Her babies will be normal sized of course. Far too large for a carpenter ant. Carpenter ant queens, however are even bigger, just slightly longer than half an inch. And don’t get me started on decades old termite queens…

My dear daughter went to use our master shower and came running out screaming: there were big black ants all over our shower head!!!!

We counted eight total.

My biggest concern is an infestation. It is January in PA and I have never seen ants like this in my house let alone during winter. Any thoughts?

“You got Jurassic Park in your house or what?”

Dude. If I find a velociraptor running around the house, we’re totally moving.

Personally the last time I had ants like that I put up some ant traps, most of them are smart enough to know to move out and not take up residence.

What IF…?

Ahem… since the carpenter ant is one of the most common forms of ant infestation throughout the United States and is mostly black I think Monika’s talking about carpenter ants too. That and the fact that the second biggest black ant around SoCal is the Argentine ant at a teensy 1/10th of an inch.

But you go with the Pennsylvania precision of “just a big black ant” and try not to let the chewing wake you at night.

Hmmph.

http://www.allabouthome.com/tips/pests/carpenter_ants.html

This may indeed only be a scout on the lookout for food and water from a larger colony established somewhere outside, or it could portend of a satellite colony tht’s set up house inside your place. While not venomous carpenter ants are certainly something you don’t want to have around. They don’t eat wood like termites but they do burrow and excavate into it to make the nests they need.

The statement that particularly interests me from the link above lists one of the telltale signs that you ahve carpenter ants as being able to actually hear them at work during the night shift:

“Listen for ant sounds in the quiet of the night. When the ants are chewing, or simply moving around in the nest, they make a sound like rustling cellophane.”

Wow. Cue the creepy music.

As you know I don’t advocate the killing of anything and if this one’s just rolling solo from outside the only problem you have is that there’s a way they get into your house. So look (and listen, mwaaaahahaha) for some of the other signs inside. If there’s none and you have the time and inclination you might want to set this specimen free outside and put a tail on it to see where it might go. If it heads back inside I’d think about calling the Orkin man. If it goes to the neighborhood 7-11, you might be in the clear. Might be…

Ooo! Didja hear that? It sounded like… chewing.