Common Ants Found in Orlando Fl
There may be hundreds of ant species in the states. Here are a select few that commonly invade our Florida homes or properties. While these ants may look and behave somewhat differently from one another, each of them can be threatening in their own way. These are the most common ants found in Florida:
Argentine Ants – These ants are small, roughly 1/8 of an inch, and are brown in color. Argentine ants like moist areas near a food source. When conditions are too wet, these ants will nest indoors invading homes and businesses by trailing along trees, shrubs, utility lines and wires.
Carpenter Ants – These are large black ants that can grow as big as 5/8 on an inch long. Carpenter ant build their nests within wood. What this means is that if they take up residence in your home, they can create a lot of costly damage as they tunnel about inside the house’s structure. Controlling or eliminating carpenter ants is very difficult without the right training and equipment. The problem is you must wipe out their nest. Just killing off the ones out scouting for food doesn’t address the real problem: the hundreds more in the nest.
Fire Ants – These are small ants that range in size from 1/16 to 1/4 of an inch. They are reddish brown in color and have a nasty sting or bite which is extremely painful. Fire ants typically nest outdoors in sunny areas of lawns or exposed soil. If left untreated, fire ant colonies may reach 30 – 100 single queen mounds per acre that may contain over 80,000 ants. When fire ant nests are disturbed or stepped on, the fire ant workers pour out of their mound and aggressively attack the offender.
Ghost Ant – These ants are extremely small at 1/16th of an inch. Nests are usually moderate to large with thousands of workers and many queens. Most nests inside the home or business will be found in wall voids, behind baseboards, between or in cabinets. Because ghost ants have high moisture needs, they often trail near the sinks, wash basins, toilets, or shower stalls.
Odorous House Ants – Odorous ants can be either dark brown or black and can range in length from 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch long. These ants enjoy nesting under floor boards or inside walls. Once they make their way into a home, they can damage the home’s structure and contaminate any food left out in the open. Odorous ant colonies may contain up to 100,000 ants with numerous queens. Locating the nest is key to exterminating odorous ants from your home or business.
Little Black Ants – These shiny black ants only grow to about 1/16 of an inch long. Little black ant colonize such things as logs, stumps or mulch. They can often be found invading homes while in search of food. Since they are so small, they easily gain entry through cracks in window frames, door frames or around a house’s foundation.
Pharaoh Ants – These are very tiny ants (usually about 1/16 of an inch). They can be from yellow to red in color, but most often are amber. They usually feed on sweets and dead insects, but they’ve also been known to feed on blood under wound dressings, vomit, and other bodily fluids in hospital settings. They often travel throughout buildings through wall voids and electrical conduits in search of food. Pharaoh ants are among the most difficult of all insects to control due to their small size, their large colonies (often numbering in the tens or hundreds of thousands of workers and usually having multiple queens), their hidden foraging habits, and their peculiar ability to select a new queen if a group of workers gets separated from the main colony.
Call East West Pest Control Today at 407-297-8820
For Your Free Ant Removal Inspections So We Can Help You Eliminate Your Ants Problems in Orlando FL
CALL US NOW
