White-Footed Ants

Size: About 1/8-inch long.  Color:   Black with pale tarsal segments at the end of all six legs, giving it its name.

 Habitat and Behavior

The White-footed ant is a serious pest in southern Florida. These ants nest outdoors under items on the ground, within landscape mulch, beneath loose bark on trees, under ground cover, in potted plants, and within piles of items, such as lumber, firewood, or bricks. Nests may also be readily established inside homes in walls, beneath carpeting, and in other suitable voids or spaces.

White-footed ants may develop huge colonies containing thousands of workers and numerous queens. A colony of white-footed ants can number up to one million individuals. This species may be difficult to control and does not feed much on ant baits. The keys to control are to find the colonies and subcolonies and treat them directly. Regular inspections and service are necessary to find and treat new colonies as they move from neighboring properties.

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Control

The white-footed ant may well be the most difficult to control of all structure-infesting ants. In many situations elimination of ant activity is nearly impossible, especially during mid-summer in areas where this ant occurs. At best, regular treatments hold the ants at bay, keeping as few ants as possible from entering the home or business. Without such efforts, however, the numbers of ants seen inside can rise into the thousands. Regular pest control treatments can help minimize the numbers of ants seen inside. It is especially important to seal as many cracks in the homes exterior as possible to exclude ants and other pests.

Three steps are needed to control this ant: (1) correcting any conditions contributing to the infestation; (2) locating and treating existing colonies with a residual insecticide such as Demand, Tempo, or Suspend; (3) targeted treatments with a residual such as Demand to help prevent ants from entering the structure. Colonies living in wall voids or inside wood can be treated by drilling a small hole into the base of the wall where the ants are living and then injecting a dust such as Delta Dust, Drione, or Borid Turbo.

One particular product that we are having tremendous success with is Termidor SC.  In the few short years it's been around, Termidor has been proven to be the most effective and fastest at completely eliminating problem ant populations. It is really changing the way pest management professionals are approaching ant control. Chances are that the ants in your house actually have their nest outside — they travel back and forth for food and water. So, since they live outside, it makes sense to control them there. Termidor Ant Control is applied to the exterior foundation walls of your house, creating a treated area of protection. In the past several years, the professional pest control industry has been revolutionized by new control technologies, especially in the area of nonrepellents or "undetectable" liquid treatments. Unlike older insecticides, undetectables can't be smelled, tasted, or even felt by pests. So they crawl through the treated area, not knowing that by ingesting treated materials or merely contacting the insecticide, they'll die. Termidor is unique because ants not directly exposed to the Termidor-treated area will be controlled as they come into contact with affected ants. This "Transfer Effect™" means you'll see its effects on ants in one to three days, and most species will be controlled within the first week following the treatment. Sold in a convenient 20 oz. container. A .06% solution will yield 24 finish gallons of Termidor mixture.  A little more expensive, but totally worth it.  To order your Termidor, Click Here!

For added control on the exterior, use a hand held spreader to apply a pesticide granular product such as Talstar Granular.   Using this product will allow you to get complete coverage to hard to reach ground areas, and in mulch or rock areas that liquids may not reach.  It is a sand-like granular that will filter down into those areas where ants are likely to be harboring.  

Note:  Ant baits are not very effective for these ants because of the fact that worker ants do not exchange food directly with queens or larvae.  Most ants offer food they have gathered to the larvae, which digest the food and regurgitate it back to the adult workers.  If the food was a poison bait, the workers would ingest it and be killed.  However, the White Footed Ant has a group of workers that lay sterile eggs, and it is these eggs that are consumed by many adult ants in the colony as well as the larvae.  Thus, they might avoid ant baits that we may use.  However, John Warner, a graduate research assistant with University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, has developed a new bait that seems to be attractive to white footed ants.  We will keep you abreast of any new developments.

Regular inspections and service are necessary to find and treat new colonies as they move in from neighboring properties. Be sure to check underneath items lying on the ground as well as under mulch and rock areas.  Check neighboring fence/wall lines to see if ants are coming in from neighboring properties.  These perimeter treatments can keep your home or business pest free. We suggest a regular treatment on the exterior with Demand, Tempo, or Suspend.  For added control use Talstar G.

General tips for limiting ant infestations include:

• Eliminate piles of lumber, bricks, or other debris that could serve as a nesting site for ants.
• Keep landscape mulch less than 2 inches thick and at least 12 inches away from foundations.
• Ensure the sprinkler system does not spray directly onto the foundation.
• Seal as many cracks in the building's exterior as possible.
• Keep tree and shrub branches cut away from touching the building.
• Consider re-landscaping to avoid using plants that are prone to aphids and similar insects. At the very least, treat such plants for aphids regularly.