Nests also may be located in hollow doors or small void areas produced during construction. Carpenter ants may move from decaying portions of the wood into sound lumber in the process of enlarging the nest. They cut galleries with the grain following the softer parts of the wood. The ants leave harder parts of the wood as walls separating the tunnels and cut openings in these walls to allow access between tunnels. Access to the outside may be through natural openings, or the ants may cut openings where none exist naturally.
Carpenter ants keep occupied galleries clean.
So look for removed wood in the form of a coarse sawdust-like material, which they push from the nest. This often results in a cone-shaped pile accumulating just below the nest entrance hole. This pile may include, in addition to the wood fragments, other debris from the nest, including bits of soil, dead ants, parts of insects and remnants of other food they ate. Carpenter Ants are omnivorous . This is, their diets include a great variety of both animal and plant foods.