Carpenter ants

Does anyone know - if you see a few, about 6 or 7 - does it mean you have a carpenter ant problem? We had a exterminator come and check out the house before we bought it and he told us we didnt have carpenter ants. But now I've seen a few and I'm freaking out. I have a bug phobia to begin with but then to think they are in the house we just bought.

I dont know if I can sleep tonight.

Liz, call your exterminator back, and ask them if there's any cause for concern, tell them exactly what and how many you have seen.
(Hopefully they'll be honest enough and not say OH YES WE MUST COME for no reason )
We like Suburban - they seem honest, reliable and do a great job. We have an annual contract with them and they come any time we see ANYthing we're not sure about.

Sorry, Liz...I know how you feel...I have severe bug phobia, too. I drive DH crazy over bugs, literally. I cannot ignore them and that is a huge problem for us.

We were told when we were buying our house that we had carpenter ants, but we called several exterminators in the Spring (when we had a swarm) and we were told that they weren't carpenter ants at all. They were citronella ants, which are regular outdoor ants - they do not eat your house - they just come into the house through the cracks, if you are not careful in sealing up the cracks.

We called Arrow, and they were very honest and the guy even said, 'hey, I'd love to take your money, but you do not have a carpenter ant problem.'

We also called Terminex - DO NOT use them! This guy wanted to charge us an arm and a leg for EVERY single different type ant on the property - none of which were actually carpenter ants!

Finally, we called Scientific - which is local to St James. They too, confirmed that our ant problem was NOT carpenter ants, but rather regular ants that would go away on their own.