. Take pictures or a video of your valuable goods around your home. Store this with a written list of all your high tech gadgets outside the home for safe keeping.

Many homeowners have preconceived notions of what is insured under a standard homeowner’s policy only to discover after disaster occurs that their coverage is not adequate.

Read your insurance policy and ask your agent about any issues you have. Learn all you can about protecting your investments.

American homeowners are always looking for info to increase the value of their housing investment. Before looking aimlessly for housing related services, make sure you view Mark Bragg’s excellent home ownership content at The Association of American Homeowners, and get all your inquires answered on the concept of Home ownership from the official homeowners news magazine.