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Home / Ants / Carpenter Ant
Life Cycle Carpenter Ant
The life cycle of carpenter ants begins with the nuptial flight, which usually occurs in the late spring or early summer, depending on environmental factors. During this mating flight, male winged carpenter ants, or swarmers, mate with winged females. Soon after mating, the female sheds her wings and the males die.
The female ant then searches for a new site to build her colony. The queen typically seeks a small crack in a wooden structure. She then closes the crack to trap herself inside that chamber, and lays eggs for approximately 15 days. She remains inside the chamber until her first batch of carpenter ant eggs become adult workers. During this time, the queen uses her stored fat reserves and wing muscles for nourishment.
The queen provides food for the young by means of her salivary glands until they become workers capable of foraging. The queen looks after her first brood, and once grown, that first brood of adult workers takes care of subsequent broods.
Three to six years are required to establish a large and stable colony. The life cycle of a carpenter ant is estimated to last 60 days from egg to adult. The egg phase takes approximately 24 days, the larval phase 20 days and the pupal stage 21 days. Temperatures must remain between 70 to 90°F for proper development. Cold weather can stretch the development time of carpenter ants up to ten months.
The only role of the carpenter ant queen is to lay eggs, but as soon as worker carpenter ants mature into adults, they take on the responsibilities of the colony. They forage for food, tend to the eggs, larvae and pupae, and excavate galleries in order to broaden and propagate their nest. When several generations of workers have matured, the functions are divided and two castes appear: major workers, who act as soldiers to guard the nest, and minor workers, who forage for food take care for the young.
When a colony contains more than 2,000 workers, the queen begins to produce winged males and females, who will leave to begin other colonies of carpenter ants. A typical carpenter ant colony contains one queen, which produces about 200 to 450 winged carpenter ants that mate during spring.
Carpenter Ant Identification: How to Identify a Carpenter Ant
What Does a Carpenter Ant Look Like?
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