Carpenter Ants Eat More Than Wood

It took 2 weeks in my parent's barn for our favorite Slingshot Rev kite to get completely destroyed by a colony of carpenter ants.  After a search on Google, I found that they primarily nest in and around wood structures.  Why did they choose our nylon kite and polyurethane bladder?  We spent a couple of hours repairing the massive holes in the nylon and the 20 or so holes in the bladder.  It seems to hold air but we haven't taken it on the water yet.  There were no other ants in the barn, and this is a big barn.  We are completely baffled.  This was a VERY expensive lesson.