the.com/carpenter ant
Doesn't eat your house—just evicts the wood and moves in rent-free.
means A large ant (genus Camponotus) that tunnels through and nests in wood, hollowing it out rather than digesting it, often damaging structures in the process.
from The "ant" comes from Old English ǣmete, the same root that gave us "emmet," an old country word for ant. "Carpenter" arrives via Old French charpentier from Latin carpentarius, "a maker of carriages" (from carpentum, a Gallic wagon)—which over time broadened to anyone who works with wood. The name is apt: these ants are carvers, not eaters, sculpting smooth galleries through timber like tiny woodworkers, even though they never taste a splinter.
- not eaters
- They excavate wood for nests, never digesting it
- super strength
- Can carry up to fifty times body weight
- sawdust tells
- Frass piles outside walls reveal hidden colonies
- two stomachs
- One feeds self, one shares with nestmates
- explosive defenders
- Some relatives rupture themselves to spray toxic glue
camponotus pennsylvanicus — black carpenter ant species, most common in north america, causes significant structural damage to wooden buildings
camponotus gigas — giant carpenter ant of southeast asia, workers reach 13mm length, nests in large tree cavities