Which insect hollows out wood for shelter and leaves piles of sawdust at the base of poles?

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Multiple Choice

Which insect hollows out wood for shelter and leaves piles of sawdust at the base of poles?

Explanation:
Carpenter ants hollow out wood to create nesting galleries, so they’ll often push out a coarse, sawdust-like material known as frass. When they excavate inside a pole or post, that frass accumulates as piles around the entrance, especially at the base. This combination of hollowed wood and visible sawdust-like frass is a telltale sign of carpenter-ant activity. Termites would show different signs, such as mud tubes or a fine, pellet-like frass produced by drywood termites, and beetles or fungi don’t produce the same distinctive frass piles at the base of poles. So the described behavior matches carpenter ants best.

Carpenter ants hollow out wood to create nesting galleries, so they’ll often push out a coarse, sawdust-like material known as frass. When they excavate inside a pole or post, that frass accumulates as piles around the entrance, especially at the base. This combination of hollowed wood and visible sawdust-like frass is a telltale sign of carpenter-ant activity. Termites would show different signs, such as mud tubes or a fine, pellet-like frass produced by drywood termites, and beetles or fungi don’t produce the same distinctive frass piles at the base of poles. So the described behavior matches carpenter ants best.

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