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Meet the Black Carpenter Ant
The black carpenter ant, Camponotus pennsylvanicus, is one of
New York’s largest and friendliest ants. Because of their size and
pleasant disposition, they make excellent ambassadors between
the ant and human world.
When I was little, I took my breakfast crumbs out to the front yard
to feed the black carpenter ants living in the willow oak trees. I
built little piles of bacon and toast for them on top of oak leaves
and waited for them to lumber out from holes hidden in the bark
at the base of the trees.
You can identify a black carpenter ant by looking at its size (BIG)
and the light dusting of golden hairs on its head and thorax that
settle on its abdomen. Unlike some ant species, black carpenter
ant workers vary in size and shape within the colony. Between ¼
and a little more than ½ inch long, a small black carpenter ant can
comfortably straddle a plain M&M, and a large one can just about
straddle a dime. Colonies have
between about 350 to almost 2,000
workers, which, depending on worker
size, works out to be almost 200
dollars’ worth of dimes banging
around inside those trees or, more
deliciously, up to 40 bags of M&Ms.
Breakfast for Ants
I loved those ants. I was
fascinated by the way they
walked around like miniature,
black horses, exploring their way
with their elbowed antennae,
stopping every now and then to
gently tap their sisters and give
each other waxy kisses. If I
pressed my ear against the tree near their entranceway, I could
hear them crackling about their business inside. If I sat still, they
would come up to my hands and gingerly pick crumbs off my
fingers. If I picked one up, she would explore my arm and shirt. If
I squeezed her, she would give me a pinch with her tiny jaws. It
never hurt.
Follow her home to
the nest!
They’re called carpenter ants because they are particularly good
at woodworking. They like to nest in living, standing trees using
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