NYC’s Wet Winters Are Fueling a Carpenter Ant Crisis — Is Your Home at Risk in 2024?
New York City homeowners have been dealing with more than just soggy commutes and flooded subway stations. The city’s increasingly wet winters are quietly setting the stage for one of the most destructive pest problems of the year: carpenter ant infestations. If you’ve noticed large black ants creeping through your walls or kitchen this spring, you’re not alone — and the weather is largely to blame.
NYC’s Wet Winter of 2024: A Perfect Storm for Pests
Meteorological winter — defined as December, January, and February — was quite a wet one in 2024, filled with numerous storms that delivered copious amounts of rain throughout the area. It wasn’t the wettest winter ever recorded, but it was well above average, with an impressive total of 14.04 inches. This came on the heels of 2023, which was a very wet year that finished as the 11th wettest year ever recorded. Back-to-back seasons of above-average precipitation mean that wood in homes across the five boroughs has had little chance to dry out — and that’s exactly what carpenter ants are waiting for.
According to NOAA data, the Northeast has seen 8% more precipitation over the past 50 years, and extreme rainfall events — days with 2 or more inches — have increased by over 70% since the 1950s. For New York City homeowners, this long-term trend translates directly into a growing pest threat.
Why Moisture Is the Root Cause of Carpenter Ant Infestations
Unlike termites, carpenter ants do not consume wood but rather tunnel through it to create galleries where they nest and rear their young. These ants prefer damp or decaying wood, but they can also infest sound wood if conditions are favorable. This is a critical distinction: every wet winter that saturates your home’s wooden structures is essentially laying out a welcome mat for these insects.
Carpenter ants are attracted to moisture and decaying wood. Common reasons for an infestation in your NYC home include leaky pipes, poor ventilation in damp areas, or improper drainage around the foundation, all of which can create a haven for carpenter ants. After a winter as wet as 2024’s, these conditions are far more widespread than homeowners might realize.
While they don’t eat wood, carpenter ants carve tunnels into the wood of your home to nest and live. As long as they can find some moist wood for water, they can do damage to your home all winter long and beyond.
NYC’s Older Buildings Are Especially Vulnerable
New York’s climate and environmental conditions provide an ideal habitat for carpenter ants. The state’s humid summers and cold winters create conditions conducive to moisture buildup in homes, which carpenter ants seek out for nesting sites. New York’s abundance of wooded areas and older homes with wooden structures also offer ample nesting opportunities.
Brooklyn brownstones and older row houses face higher carpenter ant risk due to aging wood, moisture issues, and shared walls that let colonies spread between units. NYC’s most destructive household ant is large (up to half an inch), usually black, and drawn to moist or damaged wood common in older city buildings. They don’t eat wood like termites, but they hollow it out for nesting, causing serious structural damage over time.
Carpenter ants overwinter in their nest and become inactive in cold weather. Spring swarmers or workers seen indoors during winter are emerging from a colony already established inside the structure — they have been there since the previous summer. This means that by the time you spot them in your home, an infestation may already be well underway.
Warning Signs You Should Never Ignore
Catching a carpenter ant problem early can save you thousands of dollars in structural repairs. Here are the key warning signs to watch for:
- Sawdust trails: Carpenter ants excavate wood by chewing tunnels through it, leaving behind piles of sawdust known as frass. Small piles of sawdust accumulating near wooden structures or along baseboards may indicate a carpenter ant infestation.
- Hollow-sounding wood: As carpenter ants tunnel through wood, they weaken its structural integrity, causing it to become hollow. Tapping on wooden surfaces such as walls, beams, or window frames — if they sound hollow — could be a sign of carpenter ant activity.
- Winged swarmers: Like termites, carpenter ants produce winged reproductive individuals known as swarmers. These winged ants emerge from mature colonies in the spring or early summer to mate and establish new colonies. Spotting winged ants indoors or around your property could indicate an established carpenter ant colony nearby.
- Faint rustling or crackling sounds inside walls — especially at night when carpenter ants are most active — suggest a colony has established itself within your apartment’s structure.
- Wood sources near the home: Firewood stored close to the house, decaying decks, or overgrown tree branches touching the exterior can provide entry points and nesting sites.
Why DIY Treatments Fall Short
Over-the-counter sprays kill visible ants but do not reach the colony. The queen continues producing workers, and the colony simply reroutes foraging trails away from treated areas. Professional baiting systems eliminate the colony from within, providing lasting control.
The colony you can see in the kitchen is rarely the one doing the damage. Most infestations involve a parent colony in a damp void — a leaking gutter behind a garage wall, a deck post set in wet soil, a crawl-space sill plate with poor drainage — and a satellite colony closer to the kitchen. Treating only the kitchen foragers is why DIY sprays fail season after season.
How to Protect Your NYC Home Right Now
The best defense against carpenter ants starts with moisture control. For carpenter ants, addressing the moisture source is essential. Without eliminating moisture-damaged wood and fixing the source of the water intrusion, carpenter ants will continue to reinfest even after treatment. Inspect your home for leaky gutters, dripping pipes, and poor drainage around the foundation — all of which have been worsened by this year’s relentless rainfall.
To avoid a carpenter ant problem, make sure you don’t have any moist wood in your home. If you do have water-damaged wood from a roof leak, weeping window well, or similar issue, make sure to have it replaced, as wood inside wall voids will not dry on its own.
When prevention isn’t enough, it’s time to call in the professionals. For trusted, expert Carpenter Ant Control NYC residents can rely on, Kingsway Exterminating has been the go-to solution for decades.
Trust Kingsway Exterminating to Protect Your Home
Kingsway Exterminating, Inc. is a family-owned and operated business that has proudly served the five boroughs of New York and Long Island for 40 years. Founder Richard Kourbage Sr. started the company with a simple philosophy — to provide comprehensive and superior pest control services at affordable prices, in a timely and efficient manner. Their staff brings more than 100 years of collective pest control experience to home and business owners throughout the New York City metropolitan area.
Every job starts with a thorough inspection — they identify the pest, locate entry points, and assess severity before anything else. They use EPA-approved, NYS DEC-registered materials: environmentally responsible treatments that are effective without putting your family at risk. If the problem isn’t resolved, they come back. Their satisfaction guarantee means the job isn’t finished until you say it is.
Kingsway specialists handle wood-boring insects including carpenter ants, carpenter bees, powder post beetles, and subterranean termites — making them uniquely equipped to address the moisture-driven infestations that NYC’s wet winters keep producing. Phone calls are answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and they guarantee an appointment within two days of your request, and often can make same-day inspections. Don’t wait until the structural damage becomes visible — contact Kingsway Exterminating today and get ahead of this season’s carpenter ant surge.