Unlike termites, all carpenter ants have constricted waists. Workers are not winged, but reproductives are. However, colder weather may lengthen this period to as long as 10 months. The few workers to emerge from the first brood pupae are small, but they energetically assume the duties of the colony. They open the chamber to the outside, collect food, excavate galleries to enlarge the nest and tend the eggs, larvae and pupae of the second generation.
Workers regurgitate food to nourish the developing larvae.
Fed in the same manner, the queen has few, if any, duties except to lay eggs. If conditions are favorable, the size of the colony increases rapidly in the next few years. The colony is considered mature when winged reproductives are formed. This occurs in three to six years when the colony contains 2,000 to 3,000 individuals or more. It is unlikely that numbers will increase thereafter, due to the constant drain of the many swarmers produced each year.