Carpenter Ants Excavating and Cleaning Galleries - Camponotus sp.

I got really excited when I saw the tiny pile of sawdust at the end of this fallen tree. The sawdust comes from carpenter ants, who are furiously working to excavate and create galleries inside the tree. Carpenter ants don’t eat wood, but they use their jaws to tear pieces of wood out of a log when creating their galleries inside. They are very fastidious creatures and like to keep clean galleries, so they constantly push debris out of their living space. They cut slits in the wood, and below these slits, you'll see their dump site - little piles that look like sawdust. If you carefully inspect the dump pile, you will notice that it's not only made of wood shavings, but also insect parts and any other refuse that they don't want in their home. There were a couple ants patrolling the outside, while others were continuously dumping little bits of wood out of the tunnel.

Habitat: Deciduous forest