CLOSED: ants

This is a repeat of a post I placed on trees forum yesterday.
It was suggested I re-post it here to get you guys' opinion.

I was pruning a Japanese apricot (prunus mume) yesterday.
One limb had a deep cleft in it where ants appeared to be entering & leaving frequently.
I cut the limb off as close to the trunk (pic #1) as I could.
But it appears there is a central rotted area where ants are still living (#2-4).
I realize prunus mume is prone to all sorts of pestilence,
but it's winter bloom is truly remarkable - pic #5 was taken on New Years Day!
If the tree is the only thing at risk, I'll take my chances.
But if my house is at risk (it's adjacent to the attached deck), I'll take the tree out.
The tree otherwise looks healthy - it grows like crazy, which is why it needs frequent pruning.

The advice on trees forum was to see if the type of ant could be identified,
to determine if it's a type which could threaten my house,
rather than just living off the dead wood in my apricot.
Any ideas?
TIA.

Looks like a carpenter ant (Camponotus sp.) - I've seen them in hollows of trees also. They usually will not attack sound wood, but instead go after wood that already is damaged in some way, such as by water.

...and if your deck and house are made of dead wood and there is any moisture present, then ants could attack your house soon. Just saying...

hopefully you left enough of a collar on the tree where you pruned it. cutting it off too close to the trunk will leave it wide open to yet more disease, decline and possible death.
it is beautiful but it looks like it is already hollowed out and into the main trunk.
carpenter ants will use a tree as a "trapeze" and use the branches as their thoroughfare to your roof, etc.

Thanks for your replies.
I suspected carpenter ants also, as we've had painful experience with them in the past.
Our house originally had wood siding.
But due to a design flaw, we had extensive water damage (and resulting carpenter ant infestation) necessitating removal of all the wood siding which was replaced with some sort of polymer (looks a little like stucco).
(Painfully, none of this was covered by insurance as it was deemed to be due to a flaw in the design of the house.)
So you can understand my alarm at seeing carpenter ants munching happily so close to my house.
We no longer have any water problem in the house (over 15yrs now).
From flapdoodle & greene's remarks, hopefully there is therefore no threat from the carpenter ants to the structure.
As for the tree, I don't know if I left enough collar or not.
I was trying to get rid of as much of the fissure in the branch as I could.
I guess time will tell.
I am always careful to keep any branches away from the house or deck.
The house is at least 6 ft away from any branches, though deck is within a foot.
Again thanks for the info.

if it were me, i might get some of the tree tar brush on stuff to cover the wounds. they say now that it isn't necessary to cover wounds with it but i would fill those holes and cover the areas you cut. at this point, you may have nothing to lose.

waving at st. louis.....my hometown!

I think once you have the insect ID to your satisfaction, you should probably throw this back to the Tree people to get advice on sealing/healing the wound. Good luck. I hope you can save the tree.

Thanks guys. I appreciate it.