Carpenter Ant

insects · ants · builders

Massive ant family. Carpenter ants make up the biggest group of ants in the whole world, with over 1,500 different species discovered so far. That's a lot of ant cousins.

Almost worldwide. You can find carpenter ants nearly everywhere on Earth except Antarctica and a few remote islands. They've adapted to live in deserts, forests, cities, and everywhere in between.

Tricky name. People call them carpenter ants because they look like they should build in wood, but here's the surprise: most of them don't actually nest in wood at all. Only a few types do.

Wood-dwelling minority. Just some carpenter ants, especially ones in the subgenera Camponotus and Myrmentoma, truly carve out homes inside wood. The rest prefer different places to live.