Like most insects, carpenter ants will typically go dormant during the winter months. This is due to the insect anatomy requiring heat to thrive, which is in absence during the coldest months of the year. Due to climate change, this is becoming more and more of a rarer situation, specifically in certain areas of Canada in close proximity to bodies of water. If ambient outside temperatures do not regularly drop below thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit, you just may see carpenter ants foraging around outdoors. Indoors is another matter entirely, as carpenter ants who have colonized inside of your home can actually remain active the entire year and other ants in house in winter.
This ant species is incredibly industrious with very little downtime. The winter months can usually be counted on to ensure that most all insects go into hibernation or repose, which is always a welcome relief to homeowners. If carpenter ants do go dormant, which will usually occur after the first autumn night reaches below thirty-two degrees, they will typically remain enclosed inside of their structure and subsist on food reserves throughout the winter.
If the winter months do not see a lot of freezing temperatures, the ants will usually venture out of their colony and go about their business as normal. For colonies located inside of homes, the carpenter ant activity never slows down or goes dormant. Due to the heat inside of the home, the ants have an attractive climate to continue the foraging and feeding process for the entire colony. This means that the damage to the wooden structures in your home never slows down or comes to an end. The ants can also venture to other structures to start new colonies once a previous structure has reached its capacity.
Due to the unpredictability of winter weather in this day and age, there is no concrete answer to ensure that the ants will go dormant in the winter months. Even if the ants were to go dormant, spring is always just right around the corner, which means they will awaken and start the process all over again, with the addition of the swarming and mating cycle in the spring months. This is why it is important to always have a pest removal company to address the problem. Winter must always come to an end and when it does, the wood foraging will commence again.
Carpenter ants do not perform much activity in the winter months. They will go dormant and cease all activity once the first freeze sets in during the late autumn. With this being said, shorter and milder winters are making it more comfortable to insect activity, which means carpenter ants are venturing out to forage for colonies even in the dead of winter. Consult an ant control services in Toronto to perform regular inspections on your home and yard. This will mean that you will not have to wonder what carpenter ants are doing in the winter months because the ants will be gone.
