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Most carpenter ant species establish their initial nest in decayed wood, but, once established, the ants extend their tunneling into sound wood and can do considerable damage to a structure. However, this damage occurs over 3 or more years, since the initial colony consists of a single queen. Workers are produced at a slow rate, so that a colony consisting of 200 to 300 workers is at least 2 to 4 years old. All ants undergo complex metamorphosis, or change, and pass through the following stages: egg, larva, pupa, adult. Under normal conditions, the egg to adult sequence takes about 60 days. Nests contain workers (sterile females), a single functional queen (usually), and may also contain winged females and males, which are produced during the late summer and overwinter in the nest. The queen’s primary function after production of the first brood is to lay eggs. The colony produces successive broods and, since the larvae are fed by foraging workers, the size of the workers increases. The colony does not produce reproductives (winged males and females) until it is from 6 to 10 years old and contains over 2,000 workers.
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