We just noticed our floor in our camper is very spongy in the bathroom and coming out into the kitchen.  There are some dead ants inside the camper on the kitchen floor and the bathroom floor.  I was wondering if they could be carpenter ants.  The camper sat for 3 years.  We couldn’t use it because I had health issues.  Do the ants go away in the winter?  What should we do come spring?  We would appreciate your feedback on this problem.

If the ants are large it would be a good guess they are in fact carpenter ants. But before you were to do anything extensive pest control wise, you really need to know for sure since treatments for carpenter ants will cost more compared to treating any common ant. And as our CARPENTER ANT CONTROL ARTICLE explains, these guys don’t “go away” during the winter. They merely get dormant or in a state of hibernation so it’s entirely possible there is a nest somewhere on the camper or close by.

At this point I’d say to focus your attention on solving the moisture problem in the camper. If you work on it now you should end up ripping up some of the flooring and gaining access to areas you can’t see into right now. At that time you’ll no doubt find some ant nests in the damaged area if you do in fact having some nesting inside the camper. And if any nests are found, you can treat them as explained in our article.

But if no activity is found, I’d wait till next spring and summer to see if they return. And if they do, at that point you could take a more pro active approach using the baits and sprays if needed. But applying any now would be waste because all these products require the ants to be active in order for the treatments to be affective.  Since it’s winter, as long as the camper is kept inactive and cold, the ants will be dormant and inactive as well.

Here are direct links to the information and products listed above:

Carpenter Ant Control Article:  https://www.carpenterants.com/carpenter-ant-control