Suddenly seeing multiple carpenter ants in our bathroom. Scouts or infestation?

We have never had pest issues in our bathroom or the entire apartment. But today, my partner and I have seen small groups of carpenter ants appearing in the bathroom. We are putting down traps to hopefully get ahead of a bigger issue, but I wonder it the number of ants that we’ve already seen are likely more indicative of scouting parties or an infestation that’s already taken root and might require an exterminator visit.

In the span of the day so far, we have each killed a group of 2-3 ants. And I just killed another group of 2-3 of them. So, three small parties of 2-3 ants in less than 24 hours.