20,000 Species of Ants and Counting

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There are nearly 13,000 named species of ants worldwide. Since many of the ant species found or studied in tropical areas have yet to be named, myrmecologists – those who study ants – estimate there may be as many as 20,000 or more species of ants. In Florida alone, there are over 200 recognized species.

And, sometimes it seems that all these near relatives to bees and wasps are marching through your home all at once. They just keep coming and coming and coming with no apparent end in sight. Later, I’ll give you the recipe for a simple, safe, inexpensive and natural ant killer. I can’t say yet whether or not it’s effective because I’ve only started to use it today.

As Mrs. Ant says in the video above, her tribe needs food, and humans have it. More than they will ever need, she declares, and insists they “take it!” As a result, they appear out of nowhere and are everywhere.

Carpenter Ants

In a survey of four metropolitan areas of Florida, including greater Miami, researchers found that infestations of Florida carpenter ants accounted for approximately 20 percent of all ant complaints by homeowners (Florida Entomologist 78: 112-3). These same researchers found only a few instances where other ants were more frequently encountered in buildings than carpenter ants. Although not known for damaging the wood or insulation in your home, Florida carpenter ants can get into out-of-the-way places in your home and become a nuisance when they come out at night to eat your food. They have a fondness for sweets. While there is no sting, workers can bite and spray formic acid for defense.

Florida carpenter ants have a deep reddish-colored head and thorax and a shiny black abdomen. The members of a single colony can vary greatly in size. They emerge from their nesting sites, which may be inside and/or outside the home, about 15 minutes after sundown and travel between nesting sites and feeding sites on semi-permanent paths that the ants construct and maintain. Some of the places they may nest in your home include moisture-damaged wood around chimneys and skylights, under bathtubs, inside dishwasher walls, wall voids, beneath window sills, inside hollow doors and door frames, in wooden porch supports and columns, under siding and wood shingles and in moisture-damaged eaves.

In addition to inside your home, Florida carpenter ants may be found nesting in trees and under loose debris lying on the ground. Finding their nests is the key to eliminating them, and an experienced pest control operator such as Insect Protection Pest Control is able to follow a trail of ants back to their nesting site and treat it.

There are a few things you can do to help prevent problems with these ants:

• Eliminate sources of excess moisture to make your home a less desirable nesting site
• Trim tree limbs away from the structure

White Footed Ants

Although the white footed ant has become a major household pest in Florida, the good news is that unlike their carpenter ant kin, these ants don’t bite or sting or cause damage to buildings. The bad news is that because their colonies are so large – from 8,000 to 3 million ants – and there are so many young to feed, large numbers of workers leave the nest to search for food. Inside your home is a good place to look.

Outdoors these ants are often found foraging along branches and trunks of trees and shrubs. They feed on plant nectars and the honeydew produced by other sap-sucking insects. Like carpenter ants, these ants are also attracted to sweet foods and lay chemical trails, finding their way into wall voids and traveling along electrical cables only to emerge in various rooms, especially kitchens and bathrooms. White footed ants are 1/10 to 1/8 inch long with a black to brownish-black body. They’re called white footed because the “foot” is yellowish-white. They’re also one of the hardest species to control and reproduce faster than almost any other species of ant because they have so many queens laying eggs almost constantly. Elimination of food sources is a primary step in controlling these ants. Also be sure to trim tree and shrub branches away from the structure to prevent ants within the trees and shrubs from entering the building.

Ghost Ants

Part of a species of ants known as tramp ants, these pests earned their name by looking much like tiny, white apparitions who suddenly appear and seem to disappear just as quickly. They don't sting or bite, but like the carpenter ant and the white footed ant, ghost ants have a sweet tooth, too, and prefer nibbling on goodies such as cakes, candy and cookies. Both small and fast, averaging about the size of a pinhead, their black head and thorax and pale, gray body make these ants almost transparent. With no effective method for eliminating them, a home can be overrun with ghost ants in no time.

They generally live outdoors in plants, plant products, wood and soil and come inside on plant material brought into your home where they move into interior walls and live in book bindings. A colony may be moderate to large in size.

Ghost ants appear to have a high need for moisture and successful control depends on the ability to locate foraging ants and nesting sites. But don’t spray repellent pesticides around ghost ants. This will not kill the queens and only serve to increase egg production. Some liquid baits containing boric acid can be effective in eliminating these ants, but it should be diluted so that the ant has time to get back to the colony before it dies. The best offense is to track where the ghosts may be entering the building and seal off the opening.

Ant Killer

For reading this far, I’ll share with you the homemade ant killer I mentioned above. Please let us know if you try it and if it was effective for you.

You will need:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 1/2 tablespoons borax

Combine all the ingredients in a pan and bring to a boil, then let simmer for 2 minutes. Cool. Use bottle caps as containers for the syrup.

But, if your problem is more than this recipe can handle, the experts at Insect Protection Pest Control are always available to assist you. They have a host of solutions to take care of not only an ant infestation but almost any other pest problem you may have both inside and outside of your home or business. Call them today for a FREE consultation.

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