Carpenter ants on 4' tall spruce trees

[SD51555]

I've been googling my heart out, and cannot find anyone else on the web ever reporting this. I have windbreak white spruce that I purchased from Itasca Greenhouse 8 years ago. They are now 3-6' tall, and most being around that 4-5' height. On some of them, I get crazy amounts of carpenter ants on the trunk between the middle of the trunk, and the new growth. I've read they do not feed on the wood, so what the hell are they doing there, and do I need to worry about it? I can't help but look at hundreds of these things tightly clustered on a nice tree and think they're sucking it dry.

I've been spraying them with Cutter when i'm up there, but that has it's limits. If I get too hot with the Cutter, it burns the tree a little. Should I just let them go and see what happens? They seem to congregate on my fastest growing trees.

 

[RGrizzzz]

Sprinkle terro ant poison around the bases of the tree. I also spray bifenthrin the foundation of my house, and it puts a hurting in them.

 

[homerj]

Ants aren't going to hurt your spruce. It's possible they are farming aphids. Aphids probably won't hurt the spruce either