In Washington state, at least up until recently, most of us home inspectors are also licensed structural pest inspectors. I have seen plenty of carpenter ant activity and damage over the years. I teach the course in wood destroying organisms for Bellingham Technical College. I have seen more ants on premises previously, but nothing to compare to the amount of frass that I saw the other day. It was quite amazing. Frass consists of sawdust and byproducts of insect tunneling or feeding. All of those shavings came from carpenter ants. At first, based on the amount of frass, I was surprised. I thought maybe this was not ants but that somebody had thrown sawdust in the crawl space at this old home. I sifted through the frass and found bits and pieces of dead ants and I even found some full-size specimens of C. Modoc, the most common carpenter ant in this state. A bit of trivia here: Carpenter ants do not eat the wood. They tunnel in it, making a gallery to live in. The ants make or find a hole in the lumber they are tunneling in so they can toss out the excess wood and waste products -- hence the pile of shavings below. Steven L. Smith Bellingham WA Home Inspections 
Busy Carpenters Are A Bad Thing
18 comments • Steven L. Smith, Bellingham, Wa. Home Inspector • August 28 2009 06:08PMComments
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It is such a shame that we can't really "kill" them, just help move them...I am referring to Wood Destroying Insects such as Termites! Termites love Texas! Carpenters Ants do too.
Thanks for the heads up. I have been chasing a nest of ants around my house for a year. Any tips other than dynomite?
I just say MOVE!!!
Mark,
Try to follow them at night. With luck you might find the nest. Or if you see them walking in a line into a hole or opening in the house, try to view the other side.
That is an amazing pile of frass. They must have been there a long time.
Judging from that amount of debris, they must have a huge condo going on in there!
There must be some weak planks in that house.
Wow! Who actually lives in that house, really? :)
OK, so now I learned a new word.. "frass". I hope I don't have to use it, but when I have an opportunity I will just slip that right into a conversation. Like this:
So, how am I doing? Now tell me, is the house ready to fall in on itself?
But you have to admit, ants can be amazing creatures. My friend was in the jungle in Belize. Just after lunch everyone would pick up their stuff off the floor (dirt) and tables, etc., and leave the house. Then the ants came through and cleaned everything that was laying around, and the place was spic and span after they marched on their route. Same time every day.
And so you know, spell check doesn't like the word frass!
Andrea,
That was funny.
Wow. Either lots of ants, or they grow them bigger in Washington. lol
Well, looks like y'all need a good pest control expert to give these dudes a real kick in the frass. Talk about being eaten out of house and home...
Helping you live your American dream...
They have 6 inchers out there Jack... at least.
Hey Steven,
I say," kill them all !!!" lol
Thanks for the new word. BTW...have you seen the bees that drill holes into the underside of deck planks/steps and then seal themselves in? What's that all about?
Steven, reading this I'm thinking that you guys don't get paid enough! We see a few of them here, also carpenter bees moving into deck railings.
Jay, that is not a condo they have going there, that is a whole new sub division I think.
C modoc is a large carpenter ant in the realm of ants. Nationally, they do less damage than termites because, luckily, a homeowner is more likely to see signs of their working and call in a pest control operator. During an ant infestation of this type, ants will be seen outside, often inside the home and frass may be visible, especially if they are inside working.
We had a saying in Vietnam - Kill'em all, and let God sort'em out. Kind of works here too.