Hairy smooth carpenter ant
The hairy smooth carpenter ant is a big, shiny black ant with a bluish shine. Its body is covered in short white hairs. It makes its home by hollowing out wood, often in redwood trees.
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Fun facts
Its workers are 7 to 13 millimetres long, which is big for an ant.
Unlike many ants, it is mostly busy during the day.
It chews out tunnels and rooms inside redwood trees to make its nest.
It eats a moth that damages trees, so it helps the forest.
Most asked questions about Hairy smooth carpenter ant
?Do carpenter ants eat wood?
No. They only dig their nests in wood. This one eats moth pupae.
?How big is the hairy smooth carpenter ant?
Its workers are about 7 to 13 millimetres long.
Myth buster
Myth: Carpenter ants eat wood.
Truth: No. They chew tunnels in wood to make their nests, but they do not eat it.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Camponotus laevissimus
- Group
- Ants
- Family
- Formicidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Formicidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Giant carpenter ant
Where the facts come from
- Camponotus laevissimus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Jen Fogarty. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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