The life cycle of carpenter ants begins with the nuptial flight, which generally occurs in the late spring or early summer, depending on environmental factors. During this mating flight, male winged ants, or swarmers, mate with winged females. Soon after this mating, the female sheds her wings and the males die.
The female carpenter ant then searches for a new site to build her colony. The queen classically seeks a small crack in a wooden structure. She then closes the crack to trap her self inside that chamber, and lays eggs for around 15 days. She remains inside the chamber until her initial batch of carpenter ant eggs become adult workers. During this time, the queen uses her stored fat reserves and wing muscles for sustenance.
The queen gives food for the young by means of her salivary glands until they become workers capable of foraging. The queen looks after her first brood, and once grown, that first brood of adult workers takes care of succeeding broods.
Three to six years are required to establish a big and stable colony. The life cycle of a carpenter ant is estimated to very last 60 days from egg to adult. The egg phase takes around 24 days, the larval phase 20 days and the pupal stage 21 days. Temperatures must remain between 70 to 90°F for good development. Cold weather can stretch the development time of carpenter ants up to 10 months.
The only role of the carpenter ant queen is to lay eggs, but quickly worker carpenter ants mature into adults, they take on the responsibilities of the colony. Carpenter ants forage for food, tend to the eggs, larvae and pupae, and excavate galleries in order to broaden and propagate their nest. When numerous generations of workers have matured, the functions are divided and two castes appear: main workers, who act as soldiers to guard the nest, and minor workers, who forage for food take care for the young.
When a colony contains more than 2,000 workers, the queen begins to make winged males and females, who will leave to begin other colonies of carpenter ants. A classic carpenter ant colony contains one queen, which produces about 200 to 450 winged carpenter ants that mate during spring.
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