In Canada, carpenter ants actually serve a beneficial purpose to the natural environment. Carpenter Ants consistently makes wood into mulch where they can nest in. You need to get rid of them to avoid the consequences which supports the growing process within ecosystems. Unfortunately, this good deed is not always beneficial to human beings. Although carpenter ants do not eat wood, they burrow into it to make tunnels to support a colony. This means that the wood or tree can be destroyed over time due to this activity you can get mulch infested with ants as well.
Trees are the preferred habitat for carpenter ants. In fact, carpenter ants do not actually prefer going into residential homes, but food sources and overcrowding outdoors will send them on the move to find safer areas to colonize. If you notice carpenter ants in a tree in your yard, they are not actually eating the wood per se, they are simply removing the interior components of the tree to support a huge colony. This is evidenced by noticing piles of frass at the base of a tree, which are the insides of a tree being expelled to make room for tunnels.
This species of ant is also attracted to moisture, which is why trees are so attractive due to the rain cycle consistently saturating the tree. A carpenter ant colony can completely destroy a tree by burrowing out the insides, which is one of the reasons why they are such a nuisance in the yards of residential homes. If you want to try and salvage the tree, you will need to consult a professional who possesses a range of chemicals to treat the tree and its roots to repel the ants. If you notice carpenter ants inside or near a decaying tree in your yard, an ant control professional can assess the problem and attempt to salvage the tree.
Simply trying to remove the ants from a tree on your own is an exercise in futility. There is no way to decipher just how many carpenter ants are actually inside of the tree. Furthermore, the ants will burrow deep into the tree in areas that are not accessible to human beings with improper chemicals or equipment to destroy them. It could take weeks to try and destroy the ants within the tree with inadequate chemicals, but pest control professionals have specially formulated treatment options that can simultaneously destroy the ants and make the tree a repellent against infestations.
Pest control professionals will usually begin by analyzing the size of the colony as well as the damage already caused to the tree. After this assessment, chemicals may be applied to the interior of the tree and additionally applied into the root system below ground to soak into the tree and make the interior a death zone for active colonies. If you notice tree damage, or see active carpenter ants within a tree, consult with an extermination company that specializes in carpenter ant removal from trees. Chances are that a team of specialists may be able to salvage the tree once they remove the colony.