Insecticide sprays are only moderately successful at controlling ants that live under mulch. Carpenter ants nest in galleries chewed into decayed wood such as stumps, logs, firewood, hollow trees and dead limbs. These familiar, large, black ants do not live in or under wood chip mulch. Treatments for carpenter ants are best placed in or near the nest sites. Termites are moderately common but spotty in Iowa.
Termites live underground in large, social colonies.
Termites are recylcers that play an important role in the natural breakdown of wood. Their presence inside a home or other structure, however, can lead to aesthetic or structural damage. However, wood chip mulches do not attract termites that were not already present in the area. Similarly, it is highly unlikely that termites would be introduced into a previously uninfested area by the transport of wood chips. Termites constantly explore for food by excavating a network of random, pencil-sized tunnels that may extend up to 300 feet through the soil.