Hercules Carpenter Ant

Camponotus herculeanus · Order: Hymenoptera · Family: Formicidae

Also called: Great Carpenter Ant, Hercules Ant

Can damage your home. These ants can chew and hollow out structural timber and other wooden parts of houses, especially damp or decayed wood.

Source: Wikipedia

Hercules carpenter ants build their nests inside wood, including the structural timbers of buildings, and their strong jaws excavate galleries that can weaken the wood. They are large ants common in mountainous and northern forests of North America, often found in conifer and hardwood habitats.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

Workers have dark heads and abdomens with reddish-brown mid-bodies, petioles and legs.

Source: Wikipedia

Size

Queens grow to about 15 mm (0.6 in) long. Workers are black-ish on the head and gaster and reddish-brown on the mesosoma, petiole and legs.

Source: Wikipedia

Is it a pest in the house?

They can establish nests inside the structural timber of houses. Using their strong jaws, they excavate galleries in damp or fungus-decayed wood.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it lives

They live in many habitats such as conifer and hardwood forests, clearings, oak scrub, disturbed sites, pastures and seashore grasslands.

Source: Wikipedia

What it eats

They feed on honeydew from sap-sucking insects and also eat insect larvae they find.

Source: Wikipedia

Life cycle

Winged males and females are produced in late summer, spend the winter in the nest and emerge in warm spring days to form swarms.

Source: Wikipedia

When you see it

Worker ants become active in spring and forage close to their nest.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it comes from

The species is common in mountainous regions and dominates ant communities in northern and mountainous parts of North America.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 31 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Alaska, Colorado, Utah, Maine, Washington, New Hampshire, Illinois, California.

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Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.

Source: GBIF

Status: native in North America; native in United States; native in Canada. Source: iNaturalist

Months it is reported in the US

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Source: GBIF

More photos

Hercules Carpenter Ant photo 3 — Photo: Jonghyun Park, CC BY

Hercules Carpenter Ant photo 4 — Photo: Matt Muir, CC BY

Hercules Carpenter Ant photo 5 — Photo: Raven Patrick, CC BY

Hercules Carpenter Ant photo 6 — Photo: unknown, CC0

Questions people ask

How can I tell if I have Hercules carpenter ants in my house?

Look for smooth, oval galleries and chambers inside wooden structures, especially in damp or decayed timber, and for the large black-red workers near those areas.

Source: Wikipedia